[fic] Just Don't Look Back, Chapter 02 - Yugioh, YamixYugi, angst/romance, R, AU
Title: Just Don't Look Back
Chapter: 02
Author: Chey (duelist_gurl163)
Rating: R
Genre: Angst/romance
Pairing: YamixYugi
Archive: Here
Overall warnings: AU, implied sex, insanity, violence
Spoilers: None.
Summary: Before he met Yugi, Yami spent his days panhandling alone. Yugi put his heart into changing Yami’s life, giving him companionship, a home and his love. But even he can’t save Yami from the control of his past, nor the dark path he is set upon.
Disclaimer: Yugioh continues to not belong to me.
- 01 -
---
For the rest of the week and the next, Yugi came by each day to visit Yami. Yami didn’t seem to mind, and he soon knew everything there was to know about Yugi, but he never did answer any of Yugi’s questions about his past. Eventually Yugi stopped asking, and would ask about his interests and things of that sort instead. They discovered a common interest in games, as well as common tastes in music. Yami told him about how he made up all the tunes he could play on the shakuhachi, but never memorized them so that they changed every time. And although he never talked about his past, Yugi was able to piece a little of it together. Yami hadn’t always been homeless, because he’d mentioned having a bedroom as a young boy, and he had also mentioned parents once, before growing silent.
He would do that at times, suddenly go silent and gaze down at the street, looking withdrawn. When that happened, Yugi would quickly change the subject and talk about himself. He discovered that Yami enjoyed hearing Yugi talk about his life. He wasn’t sure why, but whenever Yugi would talk about anything, even just what he did at school that day, Yami would watch him with true interest sparkling in his ever-changing eyes.
Still, in spite of the happiness his new friend brought to him, there was something that bothered Yugi. Yami seemed to spend every day alone. The other homeless had people who they would spend the day shooting the breeze with, but every day Yami was by himself and nobody except Yugi came to visit him. Yugi decided to do something about it, and he found the perfect opening when, during lunch one day, Honda said, “What’ve you been up to the last few weeks, Yugi? You’ve been going missing after school lately.”
Yugi straightened up. “Well…a little while back Jounouchi and I met this interesting person. Remember, the guy we saw with the flute?”
Jounouchi, through a mouthful of food, said, “Mm hmn. Looked jus’ like you. Wha’ abou’ him?”
“I’ve been going back to visit him after school.”
“To visit who?” Anzu asked.
“A homeless person we met a few weeks ago,” Yugi explained. “His name is Yami.”
“You’ve been hanging out with some random bum?” Honda asked. Yugi frowned at his tone.
“It’s not like that, he isn’t some ‘random bum.’ He’s nice. He’s around our age. And he happens to be very clean-cut for someone who is begging…why are you looking at me like that?!”
All three of his friends were eyeing him with concern.
“Yug, doesn’t it seem a little…risky?” Jounouchi asked, pulling open a bag of chips.
“What’s risky?”
“Spending time with a stranger. Alone. He’s obviously a drop-out, we’ve never seen him in school.”
“He told me he only moved here recently. He may have graduated from a school wherever he lived last.”
“I don’t know…”
Yugi narrowed his eyes. “Jounouchi, what are you saying?”
Anzu intervened. “I’m sure he’s been nice to you, but you have to admit it’s unusual to be spending so much time with someone you don’t know that well. And it is kind of risky.”
Yugi shook his head. “There’s no risk. He’s been perfectly nice to me. I would be able to tell if I was in any danger.”
Honda wasn’t as diplomatic as Anzu. “Yugi, he’s homeless. He’s probably a drop-out, maybe even a criminal. He might try to hurt or rob you.”
“No, he won’t. He would have by now if that was his plan.”
“How do you know?”
Yugi glared, starting to feel annoyed at their lack of confidence in his judgment of character. “I…I don’t know. I just feel like it’s okay.”
“Maybe,” Anzu said tentatively, “but you do have a tendency to give people chances that maybe you shouldn’t. Are you sure that you aren’t just overlooking the danger because you like the idea that you’re helping him?”
“Last time I checked, it was a good thing that I gave people chances,” Yugi said, jabbing his finger in Jounouchi and Honda’s direction. “Where do you think you two would be if I had never stuck around?”
Jounouchi shifted uncomfortably. “Look Yugi, we’re just worried, that’s all. You’d be on our cases if you thought we were hanging around someone dangerous.”
“He isn’t dangerous! And I’ll give you a chance to see for yourself,” Yugi replied, folding his arms. “Because I want you to come and meet him. We’ll get together on nice neutral ground, you can talk to him, and everyone leaves happy.”
The three of them exchanged glances.
“Please? If you’d just meet him, then you could see he’s completely normal and you could become friends with him too.” Yugi paused. “He always seems happy when I’m around, but he looks so sad the rest of the time. I think if he had some more people to call friends he might cheer up.”
“I guess it wouldn’t hurt,” Anzu decided. “If you like him, there’s no harm in getting to know him.”
“Thanks Anzu,” Yugi said. “Jounouchi, Honda, you coming?”
They shrugged. “Sure, why not?”
Yugi beamed. “You won’t be sorry.”
- - -
That afternoon he confirmed the plans with his friends and headed for Yami’s section of town. He paused on the corner as he rounded a building and saw Yami in the distance. He smiled, watching him play the flute, but his smile faded when Yami set the instrument down, stretched, and leaned back against the wall. His shoulders drooped and his expression was clouded. Yugi fought back the urge to run over and ask what was wrong - he had done that several days before and only succeeded in startling Yami and causing him to stammer for the next twenty minutes. He consoled himself with the knowledge that after today Yami wouldn’t have to look so sad.
“Hi Yami!” he called and waved, walking over. Yami straightened up and his expression cleared.
“Hi Yugi.”
“How are you?”
“Can’t complain,” Yami said, looking up into his eager face, and asking, somewhat hesitantly, “How are you?”
“I’m great,” Yugi said. “Want to know why?”
“Sure.”
“I talked to my friends today and they all want to meet you,” Yugi said happily. “So I told them we’d meet them at the diner down the street.”
Yami bit his lip. “Er...”
Some of his cheerfulness drained away at Yami’s less-than-excited reaction. “What’s the matter?”
“I…I’m just not the most sociable person. It’s not very often I hang out with others.”
Yugi sat down beside him. “But it’ll be alright, it’s just a few of my friends, and I’ll be there.”
Yami still looked uncomfortable. Yugi reached out, touching his arm. “Look, if it’s really a big deal you don’t have to come. I just figured, since we’re friends now, it would be cool if you met my other friends, and got to know them…but it’s up to you.”
He was doing his best to stay upbeat, but Yami could hear the disappointment in his voice. He put his money in his pocket, slipped the flute inside a bag in his cart, and locked the cart to a post. “Alright, let’s go.”
“Really?”
He smiled and stood up, holding his hand out to Yugi. “Sure.”
“Great!” Yugi took his hand and pulled himself upright. “Just follow me, it’s not far.”
Ten minutes later Yugi stopped in front of the door to a small diner on the corner of an intersection and held it open for Yami, who ducked as he stepped inside, despite the doorframe being well above his height. Yugi followed him in and looked around the crowded room. Every single table was full, and the room buzzed with chatter. Yami stiffened and looked slightly pale.
Yugi, concerned, took his arm and led him toward Anzu, Jounouchi, and Honda, whom were all sitting nervously around a booth. Anzu and Honda looked startled. Jounouchi leaned over and hissed, “See, I told you they looked alike.”
“Yami, these are my friends, Anzu, Honda, and you’ve met Jounouchi. Guys, this is Yami,” Yugi said, giving them a look that said they had better be polite.
Yami took a tentative step forward, his eyes darting around the room as if he expected to be attacked. “Um…hi,” he said distractedly.
“Hi Yami,” Anzu said, taking the lead. “Want to sit down?”
“No, thanks…I’m fine standing,” he said, eyeing the booth as if it might bite.
Yugi’s friends weren’t sure what to say next. It felt awkward to conduct a conversation when the person they were talking to was standing apart from them. Yugi, however, gave them a prompting glance. They exchanged uncomfortable looks and Anzu nudged Honda.
“Ow…er, so Yami…where are you from?” Honda asked. “Yugi said you moved here.”
Yami shifted his weight, staring toward the door. “South.”
Honda glanced at Jounouchi, who shrugged. Anzu was doing her best to continue to look welcoming, but her smile was starting to falter. Yugi sighed. This wasn’t going well at all. He wasn’t sure what to make of Yami’s suddenly-strange attitude but wished there was a way to snap him out of it. He was supposed to be making a good impression, and this was anything but good! He was about to suggest getting them drinks, (surely having something to hold and stir would be better than stiff silence), when off in the distance came a sudden screech. Yugi looked up in time to see a sports car run a red light at the intersection outside and slam into the side of a pick-up truck. Large plywood crates in the back of the truck toppled, a few crashing over the side and to the ground. Within seconds the occupants of both vehicles were out and shouting at each other in the middle of the street.
At the sound of the crash, Yami felt his heart swoop in his chest. The world blurred in front of his eyes. Everyone else in the diner, including Yugi’s friends, jumped to their feet and crowded around the windows for a better look.
“It looks like the people are okay,” Anzu reported.
Yugi, who hadn’t bothered to risk being trampled, nodded where he stood, back by the table. “I’m glad nobody was hurt. That’s good, huh Yami?” he said, in an attempt to include him back into the conversation.
Yami couldn’t hear him.
Crashing…
Strange, how it sounded so much like the sound of the world falling apart around him. So similar, even after all these years.
Make the crashing stop…
“Yami? Are you okay?”
The sound of the building giving out, the screams of his classmates…he clamped his hands over his ears, but he couldn’t block out the shrieks or the rending of metal or the sick terror in his chest. He felt something hit his left shoulder and throw him to the floor, and a bolt of pain tore through his arm. He opened his mouth to scream, but all the air had been knocked from his lungs.
“Yami!”
Make it stop!
“Make the crashing stop…” he mumbled aloud, his knees giving out.
“Yami?!” Yugi caught him, pushing him down onto one of the booth seats before he could hit the floor.
“What’s going on?” Jounouchi asked, turning around and walking back over curiously.
“I don’t know, something’s wrong…Yami?”
Slowly, Yami lifted his head. His body was rigid. His eyes filled with fear, he pushed himself upright and winced at the sight of the wall. Whipping his head around, he searched desperately for an exit and spotted the door.
“Yami, are you- hey!”
“I’m sorry,” he mumbled as he shoved Yugi aside and sprinted for the door. Yugi stared after him, shocked.
“What was that all about?” Honda asked, breaking the silence.
Yugi shook his head and began walking. “I don’t know. Feel free to head home, guys.”
“Wait, where are you going?” Anzu called.
“I have to see if he’s okay.” Yugi shoved the door open and ran off down the sidewalk.
X - X - X
Notes: The end of the short bout of fic spam. xD Even after running this by my beta I'm...still less-than-pleased with this chapter. I'm really happy with the next chapter though, so I think it all evens out in the end.
Happy second day of autumn, because I was at work/school all day yesterday and had no time for updating on the first day.
Chapter: 02
Author: Chey (duelist_gurl163)
Rating: R
Genre: Angst/romance
Pairing: YamixYugi
Archive: Here
Overall warnings: AU, implied sex, insanity, violence
Spoilers: None.
Summary: Before he met Yugi, Yami spent his days panhandling alone. Yugi put his heart into changing Yami’s life, giving him companionship, a home and his love. But even he can’t save Yami from the control of his past, nor the dark path he is set upon.
Disclaimer: Yugioh continues to not belong to me.
- 01 -
---
For the rest of the week and the next, Yugi came by each day to visit Yami. Yami didn’t seem to mind, and he soon knew everything there was to know about Yugi, but he never did answer any of Yugi’s questions about his past. Eventually Yugi stopped asking, and would ask about his interests and things of that sort instead. They discovered a common interest in games, as well as common tastes in music. Yami told him about how he made up all the tunes he could play on the shakuhachi, but never memorized them so that they changed every time. And although he never talked about his past, Yugi was able to piece a little of it together. Yami hadn’t always been homeless, because he’d mentioned having a bedroom as a young boy, and he had also mentioned parents once, before growing silent.
He would do that at times, suddenly go silent and gaze down at the street, looking withdrawn. When that happened, Yugi would quickly change the subject and talk about himself. He discovered that Yami enjoyed hearing Yugi talk about his life. He wasn’t sure why, but whenever Yugi would talk about anything, even just what he did at school that day, Yami would watch him with true interest sparkling in his ever-changing eyes.
Still, in spite of the happiness his new friend brought to him, there was something that bothered Yugi. Yami seemed to spend every day alone. The other homeless had people who they would spend the day shooting the breeze with, but every day Yami was by himself and nobody except Yugi came to visit him. Yugi decided to do something about it, and he found the perfect opening when, during lunch one day, Honda said, “What’ve you been up to the last few weeks, Yugi? You’ve been going missing after school lately.”
Yugi straightened up. “Well…a little while back Jounouchi and I met this interesting person. Remember, the guy we saw with the flute?”
Jounouchi, through a mouthful of food, said, “Mm hmn. Looked jus’ like you. Wha’ abou’ him?”
“I’ve been going back to visit him after school.”
“To visit who?” Anzu asked.
“A homeless person we met a few weeks ago,” Yugi explained. “His name is Yami.”
“You’ve been hanging out with some random bum?” Honda asked. Yugi frowned at his tone.
“It’s not like that, he isn’t some ‘random bum.’ He’s nice. He’s around our age. And he happens to be very clean-cut for someone who is begging…why are you looking at me like that?!”
All three of his friends were eyeing him with concern.
“Yug, doesn’t it seem a little…risky?” Jounouchi asked, pulling open a bag of chips.
“What’s risky?”
“Spending time with a stranger. Alone. He’s obviously a drop-out, we’ve never seen him in school.”
“He told me he only moved here recently. He may have graduated from a school wherever he lived last.”
“I don’t know…”
Yugi narrowed his eyes. “Jounouchi, what are you saying?”
Anzu intervened. “I’m sure he’s been nice to you, but you have to admit it’s unusual to be spending so much time with someone you don’t know that well. And it is kind of risky.”
Yugi shook his head. “There’s no risk. He’s been perfectly nice to me. I would be able to tell if I was in any danger.”
Honda wasn’t as diplomatic as Anzu. “Yugi, he’s homeless. He’s probably a drop-out, maybe even a criminal. He might try to hurt or rob you.”
“No, he won’t. He would have by now if that was his plan.”
“How do you know?”
Yugi glared, starting to feel annoyed at their lack of confidence in his judgment of character. “I…I don’t know. I just feel like it’s okay.”
“Maybe,” Anzu said tentatively, “but you do have a tendency to give people chances that maybe you shouldn’t. Are you sure that you aren’t just overlooking the danger because you like the idea that you’re helping him?”
“Last time I checked, it was a good thing that I gave people chances,” Yugi said, jabbing his finger in Jounouchi and Honda’s direction. “Where do you think you two would be if I had never stuck around?”
Jounouchi shifted uncomfortably. “Look Yugi, we’re just worried, that’s all. You’d be on our cases if you thought we were hanging around someone dangerous.”
“He isn’t dangerous! And I’ll give you a chance to see for yourself,” Yugi replied, folding his arms. “Because I want you to come and meet him. We’ll get together on nice neutral ground, you can talk to him, and everyone leaves happy.”
The three of them exchanged glances.
“Please? If you’d just meet him, then you could see he’s completely normal and you could become friends with him too.” Yugi paused. “He always seems happy when I’m around, but he looks so sad the rest of the time. I think if he had some more people to call friends he might cheer up.”
“I guess it wouldn’t hurt,” Anzu decided. “If you like him, there’s no harm in getting to know him.”
“Thanks Anzu,” Yugi said. “Jounouchi, Honda, you coming?”
They shrugged. “Sure, why not?”
Yugi beamed. “You won’t be sorry.”
- - -
That afternoon he confirmed the plans with his friends and headed for Yami’s section of town. He paused on the corner as he rounded a building and saw Yami in the distance. He smiled, watching him play the flute, but his smile faded when Yami set the instrument down, stretched, and leaned back against the wall. His shoulders drooped and his expression was clouded. Yugi fought back the urge to run over and ask what was wrong - he had done that several days before and only succeeded in startling Yami and causing him to stammer for the next twenty minutes. He consoled himself with the knowledge that after today Yami wouldn’t have to look so sad.
“Hi Yami!” he called and waved, walking over. Yami straightened up and his expression cleared.
“Hi Yugi.”
“How are you?”
“Can’t complain,” Yami said, looking up into his eager face, and asking, somewhat hesitantly, “How are you?”
“I’m great,” Yugi said. “Want to know why?”
“Sure.”
“I talked to my friends today and they all want to meet you,” Yugi said happily. “So I told them we’d meet them at the diner down the street.”
Yami bit his lip. “Er...”
Some of his cheerfulness drained away at Yami’s less-than-excited reaction. “What’s the matter?”
“I…I’m just not the most sociable person. It’s not very often I hang out with others.”
Yugi sat down beside him. “But it’ll be alright, it’s just a few of my friends, and I’ll be there.”
Yami still looked uncomfortable. Yugi reached out, touching his arm. “Look, if it’s really a big deal you don’t have to come. I just figured, since we’re friends now, it would be cool if you met my other friends, and got to know them…but it’s up to you.”
He was doing his best to stay upbeat, but Yami could hear the disappointment in his voice. He put his money in his pocket, slipped the flute inside a bag in his cart, and locked the cart to a post. “Alright, let’s go.”
“Really?”
He smiled and stood up, holding his hand out to Yugi. “Sure.”
“Great!” Yugi took his hand and pulled himself upright. “Just follow me, it’s not far.”
Ten minutes later Yugi stopped in front of the door to a small diner on the corner of an intersection and held it open for Yami, who ducked as he stepped inside, despite the doorframe being well above his height. Yugi followed him in and looked around the crowded room. Every single table was full, and the room buzzed with chatter. Yami stiffened and looked slightly pale.
Yugi, concerned, took his arm and led him toward Anzu, Jounouchi, and Honda, whom were all sitting nervously around a booth. Anzu and Honda looked startled. Jounouchi leaned over and hissed, “See, I told you they looked alike.”
“Yami, these are my friends, Anzu, Honda, and you’ve met Jounouchi. Guys, this is Yami,” Yugi said, giving them a look that said they had better be polite.
Yami took a tentative step forward, his eyes darting around the room as if he expected to be attacked. “Um…hi,” he said distractedly.
“Hi Yami,” Anzu said, taking the lead. “Want to sit down?”
“No, thanks…I’m fine standing,” he said, eyeing the booth as if it might bite.
Yugi’s friends weren’t sure what to say next. It felt awkward to conduct a conversation when the person they were talking to was standing apart from them. Yugi, however, gave them a prompting glance. They exchanged uncomfortable looks and Anzu nudged Honda.
“Ow…er, so Yami…where are you from?” Honda asked. “Yugi said you moved here.”
Yami shifted his weight, staring toward the door. “South.”
Honda glanced at Jounouchi, who shrugged. Anzu was doing her best to continue to look welcoming, but her smile was starting to falter. Yugi sighed. This wasn’t going well at all. He wasn’t sure what to make of Yami’s suddenly-strange attitude but wished there was a way to snap him out of it. He was supposed to be making a good impression, and this was anything but good! He was about to suggest getting them drinks, (surely having something to hold and stir would be better than stiff silence), when off in the distance came a sudden screech. Yugi looked up in time to see a sports car run a red light at the intersection outside and slam into the side of a pick-up truck. Large plywood crates in the back of the truck toppled, a few crashing over the side and to the ground. Within seconds the occupants of both vehicles were out and shouting at each other in the middle of the street.
At the sound of the crash, Yami felt his heart swoop in his chest. The world blurred in front of his eyes. Everyone else in the diner, including Yugi’s friends, jumped to their feet and crowded around the windows for a better look.
“It looks like the people are okay,” Anzu reported.
Yugi, who hadn’t bothered to risk being trampled, nodded where he stood, back by the table. “I’m glad nobody was hurt. That’s good, huh Yami?” he said, in an attempt to include him back into the conversation.
Yami couldn’t hear him.
Crashing…
Strange, how it sounded so much like the sound of the world falling apart around him. So similar, even after all these years.
Make the crashing stop…
“Yami? Are you okay?”
The sound of the building giving out, the screams of his classmates…he clamped his hands over his ears, but he couldn’t block out the shrieks or the rending of metal or the sick terror in his chest. He felt something hit his left shoulder and throw him to the floor, and a bolt of pain tore through his arm. He opened his mouth to scream, but all the air had been knocked from his lungs.
“Yami!”
Make it stop!
“Make the crashing stop…” he mumbled aloud, his knees giving out.
“Yami?!” Yugi caught him, pushing him down onto one of the booth seats before he could hit the floor.
“What’s going on?” Jounouchi asked, turning around and walking back over curiously.
“I don’t know, something’s wrong…Yami?”
Slowly, Yami lifted his head. His body was rigid. His eyes filled with fear, he pushed himself upright and winced at the sight of the wall. Whipping his head around, he searched desperately for an exit and spotted the door.
“Yami, are you- hey!”
“I’m sorry,” he mumbled as he shoved Yugi aside and sprinted for the door. Yugi stared after him, shocked.
“What was that all about?” Honda asked, breaking the silence.
Yugi shook his head and began walking. “I don’t know. Feel free to head home, guys.”
“Wait, where are you going?” Anzu called.
“I have to see if he’s okay.” Yugi shoved the door open and ran off down the sidewalk.
X - X - X
Notes: The end of the short bout of fic spam. xD Even after running this by my beta I'm...still less-than-pleased with this chapter. I'm really happy with the next chapter though, so I think it all evens out in the end.
Happy second day of autumn, because I was at work/school all day yesterday and had no time for updating on the first day.