Anzu watched in surprise as Yami spoke to the child beside him, she quickly realized that the child had to be his son. She remembered hearing that Yami had a son named Yugi who had been taken years ago and was recently been returned to Yami but he was not the happy baby he had been when he was taken. He was now a traumatized child his heart shattered by years of abuse and neglect. This had crushed his spirit and meant no one had seen what his real personality was like because he was so afraid of doing something that would lead to a beating.

She saw Yugi settle down quickly but he still didn't speak to her. She understood why he was timid, she was a stranger and when he barely trusted his own father she couldn't begin to expect him to trust a perfect stranger. The truth was Yami was still practically a stranger to him.

"Anzu… I'm going to take him home, how about you come after your shift and I'll let you know what has happened while you were in New York." Yami sighed.

Anzu nodded.

"Okay, Yami," she replied, "It was good to see you again.

"You too." He replied with a smile as he stood holding Yugi in his arms.

"He is so cute," she commented about Yugi, "He looks like you did but… a little different."

It would take days for Yugi to begin to truly trust his father, he knew in his heart that this was better than he had ever had it, but it was still difficult for Yugi to believe it was true. He loved when Yami held him, he felt safe and for once in years he felt secure in his own home.

Anzu had come the evening after she saw Yugi and Yami. She had been horrified by the story Yami told her of what had occurred while she was out of the country. She couldn't believe the pain he went through and didn't contact her. She had left contact information with her mother and all of her friends had been aware of this fact. It was now becoming apparent that perhaps Yami had been unaware that she had left that information with her mother for situations such as this when they needed to stand together.

Sugoroku had spent time bonding with Yugi as well but he tried to stay back as much as he could to allow Yugi to bond with Yami the way it should have always been. He knew his son wanted to give Yugi the best life he could and thus far it seemed that everything was going well. Yugi was opening up more and more allowing those close to him to see the vibrant personality that lay hidden within him. Just hearing Yugi laugh again had done Sugoroku's heart good as did the smile Yami wore as he watched his son play or even just sleep.

"It feels good to have him home." Yami commented casually one evening after tucking Yugi in for bed.

"I can't blame you, I have to admit that I wasn't sure we would ever get him back."

Yami sighed, as much as he didn't want to admit it, he had begun to doubt that he would ever hold his son again himself.

A few days later Yami took Yugi to a little playground near his home to see if he could handle playing with other children around his age. They were on break from school so Yami had him every hour of every day with Yugi, which was helping him make progress in gaining Yugi's trust and teaching him what it meant to be loved by his father.

Yugi seemed to take to the park well even joining up with two other boys that Yami learned were named Joey and Tristan. He learned from their parents that Joey and Tristan had known something wasn't right in Yugi's home but as young children were too naive to understand the gravity of the situation. The parents had just thought Yugi lived in an underprivileged family and often sent extra money with their boys so that they could give it to Yugi to get food; they had been horrified to learn the truth. They had known he was reluctant to accept the food that the other boys bought him at the time they thought it was out of guilt. They would later learn that restricting food was part of his stepfather's punishments and he got in worse trouble when he got home if his father found out he had eaten during times of food restriction. They all then decided to try to do a better job of hiding that they were buying food for him to protect him from being punished for trying to get what he should be given to him as a right.

Yami had been grateful that these parents had at least done something to help Yugi even if it wasn't what really needed to be done. He understood that Yugi would be in even worse shape if it hadn't been for them buying him lunches.

"I was beginning to get suspicious about him when I noticed how skittish he was around my husband." Tristan's mother admitted "I was about to make a call to have his home investigated when I learned he had been taken from there."

"Yes, I witnessed his step father attack him with little to no provocation, not that there was any excuse for the things I saw that man do to him." Yami sighed as he watched how Joey and Tristan seemed to handle Yugi with a little more care than they would other boys their own age.

"Do they know that he had surgery recently?"

"They've always been a bit different when handling Yugi." Tristan's mother admitted, "I think on some level they knew he was fragile. He's always been so small."

"He was born premature," Yami replied quietly.

Tristan's mother could tell there was more to the story, perhaps something explaining why he was a single father, but she didn't pry.

"Yugi, come here." Yami called having noticed Yugi slowing down.

Yugi came over without question and it was clear that he needed a moment to rest, and catch his breath.

Yami gave him some water and had him stay with him for a while.

Joey looked upset because Yugi had to stop playing.

"Joey, you know Yugi can't go like that as long as we can, he never could." Tristan chided. Both boys had seen that Yugi didn't have the stamina they did. They didn't understand what that was or why that was, all they knew was that Yugi couldn't stand being played with as roughly as the other boys in their class could, and he couldn't do a lot of very active play for long.

"Yeah, that's true." Joey sighed "But who is he with?"

"I'm not sure, but I think I've seen that man before."

"Isn't that the dude Yugi ran into?"

"Yeah that looks like him… I wonder who he is."

Tristan went to his mom and got some water then looked at Yugi and the unfamiliar man Yugi was sitting with.

"Tristan, this is Yugi's dad." His mom explained.

"But I thought…" Tristan looked royally confused and his mother explained what happened in as much detail as she dared give an 8 year old.

Tristan returned to Joey.

"So, who is he?"

"That's Yami Muto, apparently he's Yugi's real dad" Tristan sighed "I know mom didn't tell me everything but from what she did say Yugi was kidnapped when he was a baby and given to the family we saw him with but that man hurt him and now he went back to his real dad."

Joey looked stunned and angry "so that's why he always had injuries. It wasn't accidents, his dad hit him."

Tristan nodded a bit angry himself. He couldn't believe their friend Yugi was abused and what added insult to injury was that he didn't say anything about it.

"Why wouldn't Yugi say anythin'?"

"Who knows, maybe he was scared." Tristan sighed

"No wonder he was so jumpy" Joey sighed.

"Yeah, it explains a lot."

Tristan's dad walked up to the boys, told them a little more about the situation, and told them it was best they not say anything to Yugi. He explained that Yugi was likely scared of what his 'father' would do if he said something to someone thus why he lied to them about the injuries he always showed up to school with.

Yugi leaned against Yami; he was quickly growing to understand what it meant to be home. He had rules he had to follow and breaking them meant punishments that were extremely lenient compared to the horror of what he saw before. Now it was a favorite game put where he couldn't play it for a day or two; not a beating and, while Yugi didn't like either, he defiantly liked what he had now, over what happened before. Not that he broke rules often, he rarely broke rules and a single warning usually sufficed in deterring him. He also learned that it meant feeling safe and loved. Home meant having a parent to go to when he was frightened that would soothe his fears. Reassure him that he no longer had anything that he needed to fear. The abuse had ended his father loved him, and demonstrated that love in ways Yugi had never experienced before.

Yami looked up as an old opponent from his dueling days came up to him. He recognized Mai instantly; if he were honest she really hadn't changed much. He did notice, however that she had her jacket zipped up, most likely to hide a shirt that showed far too much cleavage to be acceptable around children this young.

"Yami… oh man it's been a long time." She said at first a little unsure of whom she was speaking to "and who's the little tyke?"

"Mai, this is my son, Yugi." Yami replied "and it has been quite a while." He agreed.

Yugi was confused but not as outright frightened as he had been in the past when confronted with strangers, men seemed to still set him off more than women but even that reaction was milder than it had been at the beginning when it seemed he was afraid of his own shadow.

After a few more sips from the bottle of water Yugi went back to playing with Joey and Tristan.

"Mind if I sit with you?" Mai asked.

"Go ahead." Yami replied.

"I get a weird feeling form that kid, what happened to him?" she asked. She paused briefly "I didn't even know you had a kid." Mai admitted.

Yami sighed, that was just like Mai, straight to the point, as always.

"I retired from tournaments for good shortly after he was born."

"I always wondered why you retired." She said.

"He needed me, his mother died of complications from Eclampsia shortly after he was born." Yami explained.

Mai was stunned "Yami, I… I don't know what to say."

"What is there to say?" He wondered then continued his story "4 Months later I went to a meeting for work and left Yugi with my cousin" Yami looked down "I got a call that there was a break in, my cousin was in the hospital with a concussion and a broken wrist and my 4 month old son was nowhere to be found."

Mai felt as if her heart had plummeted to her stomach; she couldn't even begin to imagine his pain; his wife had died four months earlier bringing their son into the world only to have that son ripped away. She could barely bring herself to look Yami in the eye; she'd gone through so many theories as to why one of the best duelists she had ever seen retired at his peak, now she knew it was because he suddenly found himself a single father. She was more than a little annoyed with herself for having been angry with him for retiring; he had given up dueling, one of his biggest passions, to tend to his child.

"How did you find him?" she asked.

"By accident," he replied, "I was walking a little over a week ago when this tiny little boy ran into me, I noticed something strange about him the moment I saw him. He looked… unhealthy and scared out of his mind that he was going to get hurt because he ran into me. Later I found… found out he was my Yugi."

"How did he get like that?"

"Years of abuse and neglect on the part of the only father he ever recalled knowing." Yami sighed leaning so his elbows rested on his knees. He felt the tears building behind his eyes, but he was damned if he was going to cry where Yugi might see it.

"I've had him home all of a week and two days and he's already so much better than he was when he came home to me." Yami sighed, "He's smiling, laughing and actually playing. Every day I see him come out of that little shell of his more and more, I realize I was lucky to get him back."

"You really were, so many parents that go through what you did live out the rest of their days not knowing what happened to their child, you got him back."

Yami felt Mai's hand on his shoulder.

"You were really blessed to find him. He's a cute little guy, kind of looks like a mini version of you." Mai grinned.

"He does, doesn't he?" Yami replied a small chuckle finding its way into his voice. Then gave a quiet sigh as he thought about what was coming that Monday, he was going to have to take Yugi back to school.

To Be Continued…