Fallen
by
xXx MissHaun†ed-MoonLigh† xXx

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A/N : Happy (almost) Christmas, everybody! :D

Apologies for the delay – Uni and work; banes of any aspiring writer's life. Hate messages are most expected, I am so incredibly angry with myself you have no idea, but I just had no time or motivation to write anything. *Sigh* I would like to thank – and you all should thank 'em too – DarkMagicianGirl 512 for one Hell of a motivational kick up the backside. Wouldn't have been an update were it not for your perseverance!

So yeah, here you go. Nice and long, too…

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"We might as well be strangers in another town
We might as well be living in another time
We might as well be strangers,
For all I know of you, now."

- Keane, 'We Might as Well Be Strangers'

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Chapter 4
A Fine Line (Betwixt Life and Death)

The ward was dark.

Dark and almost completely empty.

Yami's was the only occupied bed in the room, and the only light visible was permeating from a lonely desk lamp situated on the cabinet at his bedside. Outside, the rain was falling steadily, gently pattering against the bay windows behind their rather bleak cream curtains. Yugi had purposefully asked the young trainee nurse to leave the curtain nearest Yami's bed open.

He could see the rain better, this way. The thought of him and Yami being inside, out of the cold and wet after so long of being hammered by such a torrential downpour was enough to send waves of honest, tremendous relief coursing through his veins. Having the curtain open was proof that they'd managed to get this far, proof that his mind wasn't playing horrible tricks on him. Proof that Yami was safe, at last.

Though 'safe' wasn't really the most appropriate word to describe his closest friend's condition, in all honesty.

His eyes flickered back to the window just in time to watch a streak of lightning illuminate the skyline.

Yugi had been expecting it but still flinched at the site, before rubbing a lethargic hand over his face to compose himself. Not five hours ago, they'd been out in and amongst all that madness: soaked through to the skin, shivering with cold, and utterly terrified by the prospect that Yami wasn't going to make it to a hospital, let alone survive the night.

An incessant but reassuring beeping sound now filtered through to his thoughts and Yugi turned back to consider the prone figure lying quite still on the bed beside him.

"Told you we'd find you, didn't I?" he whispered, voice hoarse, cracking, as though he'd forgotten how to use it.

Unsurprisingly, his Dark did not answer him. Yugi wasn't fazed by this, though. He smiled softly and shook his head. "It's been so long, I'd almost given up hope. But the others didn't. You should know that. Grandpa and Joey and the gang never stopped believing in you. And even in my darkest hour, when my worst fears chased away my greatest hopes, they managed to talk me round."

His eyes twinkled with affection and he turned to stare balefully at the closed door. His friends were outside, still. All of them sprawled out on those horribly uncomfortable plastic chairs in the waiting room, desperate for a few hours' worth of shut-eye, if only to recover from the three and a half mile sprint to the Pier, earlier.

Yugi shook his head a little. If only the nurse had granted his friends permission to sleep in the ward, too. It wasn't as though they were struggling for space, the entire ward was empty apart from Yami. But, as expected, the trainee nurse had brushed away his request whilst simultaneously babbling about regulations and protocols. Yugi switched off after '-I couldn't possibly allow it, sir...' leaving the oblivious nurse to mumble away to herself in the background.

"I told them to go home and get some rest. They wouldn't listen to me," Yugi went on to Yami, unthinking. "I said you'd be having harsh words with them for putting your safety above theirs. Told them you'd be angry that they weren't looking after themselves because they were too busy worrying about you. Didn't convince them to leave, though."

Yami said nothing.

"Nope. They're all still here. Waiting for you. They want to talk to you, make sure you're okay, y'know?"

Nothing.

Yugi sighed heavily and tried to quell his overwhelming desire to weep, again. He'd cried more than enough over the course of the past few months. He had to be strong now, for Yami's sake. With a shaky sigh, he raked his eyes over his Dark's prone form, struggling to ignore the many tubes and wires connected to the frail body in the bed. He chose to overlook the chalk-white, sweaty pallor of Yami's skin, but couldn't easily forget the gasping, wheezing breaths Yami had been forcing out before the doctors had agreed to make things easier for him. But he mustn't think about those things, he mustn't. He fished around for a change of topic, moreso for his own benefit, than for Yami's.

"Grandpa wanted to come but he's not been so well lately, so he's going to wait till it's light when he's a bit more well-rested. It's been hard on him, having to run the shop all the time and take care of all the chores. You've just had me so ... so beside myself with worry that I couldn't function at all... feeling a bit bad about that now, to be honest with you," Yugi chuckled sadly. "I've been a real mess without you. Been a lot of hard work for Grandpa and the gang. They've got me through it though."

Yugi's eyes were blazing with fierce determination as he reached down and gently took Yami's limp, icy fingers within his own.

"And thanks to them, now I'm well enough to do the same for you," he murmured, resolute. "I'll help you get over this, Yami, I promise. You're going to be just fine. You just have to wake up."

His eyes roamed over the expressionless face eagerly, but not a flicker passed across his Dark's slackened features. Only the steady rise and fall of his chest and the regular beep of the heart monitor existed to demonstrate the life that still rested within Yami's awfully pale, malnourished and battered body. Without those, the Pharaoh could well have passed for one of the Dead.

Yugi refused to dwell on the thought for too long, though, preferring instead to let his head rest against a folded arm - his other hand still lightly gripping Yami's own – as he willed comforting tendrils of sleep to drag him under.

Umm, I don't want to be the barer of even more bad news, you guys," Tristan started tentatively, voice so soft it was almost a whisper, "but has anyone actually thought about how we're going to get him home?"

Yugi's heart sank. He turned back to Yami, eyes brimming with tears, lip trembling as he mentally noted each and every single visible injury. A broken arm, a fractured wrist, a couple of broken fingers, severely sprained - if not broken - ankles, icy and clammy skin pointing to either infection or hypothermia – Yugi couldn't tell which, - cuts and bruises and burns littering every inch of his battered body and ... and Yugi flinched as his mental list of issues steadily grew to also encompass the internal injuries that would make even the slightest of movements a real big problem. Yugi was no doctor, but the purplish bruising on Yami's chest suggested there were also a couple of cracked ribs to deal with. And if Yami wasn't moved with the greatest care, one could very well puncture a lung, if it hadn't already. Though Yugi was reluctant to contemplate that thought, too much. All in all, there were an awful lot of factors that made moving his fallen friend a massive issue. One wrong move, even the slightest bump to any one of his injuries could well be the difference between Yami living and dying...

"W-we ... we can't just leave him here!" he whispered, frantically. Tristan shrugged sympathetically, at a loss for what to do next. Joey and Téa exchanged nervous glances, both just as worried as Yugi and just as stumped as Tristan.

"Well? Anyone?" Yugi demanded harshly when nobody spoke up, an irrational anger at the monsters who had harmed Yami overwhelming him. He didn't miss the joint flinch from all three of his friends, though all did shoot him apologetic glances afterwards. If anything, this just seemed to infuriate him further. Why were they all just standing there? !

Joey spoke up after an awkward pause.

"Maybe we should call for an –"

"No," Yugi rebuked firmly before Joey had even finished. "No, he doesn't like hospitals, Joey. Yami will never forgive me if I let them take him to one."

"But Yug-"

"I said no, Joey!" Yugi shouted, shaking his head, ignoring the wave of nausea it instilled within him. "I can't take him there, I can't! He ... He'll hate me!"

Joey's own anger was brewing, very much aimed at the kidnappers. But with no such kidnapper in sight, Yugi would undoubtedly bear the brunt of his fury.

"Yugi, just listen to me, alrigh'? How are you gonna treat his injuries at home, eh? How're you gonna fix up his broken bones and God knows what else they've done to 'im when he's in the bloody Game Shop? It jus' won' work!"

Yugi's anger seemed to wilt, slightly, his eyes watering as he locked them with Joey's.

"We ... we can sort something out. Grandpa will know what to do," he pleaded, trying to convince himself as much as his best friend.

But the blond man was just as stubborn as he was, and chose that moment to crouch down on Yami's other side, one hand resting on the Pharaoh's shoulder while he fixed Yugi with a pointed stare. His tone of voice levelled out as he tried to suppress the rage he was feeling for fear of setting Yugi's own anger off, again.

"An' how are you gonna get him there without making things even worse? It's three bloody miles away, Yug." He saw Yugi's lip quivering and his expression softened, his voice following suit. " 'N you ain't in no fit state to carry him all that way in the rain, buddy."

"There h-has to be s-something in here," Yugi cried out, voice louder than it had been in a long, long while as anger and adrenaline sent him jumping to his feet.

Yugi glanced around the warehouse, straining his eyes against the gloom, before sprinting into the darkness away from the circle of light currently blanketing his friends. His hands were outstretched in front of him, and he struggled to feel for a box or a crate or anything that they could use in their favour.

There was nothing. Not a single item lived inside this vast, desolate building. Nothing to use as a make-shift stretcher, nothing to wrap Yami up in to try and breathe a little warmth back into his body... absolutely nothing on hand to help them. Yugi stumbled back over to his friends, shaking his head despairingly. He dropped heavily to his knees at Yami's side again.

Téa cleared her throat nervously and knelt down beside him, resting a hand consolingly on his shoulder. He turned to look at her, expression one of utmost despair, and she felt her heart break for him.

"I know you want nothing more than to take him home and make him safe, Yugi," she started, voice hitching, "but the best thing we could do for him now is to call for an ambulance. He needs to be in the hospital."

To her surprise, Yugi simply nodded, eyes downcast, the fight draining clean out of him.

"I know," he murmured, voice so quiet Téa only just managed to catch it.

Tristan was on the phone a second later, but the words he spoke were lost on Yugi, who wrapped a trembling hand around the Pharaoh's own lifeless one in comfort, refusing point blank to let any more tears fall.

"Please don't hate me," he whispered, brokenly. "It's for your own good."

Predictably, Yami didn't answer him.

Sunlight was filtering in through the pristine bay windows, catching dust particles as they flitted gently through the Sun's rays. Yugi watched them swirling around the room for a few minutes, the excited chattering of his three best friends lulling him into a soft sense of serenity; something he hadn't experienced for many months, now.

The TV was on, buzzing away in the background, and Yugi's eyes were drawn to a news story featuring the impressive and imposing headquarters of Kaiba Corps, with the owner of said impressive and imposing headquarters standing outside the entrance, giving a speech to gathered press and spectators. Yugi couldn't hear the article, or what Seto Kaiba was saying, but his friends were doing a great job of filling in the blanks.

"- brand new technology-"

"- only Kaiba could come up with a game mode that you gotta have surgically implanted to play it-"

"- gonna be awesome, not having to play with a duel disk, though! Just think of which card in your hand you want to play next and BAM! Up it pops! Straight outa your head in all its 3D Holographic glory!"

"They say you can play anywhere in the world, and at any time! No need for holographic projectors, or nothing like that! Just need your deck, and a component who has the chip implanted, as well!"

"-not going to be a little too dangerous? I mean, little children play duel monsters, too! This can't be good for them."

"Oh, don't worry, Téa. This is only available to over 16's. And under 18's have to have parental consent to go ahead with it. Younger kids will just have to stick to the traditional way of playing the games. Kaiba's company will keep developing the original duel disk system. This is just his way of ... well, showing off, I guess. Demonstrating to the masses just who is in ultimate control of the gaming industry. It'll be for hardcore gamers, y'know. Like me and Yugi. Now, Joey, on the other hand ... well, just don't go trading in your duel disk for a chip anytime soon, will you, Joey?"

"Hey! Do I have to remind you of who came second at Duellist Kingdom? And Battle City? And who competed in the Championships? I don't recall you taking part in any of those, Tristan!"

Yugi grinned despite himself, subtly shaking his head as he let his gaze return to the bed's occupant, once more. He couldn't wish for more wonderful friends, he was sure of that.

He was also sure he had Yami to thank for them being here, at all. His expression quickly sobered, a sad sigh escaping his lips.

Things were finally looking up, it seemed. The nurses had returned a few hours prior to disconnect the heart-monitor and the life-support machine, satisfied Yami's internal wounds were no longer life-threatening, and his heart was fully functional, allowing him to breathe on his own, once again. The broken bones had been treated and set, and Yugi was pleased to hear that the cracked ribs had not, in fact, punctured a lung and were now healing nicely on their own.

Though Yugi did note – with considerable concern – their reluctance to transfer Yami to another ward, choosing instead to leave him in the otherwise-empty ICU. When Yugi questioned them on this, they said Yami had developed a mild case of pneumonia brought on by a chest infection, which had in turn been brought on by constant exposure to bitterly cold, and horribly wet weather. While the most severe of days were thankfully over and Yami's chances of recovery had increased tenfold, they were still preferring to play it safe, just in case.

"Yug? You okay?"

He looked up, suddenly aware of the fact that the room's few occupants had all fallen silent. And when had the TV been turned off? He hadn't seen anybody get up to do it...

"Maybe it's time you went home, Yugi," Téa said softly, resting a hand on his shoulder. "Go grab something to eat and get some sleep. We will stay here with the Pharaoh until you get back. And you can bring your Grandpa over, too," she added as a hopeful afterthought.

Yugi shook his head, blinking away the dizziness suddenly warping his senses.

"Can't," he said, hoarsely. "Not hungry. Can't sleep."

"You've been sat in this hospital for three days, Yug. You haven't left his side, not once! I'm sure the Pharaoh won't mind you going home, just for a little while. Even the nurses are starting to worry about you, now."

"They said it's okay for me to stay with him," he rasped out, fixing Téa with a pointed stare, pushing dirty blond locks out of tired eyes.

Téa frowned, hesitated, then effectively changed tactics.

"Do you really think the Pharaoh is going to be happy when he sees how much you've been neglecting yourself? You'll only make him feel worse for worrying you so badly." She squeezed his shoulder comfortingly. "I think he'd want you to go home, sort yourself out and then come back when you're feeling better."

He blinked at her, a small smile lighting up his face.

"You're trying to say I smell, aren't you?" he asked, a sorely missed mischievous glint in his eyes.

Téa blushed slightly but kept her face as straight and as devoid of emotion as possible. "In the nicest possible way," she confessed, not missing a beat.

Joey snorted, but quickly covered it up with a very convincing hacking cough, even doubling over to further exaggerate the act.

Yugi's smile widened, and before he could stop himself, he was laughing. Laughing so hard his eyes watered and his ribs hurt. He was spluttering for air as hysterical mirth coursed through his entire being, leaving him weak and trembling at the knees. Had he been standing, the floor would have been beneath him by this point.

Roughly shaking his head as he wrestled to compose himself, wiping his eyes on his jacket sleeve with a hearty sigh, he finally nodded in agreement.

"Alright," he whispered, smiling softly. "But only because you asked so nicely," he added as he painfully noted the looks of immense relief washing over his three companions. He had no right to be mad with them. They only had his best interests at heart.

And Téa was right. Yami would murder him, if he were to awaken and see the state his young Aibou had managed to get himself into. Yugi's expression softened as he locked eyes with Téa who nodded back encouragingly, before struggling to his feet and stretching to release the aching knot between his shoulder blades.

"You will ring me if anything happens?" he asked, gently, gaze flickering onto Yami for a second before flying back to Téa. "If he wakes or ... or something else happens?"

Téa nodded firmly.

"The second it happens," she agreed, eyes blazing.

He stood, staring at the bed's occupant for a few moments, fidgeting absent-mindedly with the hem of his jacket sleeve.

"I'll come back with Grandpa in a few hours," he finally said, blinking back tears as he turned away from the bed. "Look after him."

"They will, Yug," Joey spoke up, rising to his feet and shrugging into his jade-green jacket with a slight grunt as his arm clicked.

Yugi turned to consider him, eyes lighting up hopefully.

"You ... you're coming with me?" he asked, barely able to contain the bolt of appreciation tugging at his heart-strings.

Joey nodded, beaming.

"Téa and Tristan can look after Yami, and in the meantime, I'm going to look after you. Someone's gotta make sure you wash behind your ears, and I don't trust Tristan to pay close enough attention, and ... well, Téa's a girl. And you don't want a girl in the bathroom with you while you're having a bath, do you?"

Téa and Tristan glared daggers at him. But Yugi couldn't suppress a chuckle of laughter. Joey smiled knowingly, grateful his joking around had had the desired effect. The worry lines around his best friend's eyes had softened, if only for a few precious moments.

"Can't say I'm all that keen on you being in the bathroom with me while I'm having a bath, either," Yugi commented dryly. Joey just winked at him.

"Well, if ya promise me you'll wash behind your ears, I'll agree to just waitin' in the living room for ya. There's a programme on TV in a bit I was hopin' to catch, anyway."

Yugi couldn't express with words the gratitude he felt towards Joey in that moment. An overwhelming sense of guilt also came with it, as Yugi realised just how much worry and stress he had caused his friends ever since Yami's disappearance. Yugi vowed in that moment to make it up to them, just as soon as the Pharaoh was home safe, once more.

He stepped up to Yami's bedside one more time, lightly squeezing his Dark's limp hand encouragingly. "I'll be back real soon, Yami," he said, ignoring the tiny tremor in his voice. "I promise."

And with a soft smile directed at Téa and Tristan – both of whom nodded back in encouragement – Yugi turned away from the group and hurried from the room, Joey hot on his heels.

The sooner he left, the sooner he'd be able to return.

For a few precious seconds, Yami was at peace.

There was a glorious warmth spreading through his entire being. Though he couldn't quite tell exactly where his hand was, he was pretty sure the warmth he was feeling was emanating from roughly around that area. If he focussed really hard on that wonderful, wonderful feeling...

Yes! The lightest squeeze imaginable, but it was there, nonetheless. Yami's heart soared. He wasn't alone. Someone had come for him!

But then disjointed words fluttered around his head, whispers on the wind, as though coming from many miles away from where he was, even though the speaker could only be a metre away, at most.

'- be back real soon, Yami. I promise.'

'No! No, wait! Don't go!' Yami thought, panicked. But that blessed warmth was already leaving his hand, and in doing so, started to leave the rest of his body, too. He shivered involuntarily, reaching out in search of it, desperate for its comforting embrace...

Or at least, he would have reached out for it if his arms would obey him.

And almost as though someone had hit a power-switch, the pain was back; excruciating, agonizing waves off it coursing around his system. And it was cold. So, so cold he wished for nothing more than the beautiful heat he'd felt not a second ago.

Stricken, Yami wanted to call out to someone, anyone, to ask for help. He needed it to stop, he didn't care what it took, he just needed it to end. He needed the cold to leave and the pain to stop. But he couldn't work his vocal chords. His voice had deserted him.

In fact, now that he thought really hard about it, everything had deserted him. He couldn't open his eyes, couldn't hear anything anymore, couldn't move a single muscle.

'Is this death?' he thought weakly, wanting so badly to just break down and cry, but he couldn't even force himself to do that. 'Or punishment?'

'Perhaps it is both.'

Yami jumped a mile – metaphorically speaking of course, considering his current predicament – heart racing far too quickly to be healthy as he considered the back of his eyelids with the most terrified of mental expressions.

But as understanding finally caught up with him, a strong surge of temporary relief engulfed him, leaving his mind reeling for a few moments.

'You, again?' he whispered to himself, frowning.

'Quite possibly,' the female voice in his head responded. Her voice was enticing, trickling into his mind like water. Yami was quite certain he should have been terrified of it. He knew deep down he really shouldn't be trusting it, and that more harm than good could possibly come out of having an imaginary voice inside his head... and yet, the voice provided company, and for the first time in many months, Yami didn't feel so unbearably alone.

'I'm sure I'm losing it,' Yami breathed, internal voice sounding tired and defeated, his mind feeling oddly detached from it all, somehow. 'For you can't possibly be real.'

'Now, here I was, thinking this was going to be the start of a beautiful friendship, Pharaoh.'

The Pharaoh snorted, forcing his eyes open despite their apparent reluctance. But he soon realised he needn't have bothered at all. There was nothing to see. Only darkness.

'So ... so I'm not dead ... right?'

He just needed to be sure. Because he couldn't see a damn thing. Yet he was so sure he'd heard something, felt someone near him just a few moments ago. But there was, quite literally, nothing in front of his eyes at all. So how was that possible?

'... Not dead, no,' the voice admitted, Yami noted somewhat reluctantly. There was a pause before she elaborated further. 'More like ... nearly dead but not quite there, yet.'

Yami couldn't decide whether or not he was more terrified by the sincerity of her words, of more frustrated by the riddles she kept sugar-coating them with. Both emotions battled for dominance within his head, accomplishing very little aside from giving him the mother of all headaches to add to his list of ailments and afflictions. He scowled. Or at least, attempted the movements necessary to scowl without really moving a muscle at all. He had the strangest feeling the disembodied voice in his head would get the idea, though.

He forced himself to calm his raging heartbeat and cleared his mind a little, in the hopes of making a little more sense out of the senseless situation he was trapped in.

'Okay. Well, if I'm still alive, then, pray tell, how is it possible that I can hear you and sense you, but I can't see you? In fact, why can I not see anything at all?'

The stranger considered his words for a few moments, then seemed to come to the most logical conclusion.

'You are unconscious,' she answered promptly, '– that is to say, your working body is not functional at this particular moment in time. And you and I are speaking on a much more ... subconscious level, if you will. And to be perfectly honest with you, I'm not actually with you at all. Not in the hospital, at least. So even if you were awake and we were conversing - as , indeed, we are now, are we not? – well, it would not be face to face.'

Yami's brain was really starting to ache. Nothing made sense. Not a single word the mysterious voice spoke to him could be digested with any reasonable form of comprehension for his battered, tired mind. He told her as such.

She merely laughed.

'Pharaoh, perhaps it would be best to postpone this explanation until you are physically better prepared to understand it.'

Yami frowned deeply.

'How do I know I can trust you? Hearing voices is not a good sign, no matter the lifetime I live in. And what if I never recover at all? What if I'm stuck like this forever?' The thought horrified Yami a lot more than he was willing to admit to the stranger, yet she seemed to understand his worries regardless. Maybe she really could read his thoughts...

Well, duh. She was inside his head, Yami realised. It was so obvious! But the pain and the anxiety was making his mind fuzzy, and communicating with the stranger was splitting his awareness even further. All Yami wanted to do was to succumb to the blackness floating just out of reach... but he had to hear, first ... he had to know...

'You do not know whether or not you can trust me. I cannot provide proof to support either notion. For now, you must do what you will – I am merely offering company until you recover mentally from your ordeal. Consider me a ... a friend, I guess. Since we are both in this together now, no matter what you believe my intentions to be.'

The darkness was inching closer, but Yami forced it back, eager to hear more. When the voice didn't appear to want to continue, he prompted her gently.

'And?'

'And as for whether or not you will recover... only time will tell. I don't have the answers, believe it or not. And I'm not in a position to find them out for you, considering you are a vast number of miles away from me at this particular moment in time. Rest assured, if you are stuck in limbo forever, I'll be stuck there right along with you.'

Not even remotely relieved, Yami sighed heavily and nodded in acceptance, relinquishing his hold against unconsciousness and falling subserviently into its grasp.

Somewhere, a vast number of miles away, a young, pale lady opened a pair of tired, emerald eyes and rubbed a hand over her face in weariness. She eyed the bedroom door anxiously, suddenly very reluctant to leave the comfort of her safe haven.

But the report had to be provided.

Her father was counting on her.

She shrugged into her dressing-gown and - with only a few seconds' worth of hesitation - swept silently from the room.

"Mr Mutou? I must ask you to leave, and quickly now."

"B-but ... but what's wrong? I want to stay, I can't leave him! I promised I wouldn't!"

A pretty young nurse with long brown hair tied in a delicate ponytail at the nape of her neck wrapped a consoling arm around Yugi's shoulder and nudged him urgently towards the doorway. "Your brother will be fine, dear. Just let the doctors do their jobs. Please, if you could just wait outside with your friends, we will let you back in when everything is okay."

Yugi's eyes widened in terror, his heart skipping a beat as an uncomfortable silence fell between the two of them.

"You mean ... it's not okay now?" he croaked out, trembling from head to foot.

Not that he'd thought for a minute that everything had, in fact, been okay at all, but hearing the nurse say it made the whole situation seem all too real.

The nurse seemed to regret her choice of words and swallowed hard, glancing towards her colleagues in search of additional support. A second nurse hurried over, offering the same bland, pointless words of little comfort in a pained and disbelieving manner all too reminiscent of doctors breaking terrible news to grieving relatives. Yugi was far from reassured, desperate to return to his Dark's side no matter what the consequences, but together – with a hand on each shoulder securing him firmly in his stride, allowing no chance for him to turn back– the two agitated nurses guided him hurriedly down the length of the ward.

"Everything will be fine, Mr Mutou. Our doctors are quite possibly the finest in the country. He's in good hands."

Yugi's eyes watered as he was ushered outside, trying to ignore the way the doctors immediately swarmed around his Dark's prone form, apparently worried the boy's condition had deteriorated massively in the few minutes they had been out of the room. The door swung shut ominously, and Yugi suppressed a sob of distress as the two nurses bolted back to his friend's bedside, immediately joining the fray of activity. Yugi could only stare on, dumbstruck, horrified, as tubes and machines were connected and doctors and nurses rushed around the room like possessed animals, hissing and barking orders at each other.

The wall had provided very little support as Yugi's legs gave out, sending him crashing to the floor. Joey, Téa and Tristan were at his side in an instant, wrapping comforting arms around his shoulders. Nobody spoke. No words of false hope and disbelieving reassurance were uttered. Because his friends knew him far too well to force such hated sentiments upon him.

Not a word was spoken as Yugi curled in on himself, and cried.

"Yugi! You okay, pal?"

Yugi jumped, and opened his eyes, leaning quickly back from the window and staring nervously at his back-seat companion. His eyes were itching so much he spent a good half a minute rubbing at them in irritation before taking a moment to consider his friend's question. Joey watched him, worriedly.

After a moment's silence, Yugi nodded affirmatively.

"Yeah, I guess," he sighed softly, knowing Joey wouldn't buy it for one second, but grateful the blond didn't push the subject. "Just ... just thinking about stuff, y'know," he added. If he couldn't avoid it, might as well get it over and done with.

Joey nodded in understanding.

"I know, bud. It's been a horrible few months and an even worse few days. But the doctors said he's on the mend, now. So that's good news at last, ain't it?"

Yugi nodded begrudgingly before turning his attention to the buildings flying past them. He watched as the people outside shopped and socialised and played duel monsters to avid audiences ... he felt ill. It all seemed so ... so surreal. So wrong, almost. Yugi couldn't get his head around the fact that all these people, these strangers, could just go about their daily lives as though nothing had happened.

Though, he supposed, nothing had happened, to them at least.

It was only Yugi's world – and those of his friends and Grandpa, too – that had been effected by Yami's disappearance. Nobody else had even noticed.

"Joey?" Yugi asked softly, after a few minutes.

"S'up, bud?"

"Yami is going to be alright, isn't he?" Yugi cursed himself for sounding so weak and hopeless. But in that moment, despite being reasonably rested and clean and (reluctantly) fed, 'weak and hopeless' was exactly how he was feeling.

Joey fixed Yugi with a determined stare and squeezed his arm comfortingly.

"'Course he is. You just gotta keep believin' in him. He's gonna pull through jus' fine, you just watch and see."

Yugi wished he shared even half of Joey's optimism.

With a small nod, he returned to staring out the window, and silently wished the cab-driver would put his foot down.

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To Be Continued …

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Confused, yet? I know I am. Well, no, I'm not actually. When I said inspiration hit me, I wasn't joking. I now have a whole new direction for what was originally just an excuse to severely abuse some of my favourite characters. Think I need to get my head checked out...

AnyWho. Cheers for reading! Stay tuned...

Blessed Be!
xXx MissHaun†ed-MoonLigh† xXx