Okay, so here's my FIRST update of the year. Sorry but-actually, I take that back; I'm NOT sorry. I have to focus on getting a real career instead of just having a job. So since I have all summer, here's something I've had in my head for a while. I'm probably going to try to update older stories first. But I have a few "Baby Tales" bits that I want to put up too. My twin nephews inspire me so much! That is, if anyone wants it. I know my baby Yugi stories are old, but They're just SOOOOOO cute!

So anyway, here's a long over-due chapter. I'll try to have something else posted this week too. Ciao!

Chapter 5: Quarantined

Atem could not believe what he was hearing: his light had the plague. The word kept ringing through his ears. Worst of all, if Yugi did not get some kind of treatment soon, he would probably not recover! He had to think fast.

"So, what do we do?" He asked with a small tremor hidden in his voice. It was vague and unoriginal, but it was the only thing he could think of to say in a situation such as the one he currently found himself in.

The doctor closed his eyes for a second and sighed.

"I'm afraid we're going to have to quarantine him."

Alarms went off in Atem's ancient head and a vein began to pop out. All he could think of was the separation anxiety that he would experience if he and Yugi were apart for too long of a time. Both Atem and Yugi suffered from it if they had to be separated; it was part of the whole "dark and light" thing. Yugi would get very withdrawn and depressed, while Atem became short-tempered (even more so than usual) and close to the point of being homicidal. No, Atem was not going to let these quacks keep him and his light from each other! But before he could voice his thoughts, Solomon asked:

"For how long?"

The doctor only shrugged his shoulders. "I estimate a month, at least."

Hearing this, Atem's blood was boiling in his veins. It was as if he were already feeling the effects of the separation when it had not even happened yet.

"No, you canNOT separate us!"

The doctor stared at Atem, then sighed. Personally, he hated it when he had to quarantine his patiants; but he had to think about the health and safety of others as well.

"I'm sorry, sir … but we have no other choice. We need to prevent an outbreak."

Tea saw that little twitch in Atem's eye, the one that appeared whenever Yugi's safety was in jeoperdy. She could tell that he was about to do something strange—as was his nature when it came to his little light—and she wanted to prevent it.

"Atem, I think we should"— She tried to put her hand on his shoulder to calm the ancient one down, but Atem harshly shrugged it off.

"Outbreak? I'll show you an outbreak!"

Suddenly, Atem raced towards Yugi, cutting through the medical professionals that blocked his way and ignoring their complaints.

"Sir, stop!" But before anything could be done, Atem placed his hand over Yugi's mouth and then over his own, smirking. Everyone in the entire emergancy room was shocked at his actions. They all just stood there, watching Atem, who was still smirking.

"Oops. I guess you're going to have to quarentine me too, now."

So that was this mad man's plan all along. As his friends stood there, speechless and in shock, Solomon stood with his arms folded and slowly shaking his head out of disappointment. Atem was usually very mature for his age (ancient or not), but the way he handled this situation was just childish.

The doctor just sighed. "Well played, sir. Well played."

Two hours later, Atem had come out of the small bathroom that was provided for Yugi and him in the quarantine ward, which was located in a secluded area in the basement, before the morgue. Atem had to remove his usual clothes and wear the "sanitized" scrubs that were provided for him. The only thing that he kept was his cartuche, which he never took off. He looked himself in the mirror and thought about how out-of-place he felt in these clothes and sighed.

"This is going to take some getting used to …" Not being used to the cotton-polyester fabric, he tacklessly scratched himself under his armpit.

After deciding that there was nothing he could do, he looked over at Yugi, who was still asleep in the hospital bed. He now took a closer look and was able to see just how sickly his little light really looked.

The boy had an oxygen mask over his face, which encased his mouth and nose. A heart monitor sat right next to his bed, beeping away to tell all that Yugi was still alive. The machine that held the heart monitor also had a machine that told Yugi's current temperature. At the moment, it read 104.7. An IV had been placed into a vein in his arm. His pale skin was paler than usual, making him appear to be almost ashen. There were dark, purple circles under his eyes. The boy's hair was sagging a little bit; the life in it looking almost completely drained.

It broke Atem's heart to see Yugi like this. But it hurt even more so to think that this could have been prevented, had they gone straight to the hospital instead of going to that idiot that told the that Yugi only had the flu. At that moment, Atem wished that Yugi only had the flu.

"I'm sorry, Yugi …"

Said boy's body began to stur, startling Atem in the process. The younger's eyes slowly opened. That youthful spark which usually made Yugi's eyes shine, was so dim that it was almost completely gone. Just by looking at him, one would think that he was at death's door.

One of Yugi's ailing hands instinctivly reached up to remove the tube that was in his nose that connected the oxygen mask to his face. Upon seeing this, alarms went off in Atem's head. He immediately ran to his light's side and stopped Yugi from pulling the tube out.

"Yugi, no; you need that."

Yugi's dull, half-lidded eyes looked up at his dark with confusion. The boy opened his mouth to speak, but clutched it with his whole hand in pain as soon as the first syllable was emitted.

"No, don't speak. Speak to me through the link if you need to."

Yugi took a moment to collect himself before speaking telepathically to his darker half.

'Where are we?' He asked. Even telepathically, Yugi seemed as if he was straining to speak.

Atem ran his long fingers through his light's hair before answering. "We're in the hospital." He was still playing with Yugi's hair as the younger took a look around.

He saw that he was hooked up to all kinds of machines; that was to be expected. But he noticed that their room had glass walls, leading out to a long hallway that ended in, what looked like a lab. Yugi had never seen a hospital room with glass walls before. This was certainly strange.

A phone that was sitting on a small end table along the front glass wall rang. Yugi looked at his dark. He knew that Atem had left something out of his explaination. Yugi did not have to use the link in order to ask Atem his question.

"We've been moved to an isolated location … we've been quaranined."

Yugi openly gasped, which caused his constricted lungs to unexpectedly expand and rapidly made the boy cough his loose, rouch cough. Atem gave him a little cup of water, which the light eagerly gulped down.

"Take it easy, Yugi …" Atem whispered.

Yugi used the trick that his doctors tought him to do when it came to controlling his breathing: he inhaled deeply through his nose and then exhaled slowly out of his mouth. After a few minutes of that, his breathing had calmed down, though his chest was still very tight.

'Quarantined? Why?'

"Because you don't have the flu," a brief moment of hope passed through Yugi's eyes, "you have the plague." The hope that shown in those eyes faded with that bit of information and was replaced with horror.

Yugi knew all about the plague. He learned about in school how it wiped out most of Europe in the middle ages. He knew how fast it came one and how fast it ended.

'T-the plague? But how?'

Atem sighed. How was he supposed to tell Yugi that, allegedly, his cat was the one that made him sick? Granted, if Yugi despised that cat as much as he did, Atem would have no problem admitting it. But Yugi loved Ezzy—he was the one to give her a home when she was just a hungry stray kitten. He loved taking care of Ezzy. The ancient one took a deep breath to ready himself.

"Well, the doctors call it pneumonic plague …" He answered. Technically, he was beating around the bush, trying to stall until he came up with a gentle way of breathing the news to his little light. Unfortunetally for him, Yugi picked up on his dark's struggle.

'What's wrong, Yami? How did I get this? I know you know …'

Even vitally ill, Yugi's look of determination was always effective. Atem sighed again before continuing.

"Yugi, they think that Ezzy may have eaten a mouse or something … that carried the virus, and she passed it on to you."

Yugi's eyes widened as much as they could. How could his cat make him sick?

"They said that just by petting her you could have picked it up."

A tremble passed the little light's lips. 'What's going to happen to her?'

"She's going to have to be quarantined too."

'With us?'

Atem shook his head. "At the vet."

The boy's eyes began to water. Poor Ezzy … no one would be there to pet her, to play with her, or to snuggle with her for … 'How long?'

"Ten days."

Yugi groaned again. That was a long time to be locked up in a cage to someone that had no concept of time.

'What about us?'

Atem casually shrugged his shoulders. "However long it takes for you to recover and not be contagious anymore.

This was a lot to take in. Yugi's ailing head was now literally pulsing with pain. He laid back on the bed, trying to ease the pain. Atem acompanied him by sitting on the edge of the mattress. He began to run his fingers through Yugi's hair again. This massage started to lessen the pain.

Suddenly, Yugi sat up as thought occurred to the younger. 'Hey, what are you doing here?'

Atem smirked. Truth be told, he was having fun playing with the doctors' heads. "They think that because I came in contact with you, that I've contracted the virus.: He could not help the small chuckle that escaped his lips.

Yugi raised a brow. 'But you can't get sick.'

This time, Atem's mocking chuckle rose in volume. It became evident to Yugi that he was not even trying to hide his amusement. "I know, but they don't. And that's what's funny about it!"

Yugi flopped his head back down on the pillow and sighed. 'Why don't you just tell them?'

Atem gave Yugi "are you kidding me?" look. "Is the virus attacking your brain, Yugi?"

Yugi widened his eyes in offense.

"Sure, I'll just say "hey, I'm a ressurrected five-thousand-year-old pharaoh from Ancient Egypt. A benefit of it is immunity to ailments. So can you stop with the tests now?" Right, they'll start testing me for mental illnesses then."

Yugi had to smile at this. Even in a condesending tone, Atem had a good way of using logic, and it made the little light silently laugh. He had to admit that it did feel good having someone else quarantined with him. The fact that it was his dark made him feel safer. He knew that the other would not let anything happen to him. A wave of relief calmed Yugi down as he drifted off into a much needed sleep.

End of Chapter