Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ With You ❯ Thoughts of You ( Chapter 3 )

Hey everybody, here's the third chapter and the few reasons I put it as PG-13 (for the moment until I can think of something that puts it higher. I wasn't exactly going to have a lemon but if everybody wants one then I'll find somewhere to put it for you. And I promise it'll be much better than the last two you saw.)

~A few days later~

Honey colored eyes peeked around the corner of the game shop and watched his best friend as he took out the garbage. Joey then turned back to his friends behind him with a frown, "He sure doesn't look as happy as he is around other people."

Malik felt like hitting the blonde upside his thick head. "Joey, would you be cheerful and perky if you were taking out the garbage?"

Joey thought for a minute before a goofy grin spread over his features. "No, I suppose not." He replied in a joking voice.

Seto shook his head, wrapped his arm around his puppy's waist and held him close. The hurt and jealous looks that crossed over Malik and Ryou's face at the action went unnoticed.

Malik and Ryou were thinking along the same lines, pouting in the absence of their yami's. Both hikari's missed their other halves fiercely, and wanted nothing more for them to return, despite the odds against them. At the sight of Kaiba's affectionate gesture, both boys were jealous and extremely unhappy.

"I'm going to go for a walk real fast, Grandpa!" They heard Yugi call from inside the game shop. Everyone's eyes shot to the door as their friend walked out, cheery face securely in place.

"Oh, hi guys." Yugi smiled cheerfully. "I was just going to go for a walk. Do you want to come?"

"Sure, Yu…" Seto pressed his lips against Joey's to stop him from finishing his sentence.

Ryou turned to Yugi with a small smile. "No thanks, Yugi. We have some things to do for school and we want to get a head start."

Yugi's smile faltered slightly before it went up again. "What kind of thing for school? Maybe I can help later."

Ryou froze, he was an abysmal liar.

"It's that school project for English, Joey and Seto are working together and Ryou and I are working on it together. We'd like your help, but you chose to do it by yourself. You understand we can't have you help when it's our own grade, right?" Malik answered for Ryou.

"Oh yeah, I finished that project a few days ago. Good luck then." Yugi waved as he walked down the sidewalk.

Seto finally released Joey from his lip-lock, mockingly glaring at the blonde. "What did ya do that for, Seto? Don't you want to hang out wit' him?"

"You're cute beyond belief, Joey, but sometimes I wonder about you. If Yugi thinks he's alone then he won't act like everything's okay. He'll act like he really feels, inside, about Yami leaving and then we might be able to help somehow."

"Oh yeah. Sorry about that, I almost blew it." Joey laughed. Seto shook his head and started to follow Ryou and Malik as they trailed Yugi from a distance.

They followed the bobbing, tri-colored hair of their friend for about ten minutes before Yugi stopped in the deep part of the park where nobody liked to go because it was filled with junk, and garbage was littered around the place.

There they watched as Yugi lay down in the dirt and looked up at the darkening sky. He gave out a long sigh as slow tears started to sparkle in his eyes. Everybody stayed completely still in silence, not wanting to disturb or startle him, no one wanted to see him put on his happy act.

"Yami, I miss you so much. It's hard to believe I'm actually forgetting what you look like when we look so much alike. Whenever I look in the mirror, all I see is a weak, heartbroken little boy." The amethyst-eyed boy whispered to himself, his voice close to cracking with emotion.

Ryou and Malik looked at each other sadly and then back at their fellow hikari. They knew how it was to feel like that. They understood how Yugi could forget how Yami's face, even though they looked so much alike; the other boys were going through the same thing.

"Why'd you have to go so soon? That wasn't enough time for either of us. I couldn't even keep the puzzle to remember you by. It isn't fair." Tears slipped from his eyes and made mud of the dirt he was lying on, he didn't bother to wipe them away.

Ryou's hands came up and unconsciously gripped the Millennium Ring hiding underneath his sweater, while Malik's mind wandered back to his bedroom where he had tucked his Millennium Rod safely under his pillow. This particular agony was something they couldn't sympathize with, and it made them feel all the worse.

~~

It had been dark for a couple of hours by the time Yugi stood and wiped his face clean of tears with his jacket sleeve and dusted the dirt off of himself. Joey and the others quickly hid behind trees so that Yugi wouldn't notice them as he walked by.

After they were sure he was gone they came out from behind the trees and looked at each other, none of them sure of what to say. Deciding that it would be better not to talk they walked out of the park and separated, heading for home.

~A week later~

Yugi was standing on the docks looking out at the oranges, reds and pinks of the sunset. He turned around when he heard footsteps behind him and pasted a fake smile on his face at the sight of Joey and Seto striding towards him.

"Hey, Yugi. What are you doing out here?" Joey smiled at him.

"Nothing really, just looking at the sunset. Can't get a good view from the game shop with all the buildings around blocking it." He gestured behind him. Spotting his fellow hikaris he waved and added, "Hey, Ryou, Malik"

The Egyptian and white-haired teens waved back but didn't say anything in response.

`They look like something bad is about to happen.' Yugi wondered curiously. Shrugging inwardly he turned around and leaned against the railing and looked out at the setting sun once more.

"Yugi, we need to talk to you about something important." Joey rushed out uncomfortably.

Yugi's fake smile was replaced by a frown and confusion spread over his face as he turned to look back at his friends. `What's wrong with them? They're acting weird,' He thought apprehensively, not quite ready for what they had planned.

"It's about what happened a couple weeks ago." Joey added quietly.

Yugi's insides froze and his mind scrambled around for excuses but he couldn't find one. He had no choice but to stand and listen this time. "What about it?"

Seto growled in throat and blurted out, not so smartly, "Do you even miss him, Yugi? How can you say you love him and then he leaves and you only spend one day mourning about it? Ryou and Malik are still upset about so why aren't you?"

Red closed over Yugi's senses as he narrowed his eyes in anger. "How can you say that?" He demanded, the hard edge in his usually gentle voice making even Seto cringe. "I love him more than my own life! How dare you even accuse me of not missing him?!" No longer able to stand the sight of his friends anymore he stalked off, seething the whole way back to the game shop.

Everybody was taken aback by their usually calm and quiet friend's rather loud outburst. The whole gang watched as Yugi walked away from them and disappeared around a street corner.

~~

`How could they say that to me? I didn't really think I was fooling them with that stupid act. I don't know why I did it anyway when I knew they were going to see right through it, I thought they knew me better than that, but apparently I was wrong about that too.' Yugi thought half-mad and half-heartbroken at having to relive his pain.

He rolled onto his back and looked up at the ceiling from his bed. His hand came up and rested on his chest where the Millennium Puzzle usually lay. `Not anymore though. Not since Yami left.'

Tears clouded his vision but he ignored them. He didn't care if his grandpa came up and saw him like this. He didn't care if his friends came over to talk about his outburst on the docks or even if they came to apologize for what they had said. `What Seto said really, but the others were there. I'm sure they were thinking along the same lines. Just because I try to act like nothing's wrong they assume that I don't miss him or even love him.' Yugi felt like screaming as loud as he could, but he didn't see how it would help with his predicament so he settled with turning on to his stomach and punching his pillow until the seams burst and feathers started flying out of it.

Throwing his torn pillow onto the floor he collapsed on his bed and closed his eyes, pulling the covers over him. Now that his friends knew that his happy and cheerful act was a fake he had to find a new face by the time he walked to school tomorrow.

##

Yami walked through the halls of his palace, bored out of his mind.

`It's amazing how the ruler of all Egypt can be bored to death while simple commoners have the time of their lives in the dirty streets.' Yami mused as he watched little kids running around laughing outside his gates.

Sighing, he pushed away from the wall he was leaning against and continued to wander aimlessly through the halls, trying to find something that would hold his attention.

He watched curiously as he found his guards in the kitchens joking with each other over some drinks. He turned his gaze to his kitchen servants and frowned. `Even the servants and guards are having a good time. Why can't I ever find that pleasure?'

Continuing on he found himself in the throne room staring at the heavy door that would lead to the cells that held Egypt's best tomb robbers. He couldn't figure it out but somehow he felt as though he had betrayed them.

`No!' He argued with the inner voice that had been nagging him. `I did the right thing! They did something against my law so they need to be punished.'

Still, in the back of his mind, he couldn't erase the sick feeling that he had just broken a big promise.

He walked forward and pushed open the door slightly to see if they were having just a good a time as the rest of the people in the palace. Tired laughter reached his ears and he pressed the side of his face to the crack he made, some mumbled talking, and then more laughter.

He felt like screaming, but he would only bring attention to himself and he didn't feel like having people question what he was doing even if he didn't have to answer them if he didn't feel like it. He closed the door and sauntered over to another door and pushed it open, revealing the garden.

He breathed in deeply and sighed. `Those damned thieves are as cheerful as ever, even if they get beaten. Is it because they have somebody to share a happy moment with and I don't so I'm like this?'

Shaking his head at his foolishness he walked further in the patches of flowers and sat down on one of the benches. `That's absurd. I'm Pharaoh, the morning and evening star, I don't need anybody.' His heart clenched tightly in his chest and he sighed sadly. "What a pathetic lie. I can't convince myself of that when I know that I'm bored and everybody else around this place is having fun and laughing. Even the prisoners have each other while I'm alone. I don't even find comfort with my pleasure slaves, but they do after they leave me."

He turned his crimson eyes to the blue and dust-filled sky and took a deep breath. "Am I so hostile that nobody could have a good time with just me? Even when they're torn up and unable to move anything except their mouths when I'm done with them they can seem to smile when they're talking to somebody else?" He thought aloud, thinking once more of his pleasure slaves.

He growled and closed his eyes to concentrate. "That's even more ridiculous than me needing somebody around me, who isn't afraid of me, and having fun with me. I'm comparing myself to pleasure slaves."

Deciding to drop the argument with himself since he didn't seem to be getting anywhere, he stood and walked back inside. Walking to his bedroom he collapsed on his silk-sheeted bed and closed his eyes to block out the light.

`For some reason I've been so confused lately and I can't seem to figure out why. It's like for one period of time that I can't seem to remember when it fit in I was happy and never seemed to find the time to frown. Now I'm back and bored out of my mind unable to remember how I had so much fun.'

Rolling on his back he snorted at his idiocy. `I think I would've remembered if I had that much fun and laughed that hard. I'm being stupid.' The young ruler was pulled from the thoughts that weren't getting him anywhere because of a knock on the door. "What?" He called out in a harsh tone.

The door opened and he recognized the girl who worked with the pleasure slaves and cleaned them up. She bowed low and kept her eyes trained on the floor as she spoke in the usual quiet voice most of the female servants used around him. "Your majesty, I was just wondering if you wished for a slave tonight?"

`I wouldn't be able to enjoy it anyway. Might as well not bring somebody down with me, even if they are a mere slave.' He thought bitterly. "No, I'm not in the mood tonight."

"Very well, your majesty. Should I send the slaves to their rooms then? I had already lined them up for your inspection had you wanted to pick."

"Yes, might as well." He waved her away. "You're dismissed."

She bowed against. "Have a pleasant night, your majesty." She added before closing the door.

Yami lay back down on the bed and closed his eyes as he rested his head on one of his many pillows scattered over the bed. `A pleasant night… that's something I could hope for but get nothing for it. These thoughts will keep at me, even as I sleep. At least I don't have anything important to worry about tomorrow so I might be able to sleep in.'

The Pharaoh shifted until he was more comfortable and pulled the covers over him then fell into a restless sleep.