Yuki: IT'S A MIRACLE!! I'M UPDATING!!

Chibi Yami: Huwway! (Hurray!)

OK This is Chapter 7.

Disclaimer: I.D.O.Y, Chobits or Beauty and the Beast (which is spposed to be in the next chapter)

"blah/blah" talking/ spiritually, far away, or another language

'blah' thinking

BTW: There's a poll for this story. Go to my profile to vote! (Please!)

Chapter 6: Your Sins Realized and Unmirrored

Over the course of a month, Yugi's health deteriorated rapidly. He would not eat full meals. He would merely go to school and retreat home, never taking any side trips, to a vial of his yami's blood he had managed to collect. He would cradle it, caressing it softly and whispering sweet nothings of insane love to it...

Now, 'tis the month of September, the leaves were falling off of the trees to meet their demise on the ground.

Jounouchi, Anzu, and Ryou were walking to the Kame Game shop to attempt and find out exactly what was wrong with their little friend. Yugi would merely turn his head at the smallest hint of a conversation as to why he was so detached from the world as is. Sugoroku had gone on an expedition in the Land between Two Rivers (1), if Ryou recalled correctly.

Yugi rocked the bottle of his love's blood back and forth in his arms. He kept it like a baby... a baby form of Yami that he could always have. The bottle was a 8" feminine shaped crystalline glass with a secure top. He had not told his friends of the crush he had on Yami... he had never even fully accepted them himself until his grandfather packed up all of his other self's things.

Suddenly a sound came from downstairs... a door opening? Who could it be? Yugi went down the staircase after putting the bottle in a safe place. His apathy was unchanged when he that his 'friends' had come to visit him... so uneventful...

"So Yug', how've you been?" Jounouchi asked, nervously chuckling when Yugi walked right past the three of them, a glazed look over his eyes. He walked to the kitchen, opening the refrigerator and grabbing a gallon of milk and then retrieving a glass off of the counter. He felt his friends' eyes watching his every move... until Anzu saw something she didn't want to see.

"Yugi... what is on your arm?" Cuts of different lengths, sizes, and depths decorated the inside of the small teen's forearms. Yugi did not react to the girl's outburst. He merely poured his milk into the glass.

"Yug'..." Jounouchi said, just to hear some noise in the room as he grabbed his friend's wrist to reveal even more of the scars. "What are you doing to yourself?"

"...m' fault..." Jou blinked at this statement.

"What?" The blonde saw tears glistening in the smaller teen's eyes. Yugi set down the glass of milk onto the counter

"It's my fault... my fault he left..."

Ryou answered.

"Who left, Yugi-kun?" All hell broke loose.

Yugi tore his arm from the blonde's grasp, pushed through Ryou and Anzu and ran up the stairs, slamming his bedroom door behind him. His friends pounded on the door that Yugi had locked himself behind, not hearing the car that pulled into the driveway.

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Yugi stayed in his room, oblivious to the fists pounding on his bedroom door. All his attention lay on the small bottle... all he had left of his Yami. The puzzle had disappeared along with the once Pharaoh, leaving no other trace that he had once existed... except his memories.

The door was banged on to the point that it swung open. Yugi quickly hid the bottle in its special box and tucked it underneath the mattress, its special hiding spot.

"Yug'," Jounouchi asked, "what did you put under the mattress?"

Yugi's eyes looked fearful, afraid of his friends knowing that Yami disappeared, that they might take the bottle away from him...

"Where's Yami, anyway?" Anzu had meant it as a harmless question, yet that statement was making Yugi's vision be overflooded with red (2). He fell onto his knees, finally letting the tears of pain and longing drip onto the carpet. His friends just looked at him sympathetically, not understanding his pain, but feeling sorry for him all the same.

The door downstairs opened.

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Jii-chan looked at the scene in front of him. Jounouchi, Anzu, and Ryou trying to comfort his grandson. The small teen had streaks of tears coursing down his cheeks. Ryou turned to Sugoroku.

"Mutou-sama, please. Can you tell us what's wrong with Yugi-kun?" Ignoring the unnecessary formalities, the four of Yugi's once close group of friends and family helped him off of the floor and down to the kitchen where Sugoroku began to explain. He told them everything that he had told Yugi, though Ryou saw through some of the façade.

"Wait, when did Yami die?" Sugoroku got nervous, but held his posture.

"A month ago. Why?" Ryou leaned in and said in a dark voice.

"You never mentioned him dying in your explanation." Yugi stared as his grandfather stuttered and finally sighed.

"You're right, Bakura-kun, Yami is not dead, but..." His voice was cut off. Yugi stood up, his hands bracing him against the kitchen table.

"So, I was depressed for a whole month for nothing-"

"Yugi, this is not what you are thinking. Yami died, but not physically." The hikari's eyes grew smaller again, not making sense of what his guardian had said.

"What do you mean, Jii-chan?"

The elder stood up and pulled one of the drawers open after unlocking it. He pulled out an 8 x 10 picture with three people, one more forgiving, one vengeful, and the last one helpful. He walked back to the table. The old man placed the photo in front of his grandson, who took it gently in his hands. Yugi's eyes opened wide.

There Yami stood, with Mai and Bakura on either side. The once Pharaoh's eyes were sparkling, shining with a certain innocence that people used to say he had. Mai Kujaku, who Yugi had not seen since the Doma issue, was on Yami's right side, a kind smile on her face. On the left side of the picture, the spirit of the Sennen Ring, Bakura, had a certain possessiveness in his posture and eyes. He and Yami stood next to each other, a bit closer that Yugi saw fit.

Jou, Anzu, and Ryou looked at the picture over their friend's shoulder. Anzu noticed something. Bakura and Yami both had what appeared to be hospital bands on their right wrists.

"Why do they have those bracelets?" Sugoroku sighed once again.

"The place they live in now is associated with different hospitals in Japan. They call it a Recovering Community. People go there if their doctor doesn't think they are fit enough to return to society, whatever incident occured."

"So," Yugi asked, "How did Yami get hurt?"

"Somehow, he got amnesia when he attempted to commit suicide. He said the Sennen Puzzle didn't want him to be hurt anymore-"

"By who or what?" Jounouchi interjected.

"- by his own Hikari and Bakura. Bakura also has amnesia, who knows from what."

Yugi's mind soaked in the words. 'I hurt him...? How? Why?' All of a sudden, the hikari remember that night. All the insults he threw at the other, while the other tried to present a logical situation for his actions towards his other half. Yugi could picture it, his Yami running up the stairs, Jii-chan trying to keep the suicidal once-Pharaoh awake long enough to get to the hospital, and being disappointed when the other did not recognize him.

"Yug'?" Jounouchi watched as his friend stood, leaving the picture upon the surface of the kitchen table. Yugi walked up the stairs, every step heavier than the one before. He opened the door to his room, lifted up his mattress, and gently picked up the bottle into his arms. Yugi cradled the bottle, seeing his injured Yami in place of the cold crystal. He pulled back the covers, then pulled them over his body once he and the bottle had gotten comfortable in bed.

He rubbed his face against the smooth, coldness of his imaginary love. Yugi felt the other's lips against his, the softest curves of the other's torso. Tears escaped the eyes of amethyst as the image of his mind began to disappear.

"Don't leave... please... don't leave again." Nothing answered. He opened his eyes and, in the darkness cast by the blanket, saw his Yami's face in the gentle curve of the glass.

But in truth, it was nothing more than his reflection.

Yugi woke the next morning, the glass cracked slightly from his figure being pressed against it. Crystals flowed from his eyes, falling onto the crystal bottle. Anyone who saw the boy, crying over a cracked bottle of his 'lover's' blood would say that the boy was insane. Yes, he was insane, insane with love.

But above all, Yugi was saddened at the fact that his reflection was not Yami, just his reflection in the crystaline mirror.

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1) MESOPOTAMIA!!

2) He's mad, but he's also depressed.

Yuki, Yami, and Anika: O_O

Whoa...

Yami: That was crazy.

Anika: Ditto.

Yuki: I'm still in my mindset for the Naraku no Chibi Neko line of stories.

Yami: ;-; My Aibou is going crazy...

Yuki: (pats Yami on the head) Don't worry, everything will be fixed soon. (Looks at you) Recenseo et tu pario libum. ( Latin: Review and you get cake.)

BTW: PARTICIPATE IN THE POLL OR MORE BAD THINGS WILL HAPPEN, LIKE ME GIVING UP ON THIS STORY!!!