The only sound heard in the room were the soft splashes of tears hitting the cold concrete floor and Yugi Mutou's stifled whimpers as he fought to regain control of his tears. Why? How had his life made this big of a turn in such a small period of time… there was a time when he was happy, when his friends would hang out with him and his Yami would protect him… but now… Yugi bit his lip hard in an attempt to stop the sobs that were mercilessly racking through his tiny, frail body. The poor boy jumped as he heard heavy footsteps from above and the door to the basement was slammed open. He turned his tear-filled violet eyes towards the top of the stairs and saw the scowling face of Seto Kaiba.
"Stop your whimpering, you brat!" Kaiba shot at the distraught child, "It's not going to do you any good. You're just going to make me mad!" Kaiba shot Yugi his famous death glare. "And we don't want that now, do we?" Yugi struggled to hold back his cries of anguish and finally succeeded by jamming his fist in his mouth and biting down on it so hard that it bled. But he could not stop the torrent of tears spilling down his pale cheeks. How had it come to this? It all started just three months ago… when Yami finally got his own body, and he and Yugi were ready to separate…
Flashback
"Yami!" Yugi rushed towards his newly fleshed friend and threw himself into his arms. Yami smiled and held him close, crying tears of joy at finally being able to hold his tiny Hikari, whom he had always thought of as a little brother.
"Pharaoh!" Yami's head jerked up at his friend's joyful cry and his face split into a wide grin as he saw them running up to greet and congratulate him on finally getting his body back after three thousand years! As Tea, Joey, Tristan, Yugi, and the newly embodied Yami left to go to the Mutou's Game Shop, it looked like this would be the height of their friendship…
End Flashback
It was the Height of their friendship… until Yugi's friends started excluding him from all their activities and ignoring the small boy. Yami hadn't, but Yugi's friends made up lies to Yami about Yugi, saying things like, "He gets too scared at a movie theater." Or, "He's been here a thousand times before and he said he didn't want to come." Then threatening Yugi afterwards not to say anything to Yami or else. So Yugi had been stuck at home alone for a while, until even his Grandfather, Solomon Mutou, began to shun him away. So after that Yugi had spent most of his time in either his room, or wandering the streets of Domino City.
So how did he end up in Kaiba's basement? Yugi bit into his hand harder as a new flood of tears streamed down his face and a hitched sob escaped through his lips at the terrible memory of yesterday…
Flashback
Yugi sighed heavily as he trudged to school with his backpack over his shoulder and the prospect of another day where he was nearly invisible loomed over his little spiky, tri-colored head. As he walked through the school's gates, he heard his friends laughing about something in one of the courtyard's corners. Curious, Yugi stepped up to them. As soon as Joey spotted him, he nudged the other two and the three of them stood glaring at their former friend.
"What do you want, twerp?" Yugi stepped back a few paces at Tristan's harsh tone and sighed at his nickname. Hardly anyone used his real name now. Although he had to give the school bully, Ushio, some points for creativity though. He had come up with things like; shrimp, scum, squirt, porcupine head, and Yugi's favorite, piece of trash.
"Um…" Yugi scratched the back of his head nervously, "I just wanted to say hi… and wondered if you guys wanted to go out to see a movie tonight…" Joey, Tristan, and Tea just looked at one another before Tea answered,
"Nope. We're going to the Arcade today."
"Can I come?" Yugi asked hopefully, even though he knew what the answer was going to be as soon as he asked.
"NO!!!" Yugi sighed and turned to go to his first class of the day… Math.
Once school had ended Yugi began the lonely walk home when…
"Hey, Yugi!" Yugi turned to see Joey and Tristan walking up to him with Tea a few paces behind them. He was about to give a cheery hello in return when he saw that Joey and Tristan were leering down at him and cracking their knuckles
"Um…g-guys? What are you doing?" Yugi stammered as Joey and Tristan backed the poor kid into the school wall. His only response was Tristan giving him a hard kick to the stomach and Joey hitting him hard in the knees.
Once the two were done with their beatings, Yugi got up from the ground in a state of shock. Sure his friends had been pretty cruel to him before but beating him? After he cried himself out, Yugi continued his walk home, thinking the day could not get any worse. How very wrong he was.
When Yugi got home, the first unusual thing he saw was a fancy black car outside of the Game Shop. Shrugging this off, he went inside where he saw none other than Seto Kaiba talking to his grandfather.
"Fifteen-thousand is my final offer old man." Kaiba was saying when Yugi walked in.
"…Very well…" Yugi cocked his head at his grandpa's response and walked up to the pair.
"I didn't know you shopped here, Kaiba." Kaiba grinned widely at the sight of the small duelist.
"I usually don't but… I heard there was a very interesting piece of merchandise being sold today so I decided to check I out…" Yugi wondered what the piece was only for a moment until Solomon Mutou snatched the money out of Kaiba's hand and turned to Yugi.
"Go pack a bag…" Yugi's heart stopped. He couldn't mean what he thought he meant…
"W-what? Why?!" Yugi's only response was his grandfather giving him a hard shove towards the stairs and a harsh comment of: "I don't want you anymore… you're going to live with Kaiba from now on…now hurry up and get out of here!" Yugi felt as though his heart was split in two. He tried to blink away the tears that threatened to blind him as he stared in hurt shock at his Grandfather.
"B-but Grandpa…why?"
" I already told you! I don't want you any more and I'm sure Kaiba can find good use of a brat like you so get!" The tears in Yugi's eyes won the battle and they spilled across his cheeks and down to his quivering chin.
"F-forget it! I'm not going!" Yugi shouted right back at his grandfather, earning him a sharp smack across his tear-filled face. Yugi went quiet in shock as he touched the quickly forming bruise on his cheek where his own Grandfather had hit him. "G…Grandpa…"
"Don't you dare talk back to me again, young man. You belong to Kaiba now, and that's how it is going to be. You are no grandson of mine and you are not worthy of the last name, 'Mutou'! Now get out of my house and never come back!" Yugi stood, trembling at his grandfather's outburst for only a moment before bursting into tears and running upstairs to his room, wishing his Yami were here…
A few minuets later, Yugi came slowly down the stairs with his tear-filled face to the ground and his backpack and a small bag over his shoulder. As Kaiba walked him towards the door, Yugi took one last look at his grandfather, hoping to see any kind of sign of sadness or caring. But all he saw in his grandfather's face was the same as everyone else's lately…hatred and disgust… and as Yugi was shoved roughly into Kaiba's waiting car, he looked back one last time… and saw his grandpa walk into the house without even a wave goodbye and a grin on his face as he counted the bills Kaiba had given him for little Yugi.
End Flashback
Another choked sob came from Yugi's mouth as the awful scene played before his eyes in memory… at last he could hold it in no longer and a cry of his pent up anguish tore from his throat, and new torrents of tears flooding his face again.
"I told you to SHUT UP!" Kaiba bellowed down at his prisoner and proceeded down the basement stairs towards the terrified boy. Yugi looked up in time to see Kaiba's furious face looming above him when he was roughly pulled to his feet and slammed against the cold stonewall. "I'm warning you now, boy. If I hear as much as a whimper out of you, I'll personally make sure the remainder of your life is a living hell… got it?" Yugi barely suppressed a squeak of pain as Kaiba pressed him into the wall, the rough stone digging into his back. Painfully, Yugi nodded.
"Good." Kaiba let Yugi fall and placed his foot on the back of Yugi's neck, holding him there. "And I don't want to hear anymore of this talk about your Yami or someone coming to save you…" Kaiba pressed his foot harder against the boy's neck, "because there is no one out there who cares… your friends don't… and your grandpa certainly doesn't." Yugi gave a squeak of pain, "And I cold care less about a piece of trash like you… you brat." Yugi whimpered through his tears,
"Y-Yami cares… I know he'll come…" Kaiba chuckled and kneeled down to grip Yugi's hair and force him to look at the brunette's face.
"Really?" Yugi nodded. "Well I'll tell you something, kid. If I ever see him around here… even once…I'll be sure to put a bullet through his heart…" Kaiba smirked at the horror on Yugi's face, "So go ahead. Go tell Yami… and be responsible for his death… I look forward to it." Kaiba let Yugi's head drop with a smirk and went back up the stairs and slammed the basement door shut, laughing at Yugi's panic.
Yugi looked after him in horror and panic. The only person left to care about him was Yami! And Kaiba said if he ever saw Yami there he would kill him! And Yugi knew he would….Suddenly very sleepy, Yugi crawled into a far corner in the dark and his pent up emotions finally bubbled over fully. Hatred for his life, hatred and fear for Kaiba, hurt at his friends' actions, betrayal at Grandpa's selling him to Kaiba, love for Yami, fear for what Kaiba might do to him, and misery at the thought of being all alone in the world with no one there to tell him that everything was going to be ok. No explanations of why Yugi had found himself in a world where everyone despised him, where those who cared for him were in danger, and where he faced pain and misery every day.
Confused by the mix of emotions, Yugi finally just curled up into a little ball and the poor child cried his heart out, and eventually fell asleep in a sea of tears and fear.