Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Simple ❯ Fact of the Matter ( Chapter 12 )
[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
By: YamiYugiPuzzleshipper2 
Anime/Manga: Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Romance | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 08.27.2014 | Pages: 11 | Words: 8.3K | Visits: 109 | Status: Work In Progress
Anime/Manga: Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Romance | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 08.27.2014 | Pages: 11 | Words: 8.3K | Visits: 109 | Status: Work In Progress
Disclaimer: I do not own
anything relating to Yu-Gi-Oh
Note: Story will be updated every Wednesday
Warning: TONS of cursing throughout story
Chapter Warning: Chapter has abuse, near-rape scenario, and mentions of homophobia
Abuse Warning: Abuse is mentioned but not graphically described in the third part of chapter.
Near-Rape Scenario Warning: There is a forceful attempt at nonconsensual/non-con sex in the sixth part of chapter. Not too graphic but definitely there.
Homophobia Warning: Homophobia is mentioned briefly on several occasions. Aside from that, I was just putting the warning so no one was made mad by this (Honestly, though, in retrospect, you can probably figure out which character it is before they are mentioned). Again, don't support it but it definitely worked for the story so I put it in there.
Chapter XII: Fact of the Matter
Yami woke to this dull throbbing in the back of his head and momentarily wondered if he had somehow gotten drunk while he was there. Maybe one of the nurses slipped it into his IV…
Ra, he'd turned into a conspiracy theorist.
He was just about to look at the monitor when a movement caught his eyes and he snapped his head around to see that Bakura and Malik were sitting a few feet away, playing with their DS's while Seto was talking to Mokuba about something or other.
"What are you guys doing here?" he muttered softly.
All four of them looked up, Malik and Bakura nearly dropping their systems and then cursing when their characters started dying while Seto raised an eyebrow and Mokuba squirmed, looking ready to jump up and hug him but unable to due to the heavy cast on his right leg.
"Well, let's see, shall we? You're in the hospital and–well, no, I think that sums it up pretty well," Bakura stated with a roll of his eyes.
Yami rolled his eyes in response and then Malik took it up and Seto rolled his eyes at their childishness, unconsciously mirroring the three of them.
"Besides, Mokuba wanted to see you before we left," Seto answered.
Mokuba nodded enthusiastically. "So, does it hurt?"
Yami groaned. "Everywhere."
But he said it teasingly so it sounded like he was just playing around with Mokuba rather than the fact that he was telling the truth. Everything did hurt. Everywhere. His heart hurt. His lungs hurt. His liver hurt. Fuck, he was starting to think even his gallbladder hurt and he didn't even know where the hell itwas.
"If you tell them you have a headache, they give you really nice drugs," the eight-year-old announced.
The other three shot him looks and Yami chuckled.
"It does hurt but I don't think I need anything for it right now."
"So…I think we all want to know what the hell happened," Seto announced in a businesslike manner. "And how the hell you ended up here if you were unconscious like the doctors said."
"I don't really know any of that," he confessed.
"What? Why wouldn't you know?" Mokuba asked in confusion, glancing at the others to see if they knew what he was talking about.
"I…hit my head really hard on the way down," Yami said with a small frown, shrugging. "Apparently I got a concussion from it. Things are really blurry when I try to figure out what happened."
"Oh. I had one of those. It wasn't fun."
All of them smirked at him before turning away again.
"So you don't know who brought you here?"
"Oh, no, I know that much," he replied, frowning slightly. "Yugi did, actually."
"What the hell was he doing there? Were you two about to shack up again?"
Bakura hit him so hard he doubled over in surprise before giving him a sharp look to which the silver-haired teen growled, "He's eight, you idiot. You can't go around just saying crap like that."
The lavender eyes shot towards Mokuba and then back, blushing slightly. "Right…"
Seto decided not to comment and tell them that Mokuba alreadyknewwhat all of this meant because some idiots in the staff had actually been talking about hookups while Mokuba was in his coma and of course the boy had heard it all.
"No, we weren't," Yami muttered. "He called me so we could schedule working on the project and when I didn't answer, he freaked out and found me with his phone app and then apparently he found me on the ground bleeding. I don't know. I was already unconscious and again, I don't remember so don't bother asking."
"How bad is it?" Seto asked quietly.
"I don't know, really. Blurry images, fragments of voices…mostly mine actually. I don't understand what I was saying though. It all kind of jumbles together. And the images sometimes just turn black when I try to focus on them." He shrugged and then glanced at his monitor before laying his head back with a soft sigh. "So I honestly have no fucking idea what happened."
"Damn it, Yami! Not in front of the kid!"
The other three shot him incredulous looks while Mokuba blinked and looked at him, murmuring, "It's a strange day when you're the one trying to protect my innocence" to which all of them burst out laughing.
Bakura rolled his eyes and huffed, crossing his arms as he sat back in his seat and gave Yami a sideways glance. "So how's the food here?"
"It's actually okay. They just keep giving me meat."
"Fucking vegetarians," Malik muttered.
Seto snickered and Mokuba laughed while Bakura smirked and shook his head.
"I also learned that the pizza from the cafeteria downstairs sucks. Like badly. Like…so badly." He groaned and shook his head. "They almost ruined pizza for me. I would have slapped them if that had happened."
"So…back to the subject at hand. Do you remember if you fell or if you were pushed or what?"
"The doctors said I had to have been pushed."
"Why would they say that?"
Yami hesitated for a moment and then frowned, thinking hard about it before sighing, "Because of the angle and the way I landed. If I had just fallen, I wouldn't have broken my ribs. Plus, I had bruises all over." He raised his arm. "And my wrist was fractured prior to the landing and you know me, I don't usually have to use my hands to catch myself when I fall."
"What kind of bruises?" Seto pressed.
Yami opened and closed his mouth and then shook his head. "Ask the doctor. I'm fuzzy on all the details. I don't even remember half of what they said."
The brunet let out a simple hum of a noise in acknowledgment of his statement while Yami stared back up at the ceiling curiously for a moment before turning back; Mokuba frowned a little and the other two sixteen-year-olds shared a look before turning their attention to Seto who gave them a small nod before turning away again.
Yugi didn't call the entire week that Yami was there in the hospital. He didn't visit. And though Yami really wanted to, tried so hard to, he actually could not find it in himself to give a fuck. And oh, how he wished he could. Just because it seemed logical, like it was supposed to happen.
But too many things on his mind kept that from happening.
And, oh yes, Yugi not calling felt like one of his vital organs had been punctured and he was bleeding internally, but he had grown used to it because it was just there all the time. And, oh yes, not seeing Yugi made him feel like a drug addict with withdrawal symptoms. And, oh, how he wished he didn't care about the smaller boy, how badly he wished he could love someone else–female–but he didn't.
And that was the fact of the matter.
He was high when the man in the suit and tie walked in.
It was kind of funny because he had never really been high before. Especially not off of simple opium, but yep, he was high.
And he thought the little splash on that tie looked like a rubber duck with the Grinch's head. Which was why he laughed ten minutes straight after he entered the room.
The doctors were confused and concerned but his monitors read he was okay so they didn't bother with it after that though a nurse was kept nearby at all times in case something happened.
"Sennen, Atem."
Several people looked over at the mention of his name and Yami wrinkled his nose at him before hissing, "Why are you so loud?" before laughing again. "Or maybe I'm just quiet."
The man in the suit looked at him and raised an eyebrow.
"Sennen, Atem."
Oh yes, now people were really staring into the room at them.
Yami gave them angry looks before turning back, narrowing his eyes as he fought off the haze that made his stomach crawl slightly. "What?" he muttered, but it came out as a bark of a word and he couldn't understand why.
"You are Sennen, Atem, right?"
"I…go by Yami…most of the time…" He blinked and scrunched his face up before looking at the splatter on his suit and snickering again. "Grinch-ducky."
"What?"
He waved a hand dismissively and the man merely stared. "All right…so…Yami, do you know why I am here?"
He stared at him like he was bat-shit crazy for a moment and then slowly nodded. "Seto…said something about you…coming by at some point." He pursed his lips. "Something…about a lawsuit?"
"Yes. Did he explain what the lawsuit was about?"
Yami thought for a long time, really searched and sought through it all before very slowly shaking his head. "Nope."
The man in the suit sighed and leaned forward. "I am here to discuss with you the lawsuit against your parents. For domestic abuse in which your father was the one who put you in the hospital."
Yami blinked once, long and slow, and then tilted his head before trying to think it over. "I don't remember. What was the question?"
"There was no question."
"I like your Grinch-ducky. He's very cute."
And then he was staring at him like he was a lunatic. "Um…thank you…?"
"You know what else is cute? Puppies. Puppies are cute. I always wanted a puppy. But my father always said no because I was never a good boy. So I was never allowed to have a puppy–do you have a puppy?"
He was talking a million words a second and the man couldn't understand for the life of him. "No?" he questioned, sounding utterly confused.
"Oh, well that sucks. Are you a cat person? I don't know if I like cats. They have those sharp nail-talon-claw things. Did you know that if they get in a fight, they could tear each other's stomachs open with them? They're like swords. Someone should just get a massive thing of cat claws and use them to kill everyone else. I think that would make the perfect comic book character…or serial killer. I don't like cereal killers. They kill cereal."
Something about that statement was wrong, even to the doped up boy on the bed who furrowed his brows in confusion after a moment and then thought it over with his eyes narrowed and his nose wrinkling.
"Wait…that didn't make sense. Like…at all."
"Um, ahem, Mr. Sennen–may I call you Atem?"
"What? No. I'm Yami. Ya-mi. Like yummy but with an 'aw' sound. Yami.Yami. Ya-mi." He paused. "It's Japanese. Did you know that?"
The man let out a small sigh and rolled his eyes up towards the ceiling; why?
"Well, we are in Japan, Mr. Sennen."
"Oh yeah…you know, I'll never understand how my first name is Egyptian and my last name is Japanese. Does that make any sense to you? No? I didn't think so." He paused again. "I'm kind of hungry. And tired. But I don't want to eat and I don't want to sleep either. What do you do when you get like this?"
He pinched the bridge of his nose and rubbed the corners of his eyes before shaking his head. Again.Why? "I need you to focus for a minute. Can you do that?"
"A minute exactly? As in sixty seconds?"
"Maybe a little longer, but yes."
Yami narrowed his eyes into slits and then stuck his tongue out the left corner of his mouth and curved it upwards, giving a vigorous nod.
"Okay, so here is what I need to know. Was your father there the day that you were thrown down the stairs?"
Thrown? He thought he was pushed…
Hmm…
He thought it over for a long time, sought through his mind for some kind of trigger but all he could hear in his drug-induced haze was his own voice, desperate and broken and fragmented in ways that made no sense.
"I don't know. I can't remember. I have a concussion."
"Yes, so I heard."
He was sighing and Yami felt irritated with that, glaring slightly.
"How does your head feel, by the way?"
"Light."
He snorted and smirked slightly. "Has your father ever hurt you?"
Yami thought about it for a long time, because it took longer than he thought to get through the haze in his mind, and then very slowly nodded a couple of times, one slow and the other more vigorous.
"How would you describe it?"
Yami could not think of the technical term and so instead looked around for a moment before finding his pillow behind his head and bringing it over his face in an overly dramatic show of smothering, giggling when he pulled it away and said, "Ta da!"
"He smothered you?"
Was that the word for it?
"No." He paused, because he was thinking allowed instead of in his head. "Punished. Hepunished–no, no, not punished.Disciplined. Hedisciplinedme."
The man watched the sixteen-year-old nod vigorously.
"Disciplined. He only did it when I was bad."
"What kind of things did he do when you were…bad?"
Yami took a long time again, counted on his fingers, and then lost track of the question, humming and grabbing his pillow before playing with it instead; the man stared at him for a long minute before realizing what had just happened.
"Mr. Sennen?"
He stopped short of playing with the inanimate object to turn his head and give him an owlish look, blinking before tilting his head and murmuring, "When did you get here?"
And that was the final straw. He got up and left the room while Yami watched him go and called, "Bye-bye now."
"You were doped up."
Yami looked at the phone for a long moment. "Hmm? What kind of greeting is that, Seto?" he complained. "Not even a hello. Just 'you were doped up'. If this is something that you want to make a greeting between us, I have to say I don't like it."
The brunet sighed on the other end. "And now you're fucking lucid."
"I am," he agreed, grabbing the phone's cord and twisting it around his finger because he was bored. "But you wouldn't have called otherwise, right?"
"The lawyer came in earlier. Do you remember that happening?"
Yami thought it over for a moment. "I remember he had a stain on his tie that looked like a rubber ducky with the Grinch's head. That's really the most I remember."
Seto snickered and then turned back to his businessman demeanor. "Yami, do you remember the subject of your conversation?"
"Considering I was high, I do not believe I do, Seto. But please, remind me anyways."
"The lawsuit–"
"Wait, who are you suing now?"
There was a loud sigh. "Fuck, I forgot I didn't tell you yet."
"Tell me what?" Yami demanded before his eyes grew wide. "Oh no, you can't, Seto, that's not–"
"It's called abuse and your dad can't just show up out of nowhere and just fucking do that," the brunet snapped at him. "You were officially emancipated before that happened and he had no right to show up like he did. You're sixteen and you're emancipated–how did he even get a key?"
"You do realize that the house is technicallyhis, right, cousin? Because honestly, I was not the least bit surprised that he had a spare key just so that he could pop in at random intervals if he wanted to."
"Makes you wonder what else is in there."
"Cameras."
"Excuse me?"
"I said cameras. There are cameras in there."
"What the–Yami, why didn't you mention this before?"
"It never crossed my mind. Besides, I got rid of them."
Seto sighed again. "Goddamn it."
"Look, it's fine. They're gone. It doesn't matter. The point is that you didn'ttellme you were going to get a lawsuit filed against them for child abuse."
"Yeah, I didn't think I would have to after you were emancipated. Just goes to show that we can't all think of everything."
Yami leaned back against the pillow again. "No, I don't remember anything about meeting him but his tie. I liked his Grinch-ducky."
Seto snorted and snickered. "Dear god, only you."
He let out a small chuckle. "Itwas. It was a Grinch-ducky."
"I think I need to reconsider my favorite cousin."
"Hey, bitch, you can't just throw me out of rank like that. I willfightfor that spot."
Both of them laughed softly.
"Did I make a lasting impression?"
"Oh yes. He thought your acting skills were beautiful, Yami."
"Acting skills? Oh fuck, what did I do?"
"Apparently you grabbed your pillow and pretended to smother yourself and then said 'ta da' at the end."
"Shit, what was the question?"
"What your dad has done to you."
"Oh…"
"I never knew he smothered you."
"He killed Bean. Of course he would smother me."
Seto was silent for a long time. "He did that for some reason so small I don't even remember it."
Yami sighed. "It doesn't matter. It's over and done with."
"Yami, if you think you're going to defend your parents, I'll go over your head."
"That was the whole point of this call, wasn't it?"
"Yes."
"I make no plans to protect them. I hope you bury them." And then he hung up.
"This is starting to piss me off," Bakura hissed at him, thrusting the papers into his hands while Yami looked them over and groaned, Malik snickering in amusement while Seto rolled his eyes and Mokuba looked at Yami's monitors.
"Yeah, well, it's your last day playing errand boy anyways," he replied, smirking slightly.
"So you'll be at school tomorrow?"
All of them spun around at the new voice, all six cousins wide-eyed before Seto's narrowed, Yami's blinked and became normal in size again, Malik snorted and turned away, Mokuba looked at Yami and then the newcomer and back again, and Bakura looked annoyed out of his mind.
"What the hell are you doing here?" the silver-haired teen sniped.
Yami groaned and covered his face with his hand, shaking his head while Malik snickered and Seto gave a small smirk, turning away again.
"Hey, don't go around embarrassing our little cousin's friends," Malik cooed, reaching over and pinching Yami's cheek, making him growl and swat his hand away, the two psychos laughing their asses off.
"You know, your mom warned me about this, Malik," he stated, crossing his arms and tilting his head when the purple-eyed teen raised an eyebrow. "She said that one day your girl genes would kick in. I thought it would be further down the road, but still, better late than never, right?"
"Girl genes?" the blond echoed, blinking in confusion.
"Oh, that's right. You didn't know. Sorry to burst your little bubble, cousin, but you were born a girl," he said, giving a dead serious look with a tilt of his head, eyes sympathetic as he blinked them once. "Your mother warned me that you might be a jealous little blonde when you grew up. I guess she was right. Considering you're getting jealous of me having another person in the room that isn't family."
Bakura threw his head back laughing while Seto snickered and Mokuba covered his mouth, eyes wide as he watched them, Malik gawking while Yami winked and then turned back to Tristan.
"Son of a…"
"Don't insult your mother even more," Yami quipped.
Bakura fell over, laughing like a hyena at the blond's stunned expression in which a small bit of red was appearing beneath his caramel-toned skin. Mokuba turned to his brother and pulled on his coat so that he leaned over, whispering just loud enough for the others to hear.
"Is he really a girl?"
Yami burst out laughing and Malik gawked at his youngest cousin, glaring while Bakura was wheezing and rolling on the floor, Seto chuckling and shaking his head. Tristan shook his head, laughing quietly.
"Yes," Bakura barked out. "He's totally a girl!"
"That's why his hair looks like that. He likes to fluff it with the blow dryer," Yami added. "Got to have enough volume."
"You guys are going to ruin him," Seto snickered.
"He should know the truth," the red-eyed teen said with a shrug and a smirk thrown over his shoulder. "So that if he ever needs his hair done he knows who to go to."
"Hey!" Malik cried out, annoyed as the other four dissolved into laughter again. "Fucking assholes."
"Now, now, that's not the language for such aprettygirl," Yami chided, moving out of the way quickly when the blond made a swipe for him, glaring behind a gleam of laughter that made his purple eyes dance. Yami knew eventually Malik would get him back but it was too fun to let it die just like that.
"Mr. Sennen?"
All five of their heads snapped towards the nurse, startled but relieved when she simply handed him a clipboard with his release forms, the red-eyed teen signing happily and turning to his brunet cousin.
"Can you get me a soda?Please?"
Seto opened his mouth to refuse outright but then the other three crowed, "Fuck yeah! Sodas!" and left him groaning in annoyance before belatedly realizing his brother had just cheered with them, shooting him a sharp look that had Mokuba looking around with feigned innocence.
"Please?" Yami tried again.
The brunet was silent for a moment but then sighed and rolled his eyes, nodding. "Yeah, all right. Sprite?"
"Please."
Blue eyes rolled again as Bakura and Malik shot past Tristan and out the door, both of them leaving the Kaiba brothers and Yami in the dust, the red-eyed teen watching them with a raised eyebrow. He wasn't the least bit surprised by their behavior but his entire family constantly said he was the younger one of the trio and he was honestly starting to wonder about that. Surely it counted if he was more mature mentally, right?
Hmm…
His eyes flickered and settled on Tristan's.
"What are you doing here?"
The brunet blinked once, obviously unnerved by the sharp gleam of predatory interest that entered his eyes, his natural defense mechanism that usually left people a little too scared to truly mess with him. Natural intimidation had saved him from a lot of fights when it came down to it.
"I heard you were in the hospital and I figured I would come and see how you were."
Yami narrowed his eyes so that the lashes cast shadows that made his pupils dilate and eat away at the red of his irises. "Really? And why is that?"
He shrugged. "Look, personally, I don't have anything against you. Joey and Ushio might but I don't. If I did, do you really think I would have told you it was Tea and Joey who sent the picture around?"
"You don't know me. I don't know what you think you're trying to accomplish here but–"
"Dude, calm down first of all. I'm not trying to do anything. Geez, I just wanted to see if you were okay."
Yami was quiet for a moment. "Why?"
"Because I just…I don't have anything against you and as long as I've known you, you've actually been pretty cool. I don't care about you and Yugi hooking up"–he had a second where he started to backtrack when the anger and resentment mixed with a fog of pain hit his eyes but it was gone in a blink and he had no idea if he had just imagined it–"although if you were gay, you should have gone for someone else considering you guys' social status."
"Social status," Yami breathed out, blinking once and then chuckling softly with a shake of his head, smirking before sighing softly, the light to his eyes cruel and sardonic. "Isn't that a joke? By all standards, he should be the one being dragged through the mud for this shit, not me."
"Huh?" Tristan asked, confused by the statement.
Yami waved a hand dismissively. "Nothing. Forget I fucking said anything." He rubbed at his temple when it laced with pain for a split second. "Musing out loud, I suppose. Stupid stuff."
The brunet raised an eyebrow, blinking several times and then nodded slightly with a small smirk on his face. "Anyways, you guys really screwed up as far as picking out fuck buddies goes."
The red-eyed teen let out a huff. "Didn't we?" he agreed spitefully, making Tristan stare with a confused look, visibly startled by the venom in his words. "Anyways, to answer your question from earlier, yes. I am going to be back in school tomorrow."
"That's cool."
"Cool? The place is a fucking hellhole and I don't even know why the fuck Ibothergoing there. I should never have even done it the first year. I should have done online schooling instead."
"What? You're required to go to school."
"Wrong. I am merely required tolearn. There is no law that requires my body physically present inside of a school. That is why parents get away with home schooling their kids." He paused after a moment, realizing that Tristan didn't deserve the anger that he was displaying, clearing his throat slightly. "Sorry. I'm just not having that great of a day. It has nothing to do with you being here."
The brunet simply nodded, not the least bit disturbed by this. "Sure."
Yami watched him for a moment and then tilted his head slightly. "Were you even surprised?" he finally muttered.
"Not really," he admitted, shaking his head slightly. "Yugi started looking at Tea differently and he wasn't exactly the most subtle when he was staring at you before. I mean, I know I teased him a little, but it was mostly to just make him notice what he was doing. He sometimes acts without really thinking about what he's doing…Besides, there was just something about the way the two of you acted around each other, even when he was pissed off at you. For as long as I've known him, no one has ever managed to rattle his cage like you did when you…finger-fucked Tea. And the day that they made fun of Yugi for letting you do the whole project, you looked like you wanted to snap. I saw your face when you looked over at our table. You looked like you were checking on Yugi and you got pissed off when you saw that none of us were going to do anything."
"Why didn't you?"
"Yugi can fight his own battles," the brunet said easily, smiling slightly with a shake of his head. "Joey underestimates him and Ushio thinks he could take him on because he's so small, but I know that Yugi could kick ass if he needed to. Besides that, he didn't look too inclined to do anything either. He looked pissed, yeah, but not enough to actually pull a stunt to embarrass her for trying to embarrass him."
Yami nodded slowly.
"Besides that, I'm willing to bet twenty bucks that he took his frustrations out on you." Tristan smirked when Yami's eyes widened slightly, surprised at the statement. "Don't look so surprised. He does it a lot."
He flinched. "He's done that before?"
The brunet stared at him for a moment and then snorted and held his hands up. "Oh, no, I didn't mean it likethat," he amended quickly. "I meant that he will dig his teeth into the nearest person when he gets mad. Doesn't matter if they had anything to do with it or not, he's not the most levelheaded one when it comes to that kind of thing."
Yami glowered. "He's a fucking asshole," he spat, baring his teeth. "I don't even fucking understand why I thought any of it was okay in the first place."
Tristan shook his head. "Believe it or not, life isn't about what's okay, Yami. And it doesn't have to make sense to anyone else but you and Yugi."
"But itdoesn'tmake sense to me!" he snapped, scowling. "Nothing makes sense to me anymore."
The brunet shrugged slightly. "I always heard that confusion helped with making decisions in life," he said lightly, snickering when Yami blinked once and furrowed his brows, tilting his head in question at the statement. "The point is, it's better to mess up now and know later what you shouldn't do than find out later what you should have done."
Yami stayed quiet for a moment and then stared. "I don't even know what I'm doing anymore," he admitted quietly.
"Yugi has that effect on you," Tristan snickered, knowing Yami understood the statement without more words by the way he clenched his jaw. But his eyes were questioning, dark and dangerous in their desire for the answer that he sought, the words lying lifelessly on his tongue, not about to asked, so Tristan gave it to him without prompt. "I'm observant."
For a moment neither of them spoke and then the red-eyed teen looked at him slowly, drawing him to memory in his mind. "Why do you hang out with Joey if you don't even believe in half the crap that he does?"
"We've been best friends for years, and we're as close as brothers without the shared blood, Yami. You don't just give up on someone that means so much to you because of something so simple as a disagreement."
He opened his mouth to object, to say that Yugi had given up on him, so why shouldn't he have the right to do the same, but then stopped short and instead stared blankly for a long horribly drawn out minute and a half.
"He makes me feel disgusting."
Tristan couldn't help it when he burst out laughing. "You let him do it."
"I don't know how to make it stop."
"Maybe it's not meant to."
Yami wanted to ask why something so vicious and disgusting and stupid and disturbing could possibly not be meant to go away, but instead ended up staring in response, puzzled and frustrated, feeling sick to his stomach.
If it wasn't meant to be stopped, what would become of him?
He couldn't stand being a hollow shell…not again, not after having been that way for fourteen years. If he had to go back to playing the puppet while others pulled his strings, making him dance to a tune he didn't want, he swore that he might just end up killing himself in the meantime, if he didn't die beforehand.
"Your boyfriend is back."
How many times had he heard that in just the last hour? He rolled his eyes. It made no sense. Yami was still in the hospital. He was being kept to make sure he was healing properly and all that crap. It was that fucking simple.
So why the fuck were they all jumping at the chance to sneer that at him if it didn't even make any fucking sense?
Yugi grabbed his tray and ignored the girl who started to talk but when one of them started whispering, he jumped onto the table, and he wasn't surewhyhe did it, but he was suddenly shouting, "Tea Gardner has emotional instability because she was born a guy!" so loudly that everyone in the entire cafeteria gawked and then looked at her; a few moved away while she started trying to tell them that she wasn't. "Joey Wheeler has an animal fetish, ladies, so if you have a little lap dog, you might want to keep him away from it or you're going to end up being a third wheel on your own fucking dates!" And the best was, of course, Ushio. "Ushio has a micro-penis the size of my pinkie!"
There was laughter, there were glares, and then Yugi was smirking at them and winking before walking off while others laughed harder at the three victims of Yugi's wrath.
And the only reason he didn't mess with Tristan? Because he hadn't messed with Yugi.
Tea had sneered at him constantly, Joey always made jokes about Yugi being Yami's bitch, and Ushio even said that he would make Yugi his bitch when he wanted to.
When. Not if. When. As if he hadplansto do it.
Yugi narrowed his eyes. That would never happen. He knew that much.
He'd take Ushio's eye out before he let that happen.
The bell rang and he, along with the rest of the sheep in the pin, wandered off to his next class.
Yugi had made himself into a bad boy for a reason. It was simple, really.
While he still had his basic kindness, his heart which abhorred violence, he turned himself into the bad boy.
To make himself unlovable.
His parents walked out on him when he was young. His grandfather was never around. His friends–ha,whatfriends?–kept him around because he was smart. His bullies did nothing but reinforce the idea that he was not meant to be loved, that it would never happen, and he had been okay with that. He had been happy with it. He made himself even more unlovable to make himself feel better.
Bullies couldn't get past the wall he built so their taunts did nothing to him but bore him.
Those people he thought were his "friends" were kept at arm's length so that he wouldn't have to deal with it when they left.
And he didn't miss them at all. Well, aside from Tristan, a little, because he was okay out of the four of them.
But his crush on Tea? He was starting to think it was just sexual frustration, pent up and taking form in some kind of strange infatuation with the brunette because he honestly couldn't understand what he ever saw in her.
Yes, she was pretty, with those wide azure eyes and that heart-shaped face, but she was so plain and nasty in personality and he didn't understandwhyhe wouldeverhave felt anything for her in the first place.
He leaned back in his seat and spun his pencil around in his fingers until class ended, not bothering with notes or doing the lecture, even flat out ignoring the teacher as she called his name.
He was in the bathroom when he walked in.
"Yami is out of the hospital."
Yugi looked up at him through the reflection in the mirror and then slowly turned his head to regard him. "So?"
"I thought you might want to know."
"How do you know anyways?"
"I went to check on him."
Yugi twisted his entire body around and stared. "W-what? Why would you do that?"
"Well, he's not my best friend, but I did feel bad for the kid. I mean…he's never exactly done anything to me so whatever. Besides, I just wanted to make sure he was okay."
"He doesn't need pity, Tristan."
"I never said he did, Yugi," the brunet said quietly, shaking his head. "I just meant that…never mind."
He wanted his answer but he didn't have the energy to ask for it.
"Anyways, he's out and he's here."
Yugi nearly choked. "What?"
"He's at school today. He came in after lunch but he was with the guidance counselor for a couple hours before that because the teachers wanted to make sure he could still write and stuff in class."
The good thing about Tristan? He had a free period after lunch and spent it in the office with the principal and guidance counselors and he got to listen in on some stuff while he delivered slips to students who were going home early or whatever.
"So then…he's back but why are you telling me this exactly…?"
"He'll be in your eighth period today instead of his."
Yugi swallowed hard. "Why?"
"Because his teacher wants to be able to teach his class as fast as possible without Yami slowing them down."
"That's fucked up."
"Eh, that's life."
Yugi nodded once. "Thanks Tristan."
He nodded back and gave him a small weak smile before turning and walking out again; the smallest teen in the school leaned back against the sink and narrowed his eyes. So Yami actuallywasback.
After hearing all the shit and not seeing him, he had thought they were all fucking around to see if they could get a reaction out of him. But he was really back…
At eighth period Yami did come to the classroom, did hand the teacher a slip and was told to sit down in the vacant seat…right between him and Ushio. How lovely a seating arrangement. Yami ignored them both pointedly but even Yugi knew he was losing patience when Ushio started flicking pieces of lead at him. It was halfway through the class when Yami turned and snapped, "Do it one more time, you little fucker, and I'm going to break your fingers, tear them off and then feed them to you" in a dangerous voice that made all of the surrounding students turn towards him with wide eyes.
"What? Pay attention, morons," he spat, turning back to the board where the teacher was looking at them in confusion.
Ushio scoffed and then laughed out loud while Yami drummed a single fingernail against the desk, going back to ignoring him even after he started flicking lead at his cheek again; it was after class that things blew up.
Ushio actually grabbed him. Yugi struggled to get out of his grip because he was mentally and physically drained from being so close to Yami, but his attempts to escape did nothing but make the massive boy laugh as he led him to the bathroom, scaring out the other guys and pushing him facedown against the ground.
And it wasn't even asanitarybathroom. He could see spilled water from the sinks not even two centimeters from his face and his skin crawled with the desperation to get away but he didn't think he had the energy.
Yugi struggled but there was not much he could do. He was too tired. Fuck, he was too tired to even care about Ushio about to rape him even as his pants and boxers were pulled down and his ass was exposed.
He was too tired, that is, until Ushio went flying straight over him and into the other wall with a massive thudding noise and a groan that seemed to make the floor vibrate against his left cheek. Yugi pushed himself up to his hands and knees, glancing over his shoulder and going bug-eyed when he saw who it was; Yami didn't look at him, shaking out his braced wrist and frowning a little before snarling, "I swear, Ushio, if my hand doesn't heal right, I'm taking one of yours."
Ushio got to his feet and started towards him. "Came to protect your little boyfriend?"
"Actually, I thought I told you what I came for in class, Ushio." He walked around Yugi and stopped a couple of feet away from the taller boy. "I don't make idle threats. I said I would break your fingers and I will. But maybe I'll do worse than that."
Yugi got out of his stupor long enough to pull his pants up and move out of the way when Ushio charged him; Yami fell on his back but, unlike Yugi expected, he rolled and kicked the taller boy straight into the other wall before kicking off and landing on his feet, looking at his wrist again before turning back.
"Get up. Get the fuck up so I can beat your fucking face in."
"Whoa, what the fuck is–Yami, stop!"
Yami looked over at both of them with wide eyes and Yugi swore he saw his eyes turn a little brighter, his irises seeming to have been shadowed with some kind of blackish-gray tint the second before they spoke; his memory bit at his focus for a moment and his skin crawled as he realized he recognized that darker shade from when he had gone through Yami's phone. "What the hell are you guys…?" he muttered, trailing off and looking at Ushio again.
"We came to see if you were ready to go and then we walked in on this shit," Bakura answered, raising an eyebrow. "Oh look, someone mistook his size for being weak again."
"Damn shame," Malik snickered before glancing at Yugi. "Oh, hey, there's the shrimp."
Bakura stopped short of going to mess with Ushio to look over and stare. "Huh."
Yami shook his hand out a second before punching and Ushio stumbled but didn't fall and lashed out only to get thin air when the small teen moved out of the way and started backing up.
"You know, I should thank you for what you did. I mean, finding Yami," Bakura murmured just as he grabbed Ushio by the back of his shirt and tugged him off his feet with a lazy flick of his wrist. "But I think we'll save that for another time, don't you?"
Malik started laughing when he wrapped his arm around Yugi's shoulders; Yugi froze in surprise and stared at him with wide eyes, but the blond merely directed him back to the hallway with a simple "Don't get lost now. Go on home. We have some things to talk to Ushio about before we leave."
Yugi stared at him and opened his mouth only to have him bark, "Get the fuck out of here" to which he backed up steadily, still facing him, and then took off running.
Ushio was not at school for the next three days and when he did return he was walking with a limp and he had cuts and bruises all over his face as well as a broken left hand; Bakura and Malik gave him little waves and winks and blew him raspberries that sent him scurrying while Yami nudged them and told them to stop, smirking the entire time. Yugi had to admit he was confused by it all, but whatever. It was okay.
At least he had retained whatever virtue he still had left.
And then he nearly cackled at the thought. That was hilarious.
Unlike usual, however, instead of sitting with him, Yami sat with his cousins and occasionally the two of them would talk to him and gesture towards him and the red-eyed boy would look at him and then turn away just as fast.
And it was weird because Yugi felt a little out of orbit when Yami was not there. He felt grounded around the red-eyed teen but now he didn't have even that much going for him and it was strange by all means. He felt like someone had taken the ground out from beneath his feet and when he really focused hard enough, there was a pang in his side that both stung and burned but mostly just sent sparks of pain and disgust and dismay through him. But then, if he really focused on it again, it came from a completely different area that he completely refused to acknowledge. No, he would not acknowledge it.
There was no way, because he was unlovable.
Maybe Yami wasn't, but he was.
Besides, all the couples he knew of always ended up dead somewhere along the way. Something burned out. Things never remained the same.
His stomach twisted.
No, he did not care about Yami in that way. He didn't care for anyone in that way.
And why would he? Attachments just meant more pain in the long run.
Pain he didn't need or want.
And just like that, the pain in his side and chest burned and made his stomach twist painfully.
For fuck's sake…
"Why aren't you over there sitting with your boyfriend?" someone sneered at him.
"I am not gay!" he spat angrily. The statement came out a little louder than he expected and every single person in the cafeteria turned their attention to him with wide eyes…well, all except Yami who was staring at the tabletop like it was the most important thing in the world.
It was a quick lay. That was all it was.
Yami was stupid to get attached.
Yugi was smart for keeping his head on straight.
No, Yugi was not about to get caught in some kind of loveless bullshit relationship with someone else. That was stupid.
Yami was so fuckingstupid.
"And you want to know what you little whore?" he continued loudly, for all of them to hear as no one had moved. "I didn't kiss that nerd and he didn't kiss me, okay? It's fucking photo-shopped and you know why? Because Tea is a goddamned unstable motherfuckingbitchwith no common sense. Because. She. Was. Born. A. Boy."
People were gawking for a moment before he jumped up onto the table again.
"Anyone else want to ask why I don't like her anymore? Because I found that shit out. So get your fucking facts straight before I kick some fucking ass!" he shouted. "Joey is a fucking homophobic idiot and Tea is a dumb boy-turned-girltwatwith no common sense. The photo was shopped and you all are fucking morons to think that weeverdid something like that."
Bakura covered his mouth with his hand and laughed.
Malik started snickering.
Yami looked at Yugi with a cold expression.
Yugi gave him a wide smirk. "Photo. Shopped." He popped the "p" so that it echoed across the room. "As in edited pictures. So if you bitch ass fuckers want to fight over something, fight over how stupid you all fucking are for believing it. Oh, and before any of you idiots bring it up, the last couple of weeks? We were doing our fucking project. Not hanging out. So why don't you all fuck off before I stick my foot up your asses?"
He jumped down again and walked out of the cafeteria while others gawked and whispered, some laughing at what he had said about Tea and others glaring at Joey, the homophobe.
But then, that actually was true.
Note: Story will be updated every Wednesday
Warning: TONS of cursing throughout story
Chapter Warning: Chapter has abuse, near-rape scenario, and mentions of homophobia
Abuse Warning: Abuse is mentioned but not graphically described in the third part of chapter.
Near-Rape Scenario Warning: There is a forceful attempt at nonconsensual/non-con sex in the sixth part of chapter. Not too graphic but definitely there.
Homophobia Warning: Homophobia is mentioned briefly on several occasions. Aside from that, I was just putting the warning so no one was made mad by this (Honestly, though, in retrospect, you can probably figure out which character it is before they are mentioned). Again, don't support it but it definitely worked for the story so I put it in there.
Chapter XII: Fact of the Matter
Yami woke to this dull throbbing in the back of his head and momentarily wondered if he had somehow gotten drunk while he was there. Maybe one of the nurses slipped it into his IV…
Ra, he'd turned into a conspiracy theorist.
He was just about to look at the monitor when a movement caught his eyes and he snapped his head around to see that Bakura and Malik were sitting a few feet away, playing with their DS's while Seto was talking to Mokuba about something or other.
"What are you guys doing here?" he muttered softly.
All four of them looked up, Malik and Bakura nearly dropping their systems and then cursing when their characters started dying while Seto raised an eyebrow and Mokuba squirmed, looking ready to jump up and hug him but unable to due to the heavy cast on his right leg.
"Well, let's see, shall we? You're in the hospital and–well, no, I think that sums it up pretty well," Bakura stated with a roll of his eyes.
Yami rolled his eyes in response and then Malik took it up and Seto rolled his eyes at their childishness, unconsciously mirroring the three of them.
"Besides, Mokuba wanted to see you before we left," Seto answered.
Mokuba nodded enthusiastically. "So, does it hurt?"
Yami groaned. "Everywhere."
But he said it teasingly so it sounded like he was just playing around with Mokuba rather than the fact that he was telling the truth. Everything did hurt. Everywhere. His heart hurt. His lungs hurt. His liver hurt. Fuck, he was starting to think even his gallbladder hurt and he didn't even know where the hell itwas.
"If you tell them you have a headache, they give you really nice drugs," the eight-year-old announced.
The other three shot him looks and Yami chuckled.
"It does hurt but I don't think I need anything for it right now."
"So…I think we all want to know what the hell happened," Seto announced in a businesslike manner. "And how the hell you ended up here if you were unconscious like the doctors said."
"I don't really know any of that," he confessed.
"What? Why wouldn't you know?" Mokuba asked in confusion, glancing at the others to see if they knew what he was talking about.
"I…hit my head really hard on the way down," Yami said with a small frown, shrugging. "Apparently I got a concussion from it. Things are really blurry when I try to figure out what happened."
"Oh. I had one of those. It wasn't fun."
All of them smirked at him before turning away again.
"So you don't know who brought you here?"
"Oh, no, I know that much," he replied, frowning slightly. "Yugi did, actually."
"What the hell was he doing there? Were you two about to shack up again?"
Bakura hit him so hard he doubled over in surprise before giving him a sharp look to which the silver-haired teen growled, "He's eight, you idiot. You can't go around just saying crap like that."
The lavender eyes shot towards Mokuba and then back, blushing slightly. "Right…"
Seto decided not to comment and tell them that Mokuba alreadyknewwhat all of this meant because some idiots in the staff had actually been talking about hookups while Mokuba was in his coma and of course the boy had heard it all.
"No, we weren't," Yami muttered. "He called me so we could schedule working on the project and when I didn't answer, he freaked out and found me with his phone app and then apparently he found me on the ground bleeding. I don't know. I was already unconscious and again, I don't remember so don't bother asking."
"How bad is it?" Seto asked quietly.
"I don't know, really. Blurry images, fragments of voices…mostly mine actually. I don't understand what I was saying though. It all kind of jumbles together. And the images sometimes just turn black when I try to focus on them." He shrugged and then glanced at his monitor before laying his head back with a soft sigh. "So I honestly have no fucking idea what happened."
"Damn it, Yami! Not in front of the kid!"
The other three shot him incredulous looks while Mokuba blinked and looked at him, murmuring, "It's a strange day when you're the one trying to protect my innocence" to which all of them burst out laughing.
Bakura rolled his eyes and huffed, crossing his arms as he sat back in his seat and gave Yami a sideways glance. "So how's the food here?"
"It's actually okay. They just keep giving me meat."
"Fucking vegetarians," Malik muttered.
Seto snickered and Mokuba laughed while Bakura smirked and shook his head.
"I also learned that the pizza from the cafeteria downstairs sucks. Like badly. Like…so badly." He groaned and shook his head. "They almost ruined pizza for me. I would have slapped them if that had happened."
"So…back to the subject at hand. Do you remember if you fell or if you were pushed or what?"
"The doctors said I had to have been pushed."
"Why would they say that?"
Yami hesitated for a moment and then frowned, thinking hard about it before sighing, "Because of the angle and the way I landed. If I had just fallen, I wouldn't have broken my ribs. Plus, I had bruises all over." He raised his arm. "And my wrist was fractured prior to the landing and you know me, I don't usually have to use my hands to catch myself when I fall."
"What kind of bruises?" Seto pressed.
Yami opened and closed his mouth and then shook his head. "Ask the doctor. I'm fuzzy on all the details. I don't even remember half of what they said."
The brunet let out a simple hum of a noise in acknowledgment of his statement while Yami stared back up at the ceiling curiously for a moment before turning back; Mokuba frowned a little and the other two sixteen-year-olds shared a look before turning their attention to Seto who gave them a small nod before turning away again.
Yugi didn't call the entire week that Yami was there in the hospital. He didn't visit. And though Yami really wanted to, tried so hard to, he actually could not find it in himself to give a fuck. And oh, how he wished he could. Just because it seemed logical, like it was supposed to happen.
But too many things on his mind kept that from happening.
And, oh yes, Yugi not calling felt like one of his vital organs had been punctured and he was bleeding internally, but he had grown used to it because it was just there all the time. And, oh yes, not seeing Yugi made him feel like a drug addict with withdrawal symptoms. And, oh, how he wished he didn't care about the smaller boy, how badly he wished he could love someone else–female–but he didn't.
And that was the fact of the matter.
He was high when the man in the suit and tie walked in.
It was kind of funny because he had never really been high before. Especially not off of simple opium, but yep, he was high.
And he thought the little splash on that tie looked like a rubber duck with the Grinch's head. Which was why he laughed ten minutes straight after he entered the room.
The doctors were confused and concerned but his monitors read he was okay so they didn't bother with it after that though a nurse was kept nearby at all times in case something happened.
"Sennen, Atem."
Several people looked over at the mention of his name and Yami wrinkled his nose at him before hissing, "Why are you so loud?" before laughing again. "Or maybe I'm just quiet."
The man in the suit looked at him and raised an eyebrow.
"Sennen, Atem."
Oh yes, now people were really staring into the room at them.
Yami gave them angry looks before turning back, narrowing his eyes as he fought off the haze that made his stomach crawl slightly. "What?" he muttered, but it came out as a bark of a word and he couldn't understand why.
"You are Sennen, Atem, right?"
"I…go by Yami…most of the time…" He blinked and scrunched his face up before looking at the splatter on his suit and snickering again. "Grinch-ducky."
"What?"
He waved a hand dismissively and the man merely stared. "All right…so…Yami, do you know why I am here?"
He stared at him like he was bat-shit crazy for a moment and then slowly nodded. "Seto…said something about you…coming by at some point." He pursed his lips. "Something…about a lawsuit?"
"Yes. Did he explain what the lawsuit was about?"
Yami thought for a long time, really searched and sought through it all before very slowly shaking his head. "Nope."
The man in the suit sighed and leaned forward. "I am here to discuss with you the lawsuit against your parents. For domestic abuse in which your father was the one who put you in the hospital."
Yami blinked once, long and slow, and then tilted his head before trying to think it over. "I don't remember. What was the question?"
"There was no question."
"I like your Grinch-ducky. He's very cute."
And then he was staring at him like he was a lunatic. "Um…thank you…?"
"You know what else is cute? Puppies. Puppies are cute. I always wanted a puppy. But my father always said no because I was never a good boy. So I was never allowed to have a puppy–do you have a puppy?"
He was talking a million words a second and the man couldn't understand for the life of him. "No?" he questioned, sounding utterly confused.
"Oh, well that sucks. Are you a cat person? I don't know if I like cats. They have those sharp nail-talon-claw things. Did you know that if they get in a fight, they could tear each other's stomachs open with them? They're like swords. Someone should just get a massive thing of cat claws and use them to kill everyone else. I think that would make the perfect comic book character…or serial killer. I don't like cereal killers. They kill cereal."
Something about that statement was wrong, even to the doped up boy on the bed who furrowed his brows in confusion after a moment and then thought it over with his eyes narrowed and his nose wrinkling.
"Wait…that didn't make sense. Like…at all."
"Um, ahem, Mr. Sennen–may I call you Atem?"
"What? No. I'm Yami. Ya-mi. Like yummy but with an 'aw' sound. Yami.Yami. Ya-mi." He paused. "It's Japanese. Did you know that?"
The man let out a small sigh and rolled his eyes up towards the ceiling; why?
"Well, we are in Japan, Mr. Sennen."
"Oh yeah…you know, I'll never understand how my first name is Egyptian and my last name is Japanese. Does that make any sense to you? No? I didn't think so." He paused again. "I'm kind of hungry. And tired. But I don't want to eat and I don't want to sleep either. What do you do when you get like this?"
He pinched the bridge of his nose and rubbed the corners of his eyes before shaking his head. Again.Why? "I need you to focus for a minute. Can you do that?"
"A minute exactly? As in sixty seconds?"
"Maybe a little longer, but yes."
Yami narrowed his eyes into slits and then stuck his tongue out the left corner of his mouth and curved it upwards, giving a vigorous nod.
"Okay, so here is what I need to know. Was your father there the day that you were thrown down the stairs?"
Thrown? He thought he was pushed…
Hmm…
He thought it over for a long time, sought through his mind for some kind of trigger but all he could hear in his drug-induced haze was his own voice, desperate and broken and fragmented in ways that made no sense.
"I don't know. I can't remember. I have a concussion."
"Yes, so I heard."
He was sighing and Yami felt irritated with that, glaring slightly.
"How does your head feel, by the way?"
"Light."
He snorted and smirked slightly. "Has your father ever hurt you?"
Yami thought about it for a long time, because it took longer than he thought to get through the haze in his mind, and then very slowly nodded a couple of times, one slow and the other more vigorous.
"How would you describe it?"
Yami could not think of the technical term and so instead looked around for a moment before finding his pillow behind his head and bringing it over his face in an overly dramatic show of smothering, giggling when he pulled it away and said, "Ta da!"
"He smothered you?"
Was that the word for it?
"No." He paused, because he was thinking allowed instead of in his head. "Punished. Hepunished–no, no, not punished.Disciplined. Hedisciplinedme."
The man watched the sixteen-year-old nod vigorously.
"Disciplined. He only did it when I was bad."
"What kind of things did he do when you were…bad?"
Yami took a long time again, counted on his fingers, and then lost track of the question, humming and grabbing his pillow before playing with it instead; the man stared at him for a long minute before realizing what had just happened.
"Mr. Sennen?"
He stopped short of playing with the inanimate object to turn his head and give him an owlish look, blinking before tilting his head and murmuring, "When did you get here?"
And that was the final straw. He got up and left the room while Yami watched him go and called, "Bye-bye now."
"You were doped up."
Yami looked at the phone for a long moment. "Hmm? What kind of greeting is that, Seto?" he complained. "Not even a hello. Just 'you were doped up'. If this is something that you want to make a greeting between us, I have to say I don't like it."
The brunet sighed on the other end. "And now you're fucking lucid."
"I am," he agreed, grabbing the phone's cord and twisting it around his finger because he was bored. "But you wouldn't have called otherwise, right?"
"The lawyer came in earlier. Do you remember that happening?"
Yami thought it over for a moment. "I remember he had a stain on his tie that looked like a rubber ducky with the Grinch's head. That's really the most I remember."
Seto snickered and then turned back to his businessman demeanor. "Yami, do you remember the subject of your conversation?"
"Considering I was high, I do not believe I do, Seto. But please, remind me anyways."
"The lawsuit–"
"Wait, who are you suing now?"
There was a loud sigh. "Fuck, I forgot I didn't tell you yet."
"Tell me what?" Yami demanded before his eyes grew wide. "Oh no, you can't, Seto, that's not–"
"It's called abuse and your dad can't just show up out of nowhere and just fucking do that," the brunet snapped at him. "You were officially emancipated before that happened and he had no right to show up like he did. You're sixteen and you're emancipated–how did he even get a key?"
"You do realize that the house is technicallyhis, right, cousin? Because honestly, I was not the least bit surprised that he had a spare key just so that he could pop in at random intervals if he wanted to."
"Makes you wonder what else is in there."
"Cameras."
"Excuse me?"
"I said cameras. There are cameras in there."
"What the–Yami, why didn't you mention this before?"
"It never crossed my mind. Besides, I got rid of them."
Seto sighed again. "Goddamn it."
"Look, it's fine. They're gone. It doesn't matter. The point is that you didn'ttellme you were going to get a lawsuit filed against them for child abuse."
"Yeah, I didn't think I would have to after you were emancipated. Just goes to show that we can't all think of everything."
Yami leaned back against the pillow again. "No, I don't remember anything about meeting him but his tie. I liked his Grinch-ducky."
Seto snorted and snickered. "Dear god, only you."
He let out a small chuckle. "Itwas. It was a Grinch-ducky."
"I think I need to reconsider my favorite cousin."
"Hey, bitch, you can't just throw me out of rank like that. I willfightfor that spot."
Both of them laughed softly.
"Did I make a lasting impression?"
"Oh yes. He thought your acting skills were beautiful, Yami."
"Acting skills? Oh fuck, what did I do?"
"Apparently you grabbed your pillow and pretended to smother yourself and then said 'ta da' at the end."
"Shit, what was the question?"
"What your dad has done to you."
"Oh…"
"I never knew he smothered you."
"He killed Bean. Of course he would smother me."
Seto was silent for a long time. "He did that for some reason so small I don't even remember it."
Yami sighed. "It doesn't matter. It's over and done with."
"Yami, if you think you're going to defend your parents, I'll go over your head."
"That was the whole point of this call, wasn't it?"
"Yes."
"I make no plans to protect them. I hope you bury them." And then he hung up.
"This is starting to piss me off," Bakura hissed at him, thrusting the papers into his hands while Yami looked them over and groaned, Malik snickering in amusement while Seto rolled his eyes and Mokuba looked at Yami's monitors.
"Yeah, well, it's your last day playing errand boy anyways," he replied, smirking slightly.
"So you'll be at school tomorrow?"
All of them spun around at the new voice, all six cousins wide-eyed before Seto's narrowed, Yami's blinked and became normal in size again, Malik snorted and turned away, Mokuba looked at Yami and then the newcomer and back again, and Bakura looked annoyed out of his mind.
"What the hell are you doing here?" the silver-haired teen sniped.
Yami groaned and covered his face with his hand, shaking his head while Malik snickered and Seto gave a small smirk, turning away again.
"Hey, don't go around embarrassing our little cousin's friends," Malik cooed, reaching over and pinching Yami's cheek, making him growl and swat his hand away, the two psychos laughing their asses off.
"You know, your mom warned me about this, Malik," he stated, crossing his arms and tilting his head when the purple-eyed teen raised an eyebrow. "She said that one day your girl genes would kick in. I thought it would be further down the road, but still, better late than never, right?"
"Girl genes?" the blond echoed, blinking in confusion.
"Oh, that's right. You didn't know. Sorry to burst your little bubble, cousin, but you were born a girl," he said, giving a dead serious look with a tilt of his head, eyes sympathetic as he blinked them once. "Your mother warned me that you might be a jealous little blonde when you grew up. I guess she was right. Considering you're getting jealous of me having another person in the room that isn't family."
Bakura threw his head back laughing while Seto snickered and Mokuba covered his mouth, eyes wide as he watched them, Malik gawking while Yami winked and then turned back to Tristan.
"Son of a…"
"Don't insult your mother even more," Yami quipped.
Bakura fell over, laughing like a hyena at the blond's stunned expression in which a small bit of red was appearing beneath his caramel-toned skin. Mokuba turned to his brother and pulled on his coat so that he leaned over, whispering just loud enough for the others to hear.
"Is he really a girl?"
Yami burst out laughing and Malik gawked at his youngest cousin, glaring while Bakura was wheezing and rolling on the floor, Seto chuckling and shaking his head. Tristan shook his head, laughing quietly.
"Yes," Bakura barked out. "He's totally a girl!"
"That's why his hair looks like that. He likes to fluff it with the blow dryer," Yami added. "Got to have enough volume."
"You guys are going to ruin him," Seto snickered.
"He should know the truth," the red-eyed teen said with a shrug and a smirk thrown over his shoulder. "So that if he ever needs his hair done he knows who to go to."
"Hey!" Malik cried out, annoyed as the other four dissolved into laughter again. "Fucking assholes."
"Now, now, that's not the language for such aprettygirl," Yami chided, moving out of the way quickly when the blond made a swipe for him, glaring behind a gleam of laughter that made his purple eyes dance. Yami knew eventually Malik would get him back but it was too fun to let it die just like that.
"Mr. Sennen?"
All five of their heads snapped towards the nurse, startled but relieved when she simply handed him a clipboard with his release forms, the red-eyed teen signing happily and turning to his brunet cousin.
"Can you get me a soda?Please?"
Seto opened his mouth to refuse outright but then the other three crowed, "Fuck yeah! Sodas!" and left him groaning in annoyance before belatedly realizing his brother had just cheered with them, shooting him a sharp look that had Mokuba looking around with feigned innocence.
"Please?" Yami tried again.
The brunet was silent for a moment but then sighed and rolled his eyes, nodding. "Yeah, all right. Sprite?"
"Please."
Blue eyes rolled again as Bakura and Malik shot past Tristan and out the door, both of them leaving the Kaiba brothers and Yami in the dust, the red-eyed teen watching them with a raised eyebrow. He wasn't the least bit surprised by their behavior but his entire family constantly said he was the younger one of the trio and he was honestly starting to wonder about that. Surely it counted if he was more mature mentally, right?
Hmm…
His eyes flickered and settled on Tristan's.
"What are you doing here?"
The brunet blinked once, obviously unnerved by the sharp gleam of predatory interest that entered his eyes, his natural defense mechanism that usually left people a little too scared to truly mess with him. Natural intimidation had saved him from a lot of fights when it came down to it.
"I heard you were in the hospital and I figured I would come and see how you were."
Yami narrowed his eyes so that the lashes cast shadows that made his pupils dilate and eat away at the red of his irises. "Really? And why is that?"
He shrugged. "Look, personally, I don't have anything against you. Joey and Ushio might but I don't. If I did, do you really think I would have told you it was Tea and Joey who sent the picture around?"
"You don't know me. I don't know what you think you're trying to accomplish here but–"
"Dude, calm down first of all. I'm not trying to do anything. Geez, I just wanted to see if you were okay."
Yami was quiet for a moment. "Why?"
"Because I just…I don't have anything against you and as long as I've known you, you've actually been pretty cool. I don't care about you and Yugi hooking up"–he had a second where he started to backtrack when the anger and resentment mixed with a fog of pain hit his eyes but it was gone in a blink and he had no idea if he had just imagined it–"although if you were gay, you should have gone for someone else considering you guys' social status."
"Social status," Yami breathed out, blinking once and then chuckling softly with a shake of his head, smirking before sighing softly, the light to his eyes cruel and sardonic. "Isn't that a joke? By all standards, he should be the one being dragged through the mud for this shit, not me."
"Huh?" Tristan asked, confused by the statement.
Yami waved a hand dismissively. "Nothing. Forget I fucking said anything." He rubbed at his temple when it laced with pain for a split second. "Musing out loud, I suppose. Stupid stuff."
The brunet raised an eyebrow, blinking several times and then nodded slightly with a small smirk on his face. "Anyways, you guys really screwed up as far as picking out fuck buddies goes."
The red-eyed teen let out a huff. "Didn't we?" he agreed spitefully, making Tristan stare with a confused look, visibly startled by the venom in his words. "Anyways, to answer your question from earlier, yes. I am going to be back in school tomorrow."
"That's cool."
"Cool? The place is a fucking hellhole and I don't even know why the fuck Ibothergoing there. I should never have even done it the first year. I should have done online schooling instead."
"What? You're required to go to school."
"Wrong. I am merely required tolearn. There is no law that requires my body physically present inside of a school. That is why parents get away with home schooling their kids." He paused after a moment, realizing that Tristan didn't deserve the anger that he was displaying, clearing his throat slightly. "Sorry. I'm just not having that great of a day. It has nothing to do with you being here."
The brunet simply nodded, not the least bit disturbed by this. "Sure."
Yami watched him for a moment and then tilted his head slightly. "Were you even surprised?" he finally muttered.
"Not really," he admitted, shaking his head slightly. "Yugi started looking at Tea differently and he wasn't exactly the most subtle when he was staring at you before. I mean, I know I teased him a little, but it was mostly to just make him notice what he was doing. He sometimes acts without really thinking about what he's doing…Besides, there was just something about the way the two of you acted around each other, even when he was pissed off at you. For as long as I've known him, no one has ever managed to rattle his cage like you did when you…finger-fucked Tea. And the day that they made fun of Yugi for letting you do the whole project, you looked like you wanted to snap. I saw your face when you looked over at our table. You looked like you were checking on Yugi and you got pissed off when you saw that none of us were going to do anything."
"Why didn't you?"
"Yugi can fight his own battles," the brunet said easily, smiling slightly with a shake of his head. "Joey underestimates him and Ushio thinks he could take him on because he's so small, but I know that Yugi could kick ass if he needed to. Besides that, he didn't look too inclined to do anything either. He looked pissed, yeah, but not enough to actually pull a stunt to embarrass her for trying to embarrass him."
Yami nodded slowly.
"Besides that, I'm willing to bet twenty bucks that he took his frustrations out on you." Tristan smirked when Yami's eyes widened slightly, surprised at the statement. "Don't look so surprised. He does it a lot."
He flinched. "He's done that before?"
The brunet stared at him for a moment and then snorted and held his hands up. "Oh, no, I didn't mean it likethat," he amended quickly. "I meant that he will dig his teeth into the nearest person when he gets mad. Doesn't matter if they had anything to do with it or not, he's not the most levelheaded one when it comes to that kind of thing."
Yami glowered. "He's a fucking asshole," he spat, baring his teeth. "I don't even fucking understand why I thought any of it was okay in the first place."
Tristan shook his head. "Believe it or not, life isn't about what's okay, Yami. And it doesn't have to make sense to anyone else but you and Yugi."
"But itdoesn'tmake sense to me!" he snapped, scowling. "Nothing makes sense to me anymore."
The brunet shrugged slightly. "I always heard that confusion helped with making decisions in life," he said lightly, snickering when Yami blinked once and furrowed his brows, tilting his head in question at the statement. "The point is, it's better to mess up now and know later what you shouldn't do than find out later what you should have done."
Yami stayed quiet for a moment and then stared. "I don't even know what I'm doing anymore," he admitted quietly.
"Yugi has that effect on you," Tristan snickered, knowing Yami understood the statement without more words by the way he clenched his jaw. But his eyes were questioning, dark and dangerous in their desire for the answer that he sought, the words lying lifelessly on his tongue, not about to asked, so Tristan gave it to him without prompt. "I'm observant."
For a moment neither of them spoke and then the red-eyed teen looked at him slowly, drawing him to memory in his mind. "Why do you hang out with Joey if you don't even believe in half the crap that he does?"
"We've been best friends for years, and we're as close as brothers without the shared blood, Yami. You don't just give up on someone that means so much to you because of something so simple as a disagreement."
He opened his mouth to object, to say that Yugi had given up on him, so why shouldn't he have the right to do the same, but then stopped short and instead stared blankly for a long horribly drawn out minute and a half.
"He makes me feel disgusting."
Tristan couldn't help it when he burst out laughing. "You let him do it."
"I don't know how to make it stop."
"Maybe it's not meant to."
Yami wanted to ask why something so vicious and disgusting and stupid and disturbing could possibly not be meant to go away, but instead ended up staring in response, puzzled and frustrated, feeling sick to his stomach.
If it wasn't meant to be stopped, what would become of him?
He couldn't stand being a hollow shell…not again, not after having been that way for fourteen years. If he had to go back to playing the puppet while others pulled his strings, making him dance to a tune he didn't want, he swore that he might just end up killing himself in the meantime, if he didn't die beforehand.
"Your boyfriend is back."
How many times had he heard that in just the last hour? He rolled his eyes. It made no sense. Yami was still in the hospital. He was being kept to make sure he was healing properly and all that crap. It was that fucking simple.
So why the fuck were they all jumping at the chance to sneer that at him if it didn't even make any fucking sense?
Yugi grabbed his tray and ignored the girl who started to talk but when one of them started whispering, he jumped onto the table, and he wasn't surewhyhe did it, but he was suddenly shouting, "Tea Gardner has emotional instability because she was born a guy!" so loudly that everyone in the entire cafeteria gawked and then looked at her; a few moved away while she started trying to tell them that she wasn't. "Joey Wheeler has an animal fetish, ladies, so if you have a little lap dog, you might want to keep him away from it or you're going to end up being a third wheel on your own fucking dates!" And the best was, of course, Ushio. "Ushio has a micro-penis the size of my pinkie!"
There was laughter, there were glares, and then Yugi was smirking at them and winking before walking off while others laughed harder at the three victims of Yugi's wrath.
And the only reason he didn't mess with Tristan? Because he hadn't messed with Yugi.
Tea had sneered at him constantly, Joey always made jokes about Yugi being Yami's bitch, and Ushio even said that he would make Yugi his bitch when he wanted to.
When. Not if. When. As if he hadplansto do it.
Yugi narrowed his eyes. That would never happen. He knew that much.
He'd take Ushio's eye out before he let that happen.
The bell rang and he, along with the rest of the sheep in the pin, wandered off to his next class.
Yugi had made himself into a bad boy for a reason. It was simple, really.
While he still had his basic kindness, his heart which abhorred violence, he turned himself into the bad boy.
To make himself unlovable.
His parents walked out on him when he was young. His grandfather was never around. His friends–ha,whatfriends?–kept him around because he was smart. His bullies did nothing but reinforce the idea that he was not meant to be loved, that it would never happen, and he had been okay with that. He had been happy with it. He made himself even more unlovable to make himself feel better.
Bullies couldn't get past the wall he built so their taunts did nothing to him but bore him.
Those people he thought were his "friends" were kept at arm's length so that he wouldn't have to deal with it when they left.
And he didn't miss them at all. Well, aside from Tristan, a little, because he was okay out of the four of them.
But his crush on Tea? He was starting to think it was just sexual frustration, pent up and taking form in some kind of strange infatuation with the brunette because he honestly couldn't understand what he ever saw in her.
Yes, she was pretty, with those wide azure eyes and that heart-shaped face, but she was so plain and nasty in personality and he didn't understandwhyhe wouldeverhave felt anything for her in the first place.
He leaned back in his seat and spun his pencil around in his fingers until class ended, not bothering with notes or doing the lecture, even flat out ignoring the teacher as she called his name.
He was in the bathroom when he walked in.
"Yami is out of the hospital."
Yugi looked up at him through the reflection in the mirror and then slowly turned his head to regard him. "So?"
"I thought you might want to know."
"How do you know anyways?"
"I went to check on him."
Yugi twisted his entire body around and stared. "W-what? Why would you do that?"
"Well, he's not my best friend, but I did feel bad for the kid. I mean…he's never exactly done anything to me so whatever. Besides, I just wanted to make sure he was okay."
"He doesn't need pity, Tristan."
"I never said he did, Yugi," the brunet said quietly, shaking his head. "I just meant that…never mind."
He wanted his answer but he didn't have the energy to ask for it.
"Anyways, he's out and he's here."
Yugi nearly choked. "What?"
"He's at school today. He came in after lunch but he was with the guidance counselor for a couple hours before that because the teachers wanted to make sure he could still write and stuff in class."
The good thing about Tristan? He had a free period after lunch and spent it in the office with the principal and guidance counselors and he got to listen in on some stuff while he delivered slips to students who were going home early or whatever.
"So then…he's back but why are you telling me this exactly…?"
"He'll be in your eighth period today instead of his."
Yugi swallowed hard. "Why?"
"Because his teacher wants to be able to teach his class as fast as possible without Yami slowing them down."
"That's fucked up."
"Eh, that's life."
Yugi nodded once. "Thanks Tristan."
He nodded back and gave him a small weak smile before turning and walking out again; the smallest teen in the school leaned back against the sink and narrowed his eyes. So Yami actuallywasback.
After hearing all the shit and not seeing him, he had thought they were all fucking around to see if they could get a reaction out of him. But he was really back…
At eighth period Yami did come to the classroom, did hand the teacher a slip and was told to sit down in the vacant seat…right between him and Ushio. How lovely a seating arrangement. Yami ignored them both pointedly but even Yugi knew he was losing patience when Ushio started flicking pieces of lead at him. It was halfway through the class when Yami turned and snapped, "Do it one more time, you little fucker, and I'm going to break your fingers, tear them off and then feed them to you" in a dangerous voice that made all of the surrounding students turn towards him with wide eyes.
"What? Pay attention, morons," he spat, turning back to the board where the teacher was looking at them in confusion.
Ushio scoffed and then laughed out loud while Yami drummed a single fingernail against the desk, going back to ignoring him even after he started flicking lead at his cheek again; it was after class that things blew up.
Ushio actually grabbed him. Yugi struggled to get out of his grip because he was mentally and physically drained from being so close to Yami, but his attempts to escape did nothing but make the massive boy laugh as he led him to the bathroom, scaring out the other guys and pushing him facedown against the ground.
And it wasn't even asanitarybathroom. He could see spilled water from the sinks not even two centimeters from his face and his skin crawled with the desperation to get away but he didn't think he had the energy.
Yugi struggled but there was not much he could do. He was too tired. Fuck, he was too tired to even care about Ushio about to rape him even as his pants and boxers were pulled down and his ass was exposed.
He was too tired, that is, until Ushio went flying straight over him and into the other wall with a massive thudding noise and a groan that seemed to make the floor vibrate against his left cheek. Yugi pushed himself up to his hands and knees, glancing over his shoulder and going bug-eyed when he saw who it was; Yami didn't look at him, shaking out his braced wrist and frowning a little before snarling, "I swear, Ushio, if my hand doesn't heal right, I'm taking one of yours."
Ushio got to his feet and started towards him. "Came to protect your little boyfriend?"
"Actually, I thought I told you what I came for in class, Ushio." He walked around Yugi and stopped a couple of feet away from the taller boy. "I don't make idle threats. I said I would break your fingers and I will. But maybe I'll do worse than that."
Yugi got out of his stupor long enough to pull his pants up and move out of the way when Ushio charged him; Yami fell on his back but, unlike Yugi expected, he rolled and kicked the taller boy straight into the other wall before kicking off and landing on his feet, looking at his wrist again before turning back.
"Get up. Get the fuck up so I can beat your fucking face in."
"Whoa, what the fuck is–Yami, stop!"
Yami looked over at both of them with wide eyes and Yugi swore he saw his eyes turn a little brighter, his irises seeming to have been shadowed with some kind of blackish-gray tint the second before they spoke; his memory bit at his focus for a moment and his skin crawled as he realized he recognized that darker shade from when he had gone through Yami's phone. "What the hell are you guys…?" he muttered, trailing off and looking at Ushio again.
"We came to see if you were ready to go and then we walked in on this shit," Bakura answered, raising an eyebrow. "Oh look, someone mistook his size for being weak again."
"Damn shame," Malik snickered before glancing at Yugi. "Oh, hey, there's the shrimp."
Bakura stopped short of going to mess with Ushio to look over and stare. "Huh."
Yami shook his hand out a second before punching and Ushio stumbled but didn't fall and lashed out only to get thin air when the small teen moved out of the way and started backing up.
"You know, I should thank you for what you did. I mean, finding Yami," Bakura murmured just as he grabbed Ushio by the back of his shirt and tugged him off his feet with a lazy flick of his wrist. "But I think we'll save that for another time, don't you?"
Malik started laughing when he wrapped his arm around Yugi's shoulders; Yugi froze in surprise and stared at him with wide eyes, but the blond merely directed him back to the hallway with a simple "Don't get lost now. Go on home. We have some things to talk to Ushio about before we leave."
Yugi stared at him and opened his mouth only to have him bark, "Get the fuck out of here" to which he backed up steadily, still facing him, and then took off running.
Ushio was not at school for the next three days and when he did return he was walking with a limp and he had cuts and bruises all over his face as well as a broken left hand; Bakura and Malik gave him little waves and winks and blew him raspberries that sent him scurrying while Yami nudged them and told them to stop, smirking the entire time. Yugi had to admit he was confused by it all, but whatever. It was okay.
At least he had retained whatever virtue he still had left.
And then he nearly cackled at the thought. That was hilarious.
Unlike usual, however, instead of sitting with him, Yami sat with his cousins and occasionally the two of them would talk to him and gesture towards him and the red-eyed boy would look at him and then turn away just as fast.
And it was weird because Yugi felt a little out of orbit when Yami was not there. He felt grounded around the red-eyed teen but now he didn't have even that much going for him and it was strange by all means. He felt like someone had taken the ground out from beneath his feet and when he really focused hard enough, there was a pang in his side that both stung and burned but mostly just sent sparks of pain and disgust and dismay through him. But then, if he really focused on it again, it came from a completely different area that he completely refused to acknowledge. No, he would not acknowledge it.
There was no way, because he was unlovable.
Maybe Yami wasn't, but he was.
Besides, all the couples he knew of always ended up dead somewhere along the way. Something burned out. Things never remained the same.
His stomach twisted.
No, he did not care about Yami in that way. He didn't care for anyone in that way.
And why would he? Attachments just meant more pain in the long run.
Pain he didn't need or want.
And just like that, the pain in his side and chest burned and made his stomach twist painfully.
For fuck's sake…
"Why aren't you over there sitting with your boyfriend?" someone sneered at him.
"I am not gay!" he spat angrily. The statement came out a little louder than he expected and every single person in the cafeteria turned their attention to him with wide eyes…well, all except Yami who was staring at the tabletop like it was the most important thing in the world.
It was a quick lay. That was all it was.
Yami was stupid to get attached.
Yugi was smart for keeping his head on straight.
No, Yugi was not about to get caught in some kind of loveless bullshit relationship with someone else. That was stupid.
Yami was so fuckingstupid.
"And you want to know what you little whore?" he continued loudly, for all of them to hear as no one had moved. "I didn't kiss that nerd and he didn't kiss me, okay? It's fucking photo-shopped and you know why? Because Tea is a goddamned unstable motherfuckingbitchwith no common sense. Because. She. Was. Born. A. Boy."
People were gawking for a moment before he jumped up onto the table again.
"Anyone else want to ask why I don't like her anymore? Because I found that shit out. So get your fucking facts straight before I kick some fucking ass!" he shouted. "Joey is a fucking homophobic idiot and Tea is a dumb boy-turned-girltwatwith no common sense. The photo was shopped and you all are fucking morons to think that weeverdid something like that."
Bakura covered his mouth with his hand and laughed.
Malik started snickering.
Yami looked at Yugi with a cold expression.
Yugi gave him a wide smirk. "Photo. Shopped." He popped the "p" so that it echoed across the room. "As in edited pictures. So if you bitch ass fuckers want to fight over something, fight over how stupid you all fucking are for believing it. Oh, and before any of you idiots bring it up, the last couple of weeks? We were doing our fucking project. Not hanging out. So why don't you all fuck off before I stick my foot up your asses?"
He jumped down again and walked out of the cafeteria while others gawked and whispered, some laughing at what he had said about Tea and others glaring at Joey, the homophobe.
But then, that actually was true.