The Little Sprite
Chapter 43
Humans
"So, what do you think?" Yami questioned from Yugi, smiling at the boy from across the table in the dining room of their house. It was a fairly new building in the town of Faubry, which was positioned East from Aura Forest. They had had their life-changing adventure a bit over a year ago and Yugi had just finished his second year in the Lorestone Academy, while Yami had not been a student in the school for half a year now.
"I think it's a wonderful idea", Yugi conceded with a nod of his head. "I'd love to visit Kirusae during my vacation. It will be great to see my friends again." 'Friends' stood for his sprite comrades as well as Otogi, who had surprisingly enough abandoned all of his obligations after graduation and had moved into Kirusae to be with Hiroto. The raven-haired teen's only family was his father, who he did not have a good relationship with, so disappearing off the face of the earth had been unexpectedly easy for him. Yami, on the other hand, would have never been able to do that if Shizuka had not been able to give Yugi a human form.
Speaking of the girl, Shizuka had settled in quite nicely at Kirusae, having made good friends with Mana. Sugoroku had been happy to keep the girl when Subaru had refused to have any contact with his runaway daughter's offspring; the Mutou mansion had tended to feel awfully large and empty with only the old man and Mana living there.
Yugi and Yami had made sure to stay in touch with their friends; Sugoroku had given them a magic mirror, using Mai's old mirror as a model, to make keeping in contact as easy as a phone call was for humans. At first Yugi had made sure to get in contact with his grandfather about once a week, keeping the old man up to date about the process of him getting settled in into the human world. After his first school year the 'calls' had started to be farther apart when Sugoroku learned to trust in his grandson more.
It seemed that their adventure had made the two of them very close to people they might have never made friends with otherwise. And those bonds of friendship were powerful, like friendships forged through life-changing experiences tended to be.
Bakura and Yami still had a rivalry of sorts going on between them but they were still keeping in touch, even after Bakura and Ryou had moved together into a larger city, since the both of them had been city-born to begin with.
Malik was one of the people Yugi did not fear from as often as he would have wanted to. Yami understood that Malik was Yugi's childhood friend and that Yugi missed him, but the crimson-eyed youth also knew that Malik was not in Kirusae often enough to 'call' Yugi frequently, since the fox sprite had moved to live with Marik in the wolf's home village, which they had managed to find, even though Marik and Isis' father had been revealed to have passed on during the time Isis and Marik had been Mai's property. Isis had been sorry to hear that but Marik had spared no sympathies for the man that had fathered them and then sold his sister to a witch.
While Yami was thinking about his friends, he remembered something else and spoke to Yugi: "Anzu called here yesterday and invited us for lunch later this week."
Anzu had been surprised when Yami had told her that he was dating Yugi, after which she had displayed disappointment on Yami's failure to inform her that he was not interested, for the girl had been under the impression that Yami had merely been playing hard to get because his cousin did not like her. Yami had tried to redeem herself in the eyes of one of his oldest friends and his more or less embarrassing attempts had ended with Anzu bursting into laughter and telling Yami that there was nothing to forgive and that their friendship was strong enough to overcome her silly, immature crush.
"I'd like that a lot", Yugi replied to Yami's words and Yami could not help but smile. Yugi was very fond of Anzu and the feeling had become mutual very soon after the two had gotten to know each other better. Yugi admired Anzu for her ability to move on, while Anzu seemed to simply adore Yugi, calling him 'little brother' whenever the two males visited her.
"Then it's settled", Yami concluded as he took a sip of his green tea. The sound of footsteps caught Yami's attention and the crimson-eyed teen lifted his gaze to the kitchen doorway to see Jou entering, his left cheek littered with wrinkles from his bed sheets while he rubbed sleep out of his eyes.
"Morning, Jou", Yugi greeted the blond cheerfully, even though worry was etched into the amethyst-eyed boy's voice. There was a nod from Jou before the blond stumbled to the table, sitting down and immediately blurting out: "Has Seto called?"
Yami had been expecting that question, actually. Those were pretty much the only words that had come out of the blond's mouth during his now three-day visit at the house. When Jou had appeared on their doorstep, looking like a mess, Yami had immediately called his cousin and the wrong one, Mokuba, had answered. Seto's younger brother had told Yami that their father had caught Seto and Jou together and was demanding Seto to end the relationship, something the brunet had not been willing to do. Seto was trying to change his father's mind, had been for three days now, and during that time Jou had been living with Yugi and Yami, since the blond really could not take care of himself with the current situation.
Jou seemed to cease to function properly when he was separated from Seto. Yami suspected it to have something to do with how the memory of Seto had kept Jou hanging on when Mai's magic had been pulling him into oblivion. Yami thought that he could relate to those feelings, since he had been but a shadow of his own self during the time Yugi had been in a coma.
"Seto won't give up", Yami said to Jou, like he said every time Jou queried about the brunet. "I know for certain that Seto is too stubborn for even his father to handle."
There was a nod from Jou but the blond did not say anything. Yami had not expected him to. Yugi, who was sitting next to the blond, petted the hands resting on the table in a comforting manner before standing up and signalling with his hand for Yami to follow, which the taller male did. Jou had preferred his own company during his days at the house and, as sad as it was to admit, Yami was relieved to get away from Jou's gloomy mood.
Once the two were in the sitting room Yugi immediately clutched onto Yami, hugging the other desperately. Yami knew that the boy's limitless ability for empathy brought this on and held Yugi against him gently. Yugi was both feeling sorry for Seto and Jou, and fearing for him and Yami at the same time. Yami had reassured the boy before and reassured him again: "My father already knows about us, Yugi, and he's fine with it. He's a different man from my uncle."
Yugi seemed to be calming down, but Yami figured that some time out of the house might do the boy good, so he spoke: "How about we go take a stroll around town? I'm sure Jou won't even notice our disappearance."
Yugi nodded his head to the suggestion before he spoke: "Alright, but don't talk that way about Jou. He could still kick your butt for it."
"But it's the truth", Yami said as he led the way to the front door. "Not to mention I don't think Jou has the willpower to kick anyone's butt."
The duo left through the door and while Yugi closed it behind them Yami glanced across the front lawn and blinked in surprise at the car that had parked there. The confused look on his face turned into one of surprise when the driver side door opened and the familiar tall form of his cousin emerged from the car.
"Look, Yugi", Yami spoke as his love walked up next to him. "It seems that Seto reached a conclusion with his father."
"And he couldn't call before he came?" Yugi huffed, but not too angrily. It was obvious that the boy was glad to see the brunet and Yami shared those feelings. Now the only thing left to find out was if Jou would have a reason to be happy as well.
"Morning cousin, Yugi", Seto spoke as he walked up to the two of them, giving a nod of greeting to each.
"Hello, Seto", Yugi greeted in a cheerful manner, while Yami gave a more subdued greeting. The taller star-haired male then proceeded to ask: "Did your father change his mind?"
The only answer Seo gave Yami was a smirk and Yami grinned widely before tilting his head to indicate to the house behind him and speaking: "Jou's inside."
"Thank you", Seto said and strode past them quickly. Yami and Yugi both watched the brunet disappear into the house before looking at each other and smiling.
Love may not have been all-powerful, but it certainly seemed to be powerful enough, Yami mused, not knowing that Yugi was sharing the exact same thoughts.
The End
Ending Notes: There it is, the end of "The Little Sprite". I'm not sure whether I should be relieved or sad. At any matter, I could have written a lot of stuff about the aftermath for the characters, but I think that this will do; it's time to move on. Speaking of which, I will now be starting off a new YGO story. It will be called "Dream Prince" and it'll be based off of the animated movies "Mulan" and "Swan Princess". A proper summary would go along these lines…
Yugi and Atemu are two princes engaged to be married, but Atemu isn't warming up to the idea. But right when Atemu changes his mind Yugi's home kingdom goes through a hostile take-over and the prince vanishes. A year later Atemu sees his chance to go after the person he believes to have murdered his fiancée; the only thing he needs to do is train his own army forces to do it. Unbeknownst to him, however, prince Yugi is alive and under the disguise of one of his new soldiers.
I really hope you all enjoyed "The Little Sprite", and that you will be around for my new project! Thank you for all your wonderful reviews, especially the ones for the previous chapter; they really encouraged me on through these last chapters.