A/N: Please don't kill me. I haven't updated this story in forever. It's been done for some time now, but I've been rewriting the last scene, trying to get it to come out better. I'm still not that happy with it, honestly. But I felt bad for the lack of update and figured I'd just post it anyway. Sorry guys, I'll try to be better about updating next time.
Disclaimer: I wish I owned it…
"Well, Yuugi, you seem very bored today."
Yuugi let out a sigh, as if to clarify the validity of his grandfather's statement. "The other robots are managing to take care of themselves quite well as usual, and Jou just got himself a job at the card shop in the mall the other day, which he is quite excited about." Yuugi couldn't help but let out a chuckle as he remembered how happy the blonde had been when he had rushed into the store with the news of his new job. He'd yelled so loud some of the robots in sleep mode in the backroom had activated. "But that just means that it leaves Yami and I with nothing to do."
"Hmm…I have something you can do! After all, it is Thursday."
Yuugi groaned. "Grocery shopping day."
"Grocery shopping?" Yami asked no one in particular; he seemed to weigh the phrase around in his mind for a moment before saying, "Sounds like fun!"
"Yami, do you even know what grocery shopping is?"
"Nope!" The robot replied cheerfully, "But, we had fun at the mall that day with Jounouchi-kun, and that was shopping. And doing anything is better than nothing, right?"
Yuugi had nothing more to say, he really couldn't argue with Yami's logic.
"Great!" Grandpa was obviously happy to get out of the grocery shopping duties of the week. "In that case, I'll just upload my grocery list onto Yami's hard drive." He plugged Yami's chord into the palm pilot that he kept most of his agenda on.
Yami's eyes began to grow steely, as they always did when he performed more advanced functions, "Processing request…transferring data…"
"Transfer complete!"
"Just two more things!" Yami finally announced after they'd been in the grocery store for almost an hour, "a pound of ham and a gallon of milk."
Thank goodness. Yuugi thought. He looked down at the shopping cart he was pushing, which was overflowing with items. Grandpa sure does like to stock up, it's a wonder we go through this much stuff every week.
"We'll get done faster if we split up for the last two things," Yuugi weighed out the options for a moment, and came to the conclusion that Yami would probably have more difficulty ordering something at the deli. It was ironic, how the robot was one of the most capable AI's he had ever seen, and could perform impossibly difficult tasks, but had trouble with the small stuff and directions that weren't specifically laid out. But Yuugi didn't mind, it was just another one of the robot's quirks he had come to love.
Love? Ok, not sure where that one came from, I'm just going to pretend I didn't think that. "I'll get the ham Yami, you go get the milk…"
"Alright!" Yami bounded off to look for the milk, which he found in the aisle at the far end of store. The sight was fairly intimidating; he hadn't realized that there could be so many types of milk! "The list says one gallon of milk." He said aloud to himself, eliciting some odd stares from fellow shoppers around him. He was determined to make the right choice, Yuugi had given him a task and he didn't want to mess it up. It seemed like he just couldn't do anything right sometimes, which was bad, because if he messed up too many times, Yuugi would want him to leave.
He didn't want to leave; he liked it where he was with Yuugi. He liked Yuugi.
But now his mind was wandering from the task at hand; retrieving a gallon of milk. He chose the large bottle nearest him. He held it in his hand for a moment, analyzing its weight. No good, it was close, but not quite a gallon. He reached into the fridge and pulled out a smaller carton, he just needed a little more…
"Number twenty-seven?" The man behind the counter asked.
"Oh, that's me!" Yuugi said, holding up his number slip, "And I would like a pound of ham."
"Ok, how would you like that?"
"Thinly sliced, pleased."
The man got to work on his order, which gave Yuugi some time for uneasy contemplation. The line at the deli had been pretty long, he'd been standing in it for a good seven minutes now, but Yami still had come back yet. Did it really take that long to get milk? He assured himself that it had just taken Yami a while to find the item he was looking for. After all, it was a simple enough task, Yami couldn't have possibly messed it up. Right?
As if to answer his unspoken question, there was an announcement over the intercom, "Clean up on aisle twelve; milk, cheese and other dairy products...clean up on aisle twelve."
Oh no…Yuugi dashed off towards aisle twelve. Yami had done it again.
"Sir! You forgot your order! And your carriage…"
Sure enough, Yuugi arrived to absolute chaos. Several rather angry looking employees were grumbling about having to clean up the mess, armed with mops. On the floor, a gallon bottle of milk and a small little carton lay open, spilling out their contents. Shoppers were crowded around, watching the scene with an almost dumb awe. Even the manager was there. He looking extremely unhappy, and was directing all of his anger in the form of a glare towards the corner of the aisle.
Looking to this corner Yuugi found Yami, Curled up as if trying to disappear from the scene, and looking absolutely horrified. Which Yuugi didn't blame him for, considering the death glare he was receiving from the manager.
"What on Earth did you think you were doing!" Yami shrunk down a little more; he almost looked like he was shaking. Maybe it was.
Now it was Yuugi's turn to get angry. What did that guy think he was doing, talking to Yami like that? Couldn't he see that the robot was horrified? Yuugi went over to Yami and hugged him tight. Yami clung on to him. "What do you think you're doing talking to him like that? There's no reason to yell, he just made a mistake!"
"A mistake?" The man was turning scarlet with rage; Yuugi didn't really see what the big deal was. What was that old saying, 'don't cry over spilt milk?' "I found him here with those two containers of unpaid for milk opened up, pouring them together! How exactly do you do that by mistake!"
Now that Yuugi knew how Yami had made the mess, he looked at him curiously. Yami hung his head. "I'm sorry Yuugi. You had asked for a gallon of milk, and the big one wasn't quite enough, so I thought I would just put a little more in it. I was trying to make sure I didn't mess up, but I ended up messing up big time."
"Well you definitely messed up, that's for sure."
Yuugi glared daggers at the manager; he'd had just about enough of this guy. He grabbed Yami's handed and lifted him up, leading him towards the exit of the store.
"Hey, you wait a minute! Your friend opened this stuff up. You break it, you buy."
Yuugi spun around on his heels, giving the man a look that showed he did not want to be messed with. "After the way you just treated Yami, I am not buying a thing of yours!" And he stomped off, with Yami following nervously behind him. The manager was too dumbfounded to protest any farther.
Of course, it was a lie, because Yuugi did go back to the deli to retrieve his carriage full of items, all of which he still bought.
"I'm sorry Yuugi." Yami said rather gloomily. They were already halfway home, and it was the first thing Yami had said since his explanation of the milk incident. Yuugi had been getting worried. But the robot's tone did little to ease his worry.
"Yami, you don't have to apologize. That guy was a total jerk, and he shouldn't have yelled at you. It's not your fault you didn't understand."
"But I never understand. I never do anything right. I must be such a pain to you and Grandpa."
"Yami, trust me, you are not a pain. In fact, Grandpa and I thoroughly enjoy your company."
This seemed to cheer Yami up a lot. "Really?"
"Really." It's hard to remember what it was like without you, actually.
"Oh, thank you, Yuugi!" Yami reached over and embraced Yuugi in a massive hug.
"Ok, I'm glad you're feeling better but new rule; no hugging the driver." Yuugi could feel the car swerving beneath him a bit as Yami's embrace cut off some of his control over the vehicle.
Yami immediately pulled back. "Sorry." He replied sheepishly.
Yuugi just laughed. You certainly make life much more interesting.
Later that day, Yuugi was curled up on the couch reading one of his favorite books when Yami entered the room.
"Can I sit with you?"
Yuugi nodded his reply. Yami sat down next to him on the couch, looking over his shoulder at the book. It must have been a very good book, because Yuugi was so interested in it that he had hardly acknowledged Yami.
"What's it about?"
Yuugi finally put the book down for a moment to really talk to Yami. "It's just your typical love story, you know. Boy meets girl, girl totally rejects boy, boy pursues girl anyway and eventually wins her over. It's cliché, but I really like it."
Yami was silent for a moment, then, "What's love?"
Oh boy. This is a tough one to explain. "Well, love is a really strong feeling towards someone, a good feeling. It's when you really, really like someone, then it gets to a point that you just can't call it 'liking' anymore. That's love." Yuugi mentally whacked himself; that had been an awful explanation.
Yami seemed to really think the concept over for a minute or two, and then replied, "You mean, like us, right?"
"…Excuse me?"
"It's like us. I really, really like you a lot, and it's a good feeling. So that's means I love you."
"Err no, not exactly. It's not just anyone that you really like Yami; it's someone that's very special to you, more than anyone else in the whole world. Someone that you want to spend the rest of your life with. You and I are friends, and well you can love your friends, but it's a different kind of love than this."
Yami frowned; Yuugi seemed to be missing the point. He did want to spend the rest of his life here with Yuugi. He certainly didn't want to go back to Industrial Illusions. The people there had treated him well…like a thing. But Yuugi didn't do that; to Yuugi, Yami was just like another person. Therefore, Yuugi was special. It was the exact kind of love that they were talking about. But maybe Yuugi just couldn't understand his explanation. He'd need to find another way to show it to him.
"Alright, I'm sorry to bother you with so many questions, you can go back to reading your book now."
"Don't worry Yami, you weren't bothering me." But he was at a crucial turning point in his book, so he certainly took up Yami's offer to go back to it.
About half an hour later, Yuugi had felt his eyelids start to droop and he fell asleep. He had then flopped over, right on top of Yami. At first Yami was frightened, thinking that Yuugi was hurt, but he calmed down once he realized Yuugi was just asleep. Not wanting to wake him up, Yami decided to stay where he was until Yuugi woke up. Of course, after a few minutes simply waiting quietly all by himself got a little boring, and his mind began to wander a bit. His eyes wandered along with his mind, and at one point landed on Yuugi's book.
That's when he had the idea.
Yuugi's book was all about love. So it must have plenty of ways to tell Yuugi that he loved him. And since Yuugi was reading it all, he was bound to understand. Yami picked up the book off of Yuugi's lap and began to search.
Within fifteen minutes he'd found several signs of affection, but the one that reappeared most frequently was kissing. This seemed like the perfect way to tell Yuugi how he felt. Yami realized that he didn't even know what kissing was. But then he remembered that he had a twenty-four hour connection to the Internet, and the Internet could answer any question. So, he looked for his answer. And that answer left him very perplexed.
"That's kissing? That's the strangest thing I've ever seen!" He clamped his hand over his mouth, having completely forgotten about Yuugi, but thankfully, he remained asleep.
At first he thought of considering a different method of approaching Yuugi, since kissing seemed like such an odd concept. There had been something else in the book about 'making love,' and while he didn't know exactly what it was it sounded like creating something that would help show a person how you feel, which made a lot more sense to him. He considered looking into it. But, he figured that regardless of how strange kissing seemed to him, he knew that it was probably the most recognizable sign of love for Yuugi. So that was the method he chose.
Gently lifting Yuugi's head off his shoulder, Yami stood up, and laid him down completely on the couch. He went to try and find something else to do, but Grandpa had closed the shop for the day, and truthfully he was too anxious to think about anything else but showing Yuugi that he loved him.
Yuugi woke up later to find himself laid down on the couch, the book he'd been reading placed neatly on the coffee table. He figured Yami must have moved him when he fell asleep. I wonder how long I was sleeping for? I hope Yami wasn't too bored.
He found the robot sitting at the kitchen table, all but twiddling his thumbs. Ok, so Yami had been bored while he was sleeping. But he didn't seem to care, because when Yuugi walked into the room the robot brightened up, dashing over to embrace Yuugi in a tight hug, just like he normally did in greeting. One thing, however, was not so normal.
In addition to the hug, Yami had pressed his lips into Yuugi's in a kiss. This was shocking to say the least, Yuugi had no idea why Yami was kissing him, let alone where he had learned how to kiss.
But the robot happened to be quite the good kisser, and his lips soft, and very warm. If he hadn't known better, Yuugi would have thought he was being kissed by real flesh. Because of all this, he found himself beginning to respond to the kiss, taking control of it. He forced his tongue through Yami's slightly parted lips, and this time it was Yami's turn to be confused by the kiss. Apparently the robot's knowledge of kissing was still limited, but he proved to be a fast learner. It continued until Yuugi's need of oxygen caused him to pull away.
Yami's smile was bright even for the robot's standards, but there was a different light in his eyes that Yuugi had never seen there before, "I love you, Yuugi."
Yuugi wasn't sure what to say. His lips were still tingling.
TBC
Yeah, not plot whatsoever in this one, just fluff. And somehow, it ended up longer than my usual chapter length. But I promise to come back with some substantial plot again next time around; things will really start to heat up with Kaiba soon…
No review replies, cause they've been banned now, I'll try to respond to all of my signed reviews starting this time around. But in the meantime to answer a question that came up in an anonymous review, no I did not base this on "I, Robot" at all. I really wasn't a huge fan of the movie, and I've never read the book. I suppose it does have the common, human-like robot thing going on, but there isn't going to be a mass robot revolt or anything like that.