Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-gi-oh. However, this story is mine, and I will not tolerate people stealing this idea and calling it theirs. Jenna is also mine. Anybody who steals her and calls her theirs will also suffer my wrath. Beware, Baku-kun let me borrow his blow torch for this very cause...
The Apartment on the 12th Floor
He glanced down at the parking lot and watched a red convertible slowly roll in. Was it even a convertible? He couldn't tell. Being so far up from the ground, he could hardly make out any style of car without some sort of aid. And was it even red? It could be burgundy, or maroon, or any other color besides red. His gaze shifted to the dark red house just on the corner of the parking lot( he was sure this was red this time), his eyes narrowing. Each time he glanced over at that house, a horrible memory would play in his head.The memory of why he could no longer go there, and why he was shunned away by everyone who lived there:
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Awhile back, he used to live in that dark red house with several of his friends. Among them were his closest friends Jounouchi and Honda, and a little look-alike named Yugi. Yugi was affectionately called "Mini Me" because of the fact that they looked almost the same. And then there was Anzu. Anzu was one of those rare finds that if you let it slip away, you would never find it again. He truly loved her, but he could never find the courage within him to tell her so. And when he did manage to work up enough willpower to tell her those three little words that mean so much, the thought of actually saying them aloud overwhelmed him. So he kept quiet, and his affections grew in silence.
Then came the day when he just couldn't keep quiet. A news report stating that several gunshots were heard in the neighborhood last night made everyone feel uneasy. Even the tough talking Honda and Jou shook when the word "gun" was heard, no matter where they were. Anzu claimed that the security system was working, and working fine, and that they would be safe and that there was nothing to worry about. But he felt very unsure about that. Whenever she said "there was nothing to worry about," she was usually wrong.
That same night, he heard the sound of glass breaking. He shrugged it off, thinking it was a half awake Ryou up getting a glass of milk to help him fall back asleep again. Ryou had broken many glasses before, so this was nothing new. He snuggled further under his covers when he heard the sound of footsteps, seeming to tell him that his assumption was right. But his eyes opened wide. Something was decidedly wrong with these footsteps: they sounded large and heavy, and Ryou wasn't large and heavy. And they sounded like there were shoes on them. Big, heavy shoes. Ryou wouldn't be walking around with big heavy shoes in the middle of the night. He knew better than that. He sat straight up in bed, listening carefully. He knew something wasn't right at all. He pulled a blanket around his shoulders: a strange chill ran from the back of his neck down. He heard the footsteps coming closer to his door, which he realised was unlocked. He thought about getting up and locking it, just to be safe. He quickly abandoned the idea when the footsteps stopped outside of his door. He didn't think he would have enough time to even try that idea.It grew very quiet, and he was afraid of what would happen next. He heard a 'click click' noise just beyond the door, and he held his breath, waiting for another sound.
He saw the door opening slowly, creaking at the same time. He felt his heart racing. What was going to happen? The next thing he knew, he saw a hooded figure standing in front of him holding a pistol, aimed directly at him. He backed into a corner, worried about himself as well as the others. He shut his eyes, waiting for the sound of the gunshot. Instead he heard the loud noise of a grunt, and when he opened his eyes, he saw the hooded figure getting clubbed by Jounouchi and his baseball bat. This gave him enough time to run out of the room and check on the others. He discovered that they were fine, and he went and hid them somewhere so the killer couldn't find them. He then turned around and went back to help Jou fight off the strange man.
While the others hid in the closet, Anzu had kept her ear on the door, listening to what was happening outside it. She heard a lot of banging, and thudding, and yelling, most of said yelling coming from him. Finally she heard one final gasp, then it was quiet. She quickly opened the closet door, and everyone tumbled out on top of her. She struggled to get out from under them, then ran to the living room. What she saw next scared her. There was Jounouchi, off in the corner, and the killer on the floor, his skull apparently cracked open by something. But what, and who did it? She ended up answering her own question:it was her own "hero". In the faint moonlight by the window,she saw him holding a folding table in his enraged hands. He looked like a savage, breathing heavily,ready to strike him again. "What did you do to him?" "I had to, Anzu. He would have killed me." "But you kiled him!" "I had no choice! It was either him or us, and I wasn't going to let it be us!" "But still!" There was fire in Anzu's eyes, something he had never seen before. He knew she was furious with him. "What, you wanted me to let him at you guys?" "Well, no, but...that doesn't give you the right to kill someone!"
At this point in time Ryou had walked in with a glass of milk, still half asleep. "What's going on.....?," he sleepily droned. "Our 'protector' Yami here has just killed somebody!" Ryou grinned. Then he giggled. Then he broke out in a fit of laughter, apparently amused by all this. Everyone exchanged glances, as if wondering whether or not Ryou added anything to that milk. "That's funny! We all know Yami would never do anything like that! It's not like him!" "Do you need proof or something? There's your proof!," Anzu pointed to the body on the floor. Ryou just stared. "No way. Yami didn't do that...." Yami sighed. "I did," he said half-heartedly. Ryou still didn't believe him. "Why?" " Because," Yami started. "He was going to hurt someone, and I didn't want it to be one of us." Ryou turned to Anzu. "You need to take it easy on him. It was self defense. And he saved you. The least you could do is thank him"
"He does have a point," Yugi said. "He did it to protect you. He could have done nothing and let you get hurt instead, you know." "But he still killed someone! I'm not taking that sitting down! I won't let that slide!" "Look," Honda said, clearly losing his patience with her. "It's not completely his fault. You get cornered by a guy with a gun. What are you going to do? Knock him out, of course. It's your best defense." Anzu stood up straight, her chin in the air. Yami hated whem she did this. He always took it as a sign that something bad was going to happen to him. "I'll take this into my own hands. I'm not letting a killer live amongst us. It's too dangerous for everyone." She pointed her finger at Yami. "You," she addressed him. "I want you out of this house by tomorrow morning. If you haven't left by then, you'll see some serious police activity. Everyone else, stay away from him. Don't let him into your rooms, no matter what he says." She turned away from him and headed back to bed. Everyone else except Jou and Honda did the same thing, after exchanging small "farewell" glances to him. "Don't worry about it, man," Jou said, trying to help his friend feel a little better. If it had worked, Yami didn't show any sign of it. He started up the stairs. "Where ya going?" "To my room to pack. Best do what she says." He sighed a deep hearted sigh, then shut the door.
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The next day, even though he had left like Anzu had said, he still faced an even bigger problem. Anzu had indeed taken matters into her own hands and put a restraining order on him. He wasn't allowed to go there ever again. He couldn't talk with her ever again either. He was forced then to move into an apartment building that was pretty close to the red house, but it was acceptable, for some reason. (A/N: That's pretty sad. I can't think of a reason...) He chose to live in an apartment on the 12th floor, seeing that as far up as the building went. It wasn't a bad apartment, but he still felt a little uneasy about sleeping in a room that was as big as one of the bathrooms in the red house. Jou and Honda refused to stay with Anzu, feeling that her decision was unnecessary,also moved into the same building with their friend. "No need for you to be lonely," they told him when he found them in his apartment the day he moved in. Honda lived down the hall from him on the same floor, but on the other side of the building. Jou was on the seventh floor, across the hall from a sweet old lady nicknamed Dot.
He didn't mind his apartment all that much; after all he'd lived there for almost two years now. You get used to things after a while. But living with that house next door to him bothered him. He started making a daquiri with the kit he went out and purchased the other day. He used water instead of vodka most of the time. Vodka was used on holidays or special occasions, or when Jou and Honda dropped by for a visit.
He sat and looked at the growing sunset on the other buildings in the city. He sighed deeply, then drank a large swig of his daquiri. he thought of his dream. A dream he always held on to, but was sure he would never accomplish. His dream: to meet a girl who wouldn't treat him like Anzu did, marry her, and move out of that apartment into a real house, and be far away from those memories forever.
But that would never happen. Not in his wildest dreams.....
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Well, whaddaya think? Like? Review! Poor little Yami, though. I'm gonna keep updating, no matter how many reviews I get. I like this story too much.