Ok, all you Y/Y fans – this is basically going to end up being a database of one-shot fluffy fics, written by me, Merodi no Yami.  …ok, yeah, that's really all you need to know, right?  Stories will vary in style, depending on my mood, but will ALWAYS be Y/Y!  And fluff, with possible angst.  So, enjoy!!!

Disclaimer:  Don't own Yu-Gi-Oh.  There, I said it, happy now?

//blah blah blah// - Yami talking

/blah blah blah/  - Yugi talking

[blah blah blah] – thinking

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Exhaustion

"…and in order to complete this problem, we must first be able to take the derivative of the given function.  So, who here can tell us what the derivative of sin(3x)2 is?"

Sensei Tohma looked around the room as her students gazed back at her, eyes glazed over as their minds spun in confusion.  She sighed; it seemed to be like this every day.  Of course, there wasn't a whole lot that was going in her favor; not only was this her first year teaching, but spring had sprung quite early that year, and her room just happened to be situated so that, every day at this time, the room was filled to the brim with the light of the sun - making everyone, including herself, a bit drowsy and longing to go outdoors.  She finally decided to start calling on people, hoping that maybe she could revive the tired souls one by one.

"Yugi Muoto," she began, "would you happen to know what the derivative of this problem is?"

The said boy turned his head away from the cheerful sight outside to face his teacher, sighing slightly.  A few seconds passed as he studied the question before he replied, "Hai, Sensei.  The derivative of sin(3x)2 is 2sin(3x) times cos(3x) times 3.  Or, 6sin(3x) times cos(3x)."

Sensei Tohma's face brightened slightly, glad to know someone was able to pay attention.  "Very good, Muoto-san," she said, silently thanking him.  She turned back to the class and continued the lecture.

Noticing the teacher was starting to move to a new topic, Yugi took out a pad and pencil and began taking notes, though a bit unwillingly.  He loved math, and the calculus class he was taking now was fun (in his opinion), but today the teen was finding it hard to focus.  He had woken up with a headache that morning; that in combination with the amount of sleep he received the night before didn't help matters either.  He honestly had not expected to receive that many end-of-the-term projects, but what else could he do?  Well, maybe not take so many classes, for one - he was a sophomore, but Yugi was already taking one or two higher-level courses.  Joey had called him crazy for doing so, but Yugi had ignored him – he enjoyed the challenge.  He sighed and continued to copy the notes, grimacing as his headache from earlier decided to make itself known again. 

[Ok, maybe Joey's right.  Maybe I am crazy.]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yami turned from his spot on the windowsill in time to see Yugi walk through the front door.  Smiling slightly, the guardian got up and made his way over to his charge. 

"Hello Yugi.  Did things go well today at school?"

Yugi said nothing, but continued to hang up his coat before walking over to the kitchen table, opening up his backpack to sort through its contents.

//Yugi?  Something wrong?//

Suddenly, Yugi whirled around to face Yami, taken by surprise.

/Yami!  Oh, sorry, I must not have heard you.  What's up?/

//I asked how school went for you.//

/Oh, it was alright, / he replied absent-mindedly as he began to put his books into two piles – one for homework and one for school.  /Lessee – Ryou seems to be his usual quiet self, though he told me that yesterday Bakura went out and actually bought him a kitten for his birthday on Sunday…he says thanks for the gifts we got him, by the way.  Anzu was gone today – she had a dance audition in Tokyo this morning; she said she'd call and let us know how she did.  Oh, and Joey and Tristan say hi – Gym was a nightmare.  Soccer - and with Kaiba on one team and those two on the other, well, you can imagine how quickly it turned into an all-out fist fight./

//Yugi…//

/Hmm?/

//What about you?// the pharaoh asked again, looking slightly worried at the rings around Yugi's eyes.  //Are you ok?//

/Huh?  Oh, yeah.  I'm fine Yami, really./

Yugi smiled and went back to his books, but Yami continued to watch his charge anxiously.  Having finally sorted everything out, he placed two thin binders back in his backpack for school the next day before grabbing the much larger pile of homework and textbooks.  Slowly but surely he made his way over to the stairs.

"Yugi, what are you doing?"

He turned around to face Yami.  "Homework," he shrugged.  But before he could take another step, Yami moved to step in front of him, upset.  Yugi looked at him in confusion.  "What?  What's wrong?  Did I forget something, Yami?"

"No, you didn't.  But Yugi, is all that homework really necessary?  You look tired."

"It's ok."

"Yugi, you got 3 hours of sleep last night.  And the night before.  And the night before that, in fact.  You need to take a break, aibou, or you're going to wear yourself thin."

"But if I take a break now, then it only means I'm going to have to stay up later to finish all my homework, Yami – then I'll be getting even less sleep.  Don't worry, the weekend's almost here, I can relax then."  He smiled at his guardian to reassure him, but it did nothing of the sort as Yami's brow furrowed slightly.

"That's what you told me last week, hikari, but you did nothing of the sort.  You spent the entire time working on your biology project."

"Not the whole time."

"Sleeping, breakfast, and dinner don't count in that equation, Yugi."

Yugi sighed.  "Yami, I'm ok.  Really," he said as he walked around Yami to proceed up the stairs.  Yami watched him go before sighing as well, heading towards the kitchen to make something for dinner.

[Yugi, I hope you're right.]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

//Yugi?  Dinner's ready.//

/Coming./

Sure enough, as Yami finished setting the table Yugi entered the kitchen.  He smiled, but he looked, if at all possible, even worse off than he had earlier.  Yami's heart tugged as he scanned Yugi's thin form – the bags under his eyes had been there since last week, and his hair seemed to droop sadly.  [Hikari, you're nuts.  There's no way that you can be feeling well right now.  You look like you've been through the Underworld and back one too many times.]  Yami resolved to himself to talk with Yugi after dinner about taking a break.

He continued to watch as his aibou walked through the room towards the table, before turning around to get their food from the counter.  As soon as he had picked up one particularly large bowl, Yami heard a thunderous crash.  Food forgotten, Yami raced to the dinette area.  "Yugi?!  Are you alright??"

He turned around the corner and stopped.  Yugi lay on the floor in front of him, unconscious.  Apparently the teen had tried to stop himself from falling, and had managed to drag the tablecloth – and everything on it – down with him when he fainted…hence the crash.  Yami kicked a plate carelessly out of the way as he quickly made his way over to his charge, his heart beating fast with worry and concern for the prone figure on the floor.

Kneeling at his side, Yami took one of Yugi's hands in his own, almost flinching at the cold, clammy touch.  He brought his other hand to Yugi's forehead, and was shocked by the temperature difference.  He mentally cursed – he should have seen this coming.  [Oh Yugi.]

Quietly and gently he gathered his charge in his arms, as if handling a child.  He got up, and for a minute Yami simply stood there, staring at the prone form.  Despite that he was quite sick, he was still undeniably beautiful.  Yami blushed a bit at the thought, dreams and hopes he had been repressing suddenly resurfaced.  Shaking his head, he slowly laid the figure down on the couch before leaving the room for some medicine.

Upon return he found Yugi where he had left him, shivering, but still unconscious.  [Kisama,] he thought, cursing himself as he got a blanket out from a nearby closet, placing it on top of his aibou.  Sticking a pillow underneath Yugi's head, Yami kneeled on the floor next to him.  [You should have forced him to rest, no matter what he said – if you had, he wouldn't be like this now.]  Noticing Yugi's face was covered with sweat, Yami took a cold, wet washcloth he had retrieved earlier and placed it on his forehead, hoping to cool his poor hikari down.

[Hikari.  My hikari.  The light to the darkness,] he thought as he absent-mindedly kissed the teen's petal-soft hair.  Almost immediately Yugi stopped his fitful shivering, calming down considerably from the guardian's touch.  Yami smiled, pushing a bang out of the teen's pale face.

As if that act had suddenly broken some magic spell, Yugi's eyes fluttered open; amethyst stared into crimson as Yugi fully woke.  "Y-yami?" he groaned.  Yami silenced him quietly, guessing what his questions would be.

"You fainted, Yugi.  You pushed yourself too hard, and now you're sick.  Now rest, and don't worry about anything – I'll take care of you." 

Yugi ignored the warning and started to get up, but was pushed back down just as quickly.  "But Yami," he said tiredly, "I need to finish my homework for school tomorrow."

"SCHOOL?  Yugi, you are not going to school tomorrow, do you hear me?  You're sick enough as it is; you need to rest – you've been dealing with too much stress lately, with school and everything else, and there is no way I'm even letting you off this couch until I know that you're feeling better."

Yugi sighed.  "Ok," he said weakly.  "But you don't really have to go to any trouble taking care of me; I'm fine just like this."

"Don't be ridiculous, aibou," Yami replied, suddenly finding his own hands quite interesting.  "You're my charge, and I care about you too much to just leave you alone." 

"How much, Yami?"

The said person looked up, confused.  "What?"

"How much do you care about me?" 

Yami stared into Yugi's inquisitive eyes, dumbfounded.  [He-he wants me to really tell him, truthfully and honestly?  Oh dear Ra, I can't do this.  Heck, I'd probably end up giving him a heart attack and kill him.  Yeah, that'd be smart.]

[But then again….]  Yami continued to stare into those amethyst orbs, eyes that were full of love and concern.  [Maybe…maybe I'm wrong.]

Slowly he took Yugi's hand and placed it between his own, as if protecting it.  He took a deep breath.  "Yugi, I really don't know of any other way to put this…and I want to apologize ahead of time if what I say upsets you at all…but…Yugi....

"Yugi, I love you.  Honestly and deeply; you are my aibou, my light, my other half.  Even if our souls weren't intertwined, I could not live without you.  You give me courage, strength, and a hope which, until I met you, was completely foreign to me.  I call you aibou, but sometimes I wish that we could be much deeper partners, more than just friends.  Some people may see it to be wrong and unusual, by I love you with all my heart – I just hope you'll accept it."

There.  Done.  He had said it.  All those words which he had rehearsed time and time again in his head, should he ever decide to confront Yugi about his feelings.  But Yami had never actually expected to say these things out loud to him.  He sighed; what was done was done, and though he could take back the words, he could never take back his feelings for his hikari.  He hung his head, as if awaiting execution.

Slowly, a delicate hand extended from underneath the blanket as Yugi reached to tilt Yami's head up.  He did so, but the guardian refused to open his eyes – he was certain now that Yugi hated him, and he feared his soul would shatter if he saw the hate and disgust in his hikari's beautiful eyes.  The hand withdrew from his chin, and Yami braced himself, waiting to be slapped, or punched, or something.

Nothing came.  Suddenly, he felt two hands clasp themselves together behind his neck, as something shifted on the couch.  Yami's eyes snapped open as he felt the sudden weight change.  He looked down, and gasped.

Yugi…Yugi was…cuddling??

[Could this mean-?]

Yugi looked up, eyes shimmering with a happiness Yami had never seen before.  "Yami," he said weakly, "you took the words right out of my mouth.  Aishiteru – gomen ne that I never told you.  I love you a thousand times over."  He tightened his hold on Yami, trying to bring himself closer to his dark, warm presence.  "Aishiteru, Yami-chan."

"Yugi," he breathed.  This was a miracle.  He couldn't believe any of his senses.  Yami wrapped his arms around his tenchi possessively, never wanting the two of them to be apart from each other again.  He leaned over slightly, without fear, to kiss his aibou's head gently; however, Yugi pulled away as soon as he made contact. 

"Wha?  Yugi, what's wrong?"

Yugi let out a weak laugh.  "Sorry Yami – it's not that I wouldn't like that, but I don't want you getting my cold."

Yami chuckled lightly at Yugi's reasoning.  "Do you really think I care?" he said, releasing one of his hands to tilt Yugi's face up to meet his own.  He could feel Yugi shiver, sending chills up his own spine as well.  Grinning in a dominant way, Yami lowered his head to capture Yugi's sweet lips in his own.

Yami had sometimes dreamt of what this would be like, but none of his dreams could ever come close.  It was beautiful; HE was beautiful.  Yami savored their kiss as much as he could – the taste of vanilla, the smell of lilies; Yugi was everything that was pure and good.  And he was Yami's; all his.  In an instant, he could feel his soul melding with Yugi's in a way he never thought possible, wonderful and beautiful all at once.  Finally their lips separated as Yami placed his head on top of Yugi's, never again to let go of the treasure Ra had granted him.

//I love you Yugi.//

/And I love you, Yami./

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