Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Nemo ❯ Three ( Chapter 3 )

Disclaimer: Not mine.

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- Part Three -

He isn't quite sure what causes the transition from sleep to waking, but suddenly he hears a low hum, unfamiliar and jarring. He's not quite sure what's going on - he's lying on something hard and scratchy - why? - and his memory of the night before returns in too-sharp focus. The scratchiness is the cheap, ragged old carpet on the living room floor, and there's a faint smell of popcorn lingering in the fabric of the pillow beneath his head. The noise is - he frowns mentally - the sounds are people's voices. Raised, angry, but the words are blurred and incomprehensible.

He concentrates as hard as he can around the headache he's just discovered pounding behind his eyes and tries to will himself into understanding - too many times he's been caught off guard, but his head is positively killing him...

"-can't just bring random strangers off the street!" Strident, loud, and there's a clang that is bewildering in its abruptness.

"He's not a stranger, mama! Grandpa, explain it to her!"

He stirs a little, trying force his eyes open and sit up. Why is aibou yelling? He never yells except in brief flashes of sun-bright rage, and even those moments pass swiftly. He manages to move his limbs a little - then bites on his tongue to swallow an agonized groan. Sharp pains shoot down his limbs, a stark contrast to the heaviness that still lingers, and he feels sluggish and stupid. His mouth tastes like shoe, he thinks vaguely, but he's certain he doesn't actually know what shoes taste like.

"Ashita, please, calm down-"

Si- grandpa? Grandpa's calming down - mewet? No - no, that's the wrong word. Think. Think. He's - he's calming - mama? What is a mama? Aibou - aibou has a mama?

"Calm down? Yugi snuck in, and brought this - this -"

Aibou's mama - his mother, and she's angry, because... because why? He concentrates, but it still takes him a moment to understand the words. Their words sound strange to his ears now, and he doesn't know why - the cadances are all wrong, and the liquid sounds slip past his ears like flashes of sunlight on water, too quick to be real.

"Mama, don't you dare talk about him like that!"

Aibou, he thinks, and wants to smile, because he can smell his soul, bright and flaming and wild with aggravation and fight. No brief flash this time, but a glow. What fool has challenged him? Any challenge is a game, and aibou is -

"Yugi, watch your mouth!"

Eh? Mama's not pleased with aibou, why? Mama's - not pleased with aibou often, but he hasn't done that poorly on the last trigonometry test, has he? He even studied for it! Not for long, but better than the last few times, when aibou was too tired by life to even open a textbook, much less try and study from it.

Aibou? he calls, finally forcing his too-heavy eyelids open a slit. The light is bright - painfully so, and he finds himself cringing against its intrustion. His headache shrieks and he swallows another groan.

"Mama, you should - mou hitori no boku?"

There's movement then, shifting and the sound of cloth sliding against leather, and then the Puzzle falls against his chest, and he's soothed by its sudden, familiar heaviness and warmth. Yugi leaning over him cuts out the painful light, and he forces his eyes open a little wider. They feel sticky and heavy, and aibou's wordless query is soft and soothing - his headache recedes when soft fingers fall against his forehead, and he relaxes beneath the touch. Aibou isn't mad at him, he's mad at -

"Yugi, what do you think you're doing?"

"I think I'm busy!" he snaps, dark eyes flashing in annoyance, but his gaze softens again when he leans forward, carefully pushing away the bangs that are sticking to his cheek. You okay?

Un. He just doesn't think he can talk right now, but aibou doesn't need to worry about that. He's upset enough already.

"Can you sit up?" Yugi asks aloud, hands falling from his cheek to curl around his shoulders.

...un. He struggles to wake his stiff muscles, but it feels like burning lead to move, and he would bite back a cry of pain if his vocal cords were working.

Yugi's eyes flash again, and he pushes him back down swiftly, gently, lips curling in a faintly scolding gesture. He wants to smile but he's pretty sure it would hurt too much for all that it would reassure Yugi, so he just closes his eyes and focuses on breathing. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. This he knows he can do, and it doesn't hurt so much as he was afraid it could.

"Grandpa," Yugi says sharply, for all that his hands are soft and warm on his shoulders, "Do you have that damp cloth?"

Rustling, and the heavy tread of Yugi's grandfather draws closer. "Yugi -"

One hand disappears, and he wants to protest the lack - but then there's soft damp coolness gliding against his skin, and he sighs instead and relaxes - it smells like aibou, and it's aibou's touch, and aibou's anger is not directed at him. He reaches out inquisitively, but Yugi shushes him without a word, and he does not have the energy to fight him.

"I still don't think -"

"Drop it, mama," Yugi growls, bright and fierce, shifting closer, and the Puzzle flares with the scent and heat of his soul.

His lips part a little as the headache recedes farther, muffled by - what? He doesn't know, doesn't understand what's going on, but his aibou is here, and that is the only thing that has ever mattered.

There are sounds of arguing somewhere above him, muffled and distant, the words slurring into incoherence. But it is warm and safe here, the pain dulled and throbbing, and he sighs once more and sinks back into the welcoming darkness.

He can't understand the words that lull him to sleep, but it's Yugi's voice, and Yugi's scent, and Yugi's heat, so everything is all right.

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Part Four
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