Chapter 8

Mother May I?

I looked back at Judai, holding his gaze for a moment before pushing the D-wheel towards the house. Leaning it against a nearby tree, Judai and I trudged through the still falling snow to the front door.

"Now there is one thing you may want to know about Martha," I started looking at Judai as I knocked on the door. "She's a lovely woman and made a great mother figure, but she can be a little," just then the door opened. Standing in the doorway was a stocky woman, with dark but comforting brown eyes, coiled black hair framing her round chocolate colored face. Wearing her usual brown dress and white apron, Martha was in the middle of drying a dish when she answered the door.

A smile crept onto my face as I started to say hi, but instead of audible words coming out, a painful yowl came out instead. Martha had thrown the towel over her shoulder and boxed my ear in the time it took me to start my sentence. "Yusei Fudo. What in God's name are you doing standing on my doorstep, wet and shivering and looking paler than the snow when you should be in the hospital?" Looking at her face, I could tell there were several other choice words she would have liked to say, but three kids stood behind her, peeking around the doors.

I was going to explain the situation but was stopped as more pain pierced from my ear. "Don't explain. I don't want to hear your excuses. The point is you shouldn't be standing here! I leave you boys on your own and this is how you come back? Not even a phone call in advanced. Such an ungrateful child." She interrupted, dragging me by the ear into the warm house. I gazed back at Judai, gesturing with my hand to follow.

Martha continued to drag me through the house and up the stairs, kids snickering at the strange scene and trailing us through the house. She only stopped after arriving at a small, vacant room with two beds, a nightstand next to each one and a white curtain between the two. A dresser with flowers and a lamp sat next to a window. She dragged me to the farthest bed and forced me to sit.

She left me there for a moment, shooed the kids out of the room, and closed the door behind them. Pausing for a moment and taking a deep sigh, she turned back on her heels and glared at me. "I hoped I would never have to see you in this room again, Yusei, but you seem to have a knack for trouble. So, care to tell me what you got yourself into this time?"

I stared at the floor, trying to think of where to start. If I told her why I was put in the hospital, she'd surely call Security to have Judai taken away. Maybe if I stayed silent, she'd give up on a back-story, but who was I kidding, I was talking to Martha.

Martha sighed again, placing her hands on her hips. "You're not going to tell me again aren't you? Should have known better than to ask, you never would tell me much even when you were a wee sprout. Fine, don't tell me. But don't you dare think of getting up from that bed you hear me, Yusei? I'll be back with some fresh clothes for you." She turned to go, but turned back, staring at Judai in the corner. "Who are you, child? A friend of Yusei's?"

"Yes ma'am! Judai Yuki is my name!" Judai replied in a chipper voice. "I came with Yusei when we were driving from Neo Domino, and he rescued me from the Public Security Bureau. Though frankly, I don't know why I was there anyhow."

Martha stood staring at Judai as I did a mental face palm at Judai's reply. Martha glanced over at me, and with one eyebrow raised, "The Public Security Bureau?"

All I could do was shrug, an innocent look on my face, but I was interrupted as fire raced across my back, causing me to grimace. Martha's suspicious died away, replaced with worry. "We'll talk about that later," and she left.

Judai stood there for a few moments, before bounding over to my bed. "She's kinda scary, but caring too. Are all mothers like that?"

I chuckled softly, my lungs aching at even this slight movement, but I shook my head. "Nope. Just Martha."

Judai beamed, "Well I like that about her!"

Another smile crept on my face, as I laid back onto the pillow and stared at the ceiling. "Judai," I began. "Do you not have parents either? You make it sound like you didn't have a mom growing up."

Judai shook his head with a smile on his face, "No, I have a mom and dad too. They were always away traveling or working though, so I was at home alone mostly. Never got to see them. Never even came to the few district card game tournaments I made it into, always saying they had some meeting or presentation to attend."

"Did that bother you?"

"No, not really. I had some of the neighborhood kids to play with and Yubel of course was always there for me too, well for a bit anyhow. Before I entered Junior high, I sent her to space with some cards I designed through the Kaiba Corporation. She kinda caused a few problems when I dueled, so I thought some of the space matter and waves would help her become good again. Though I guess it wasn't good for her, and it didn't help that my parents made me forget about Yubel."

"So how did you find her again? If she was sent to space and you forgot about her because of your parents, then what caused you to remember?" I asked, staring at Judai now.

"Well, she did that on her own, though not in the most friendly way. She kinda kidnapped my friends, transported us to a different dimension, and made me do some cruel things to people," Judai answered sullenly. "Everything worked out though. I ended up fusing Yubel's soul and mine so she would never be lonely again."

We sat in silence for a moment. Fusing one's soul with a duel monster spirit? I suppose that should not surprise me. Especially with how close Stardust and I are, so I guess Judai and Yubel are in the same boat. "You said earlier you don't know where she is, do you have her duel monster card though?"

Judai went silent for a moment, his hand moving to his pocket as he fished out his cards. It seemed like an eternity before he shook his head no and put the cards away.

The door opened with a creek and in stepped Martha, carrying a pile of clothes in her arms along with several bottles and bandage strips. She placed the clothes on the bed, separating them into two piles. "For you and Judai to change into. First though," she turned to Judai, "Judai, sweetheart, why don't you go get changed and freshen up. There's a bathroom down the hall. And if you're hungry there's some soup on the stove." It wasn't a recommendation, but a command hidden beneath a sweet voice.

Judai didn't question her and took one of the piles of clothes and left the room. Martha turned back to the bed, grabbing the bottle and bandage strips before turning to me. "Alright, kiddo, let's have a look. And maybe you can tell me how you got hurt again." Taking the jacket off was difficult, but the shirt caused so much pain that Martha ended up fetching a pair of scissors and cutting it off. As she stood over me, dabbing the burn with a strange ointment from the bottle and wrapping it with a bandage, I recounted what had happened the last few days. She didn't interrupt me or threaten to call the Sector Security when I told her who did this, and she didn't ask a single question. She just silently dressed the wound and listened.

When I was done talking, she sat on the other bed, absorbing what all I told her. Although I was still worried about what would happen to Judai, I was glad to finally tell somebody the full situation. Maybe she could even give me some advice on what to do.

Martha sat at the edge of the bed for several long silent moments, her face downcast and her hair coils covering her face. It was strange for her to be so silent. I had expected at least some yelling to ensue, some measure of anger at my stupidity for breaking Judai out of the Public Safety Bureau. And yet she sat in silence. Till she got up, walked over to the dresser, setting down her various medical equipment.

"Yusei, all I can tell you is you heaped this trouble on yourself. You are old enough now to know better than to think that running back to home will fix your problems. You are welcome to stay here, no, I demand you stay here and rest. But after you are fixed up, what you do is your concern. Not mine." Her words hit me like a brick to the face, though not quite as shocking as a brick would be.

As she left, I continued to sit in silence, letting her words sink in and realizing the truth behind them. Nothing could be done anyway till I rested and could move again without feeling nauseous from pain.

Suddenly, I was sleepy once more. The adrenaline from the day wearing off, replaced by numb pain in my shoulders and a throbbing side from the broken ribs. Laying back on the bed, I let my eyes close and I drifted to sleep, too tired to ponder the several dozen questions I had.

A.N ~

Hi all! So... ha. yea... it's been a while now. *coughs nervously. Okay! It's been like two years! Sorry about that. Life kind of got into full swing as I was writing this fanfiction and I fell out of the YGO fandom for a little while, but recently I remembered (with a twinge of guilt) that I never gave this fanfiction much of an ending.

So I'm going to try to do that soon! I wrote the majority of this chapter several years ago but never uploaded it for some reason, so although it's short, I hope it will satisfy you for a little while, whilst I figure out the ending to this bad boy and sit down to write it.

OTL Sorry about the no updates for several years thing. I hope you still enjoy my story and will stick around for more.

If you have any questions about the story, feel free to ask me and I will do my best to answer (though my YGO lore is a little rusty as I found out while rereading my entire fanfiction a few days ago). I encourage reviews and comments! I do read each and every one and they are really the entire reason I remembered I never finished this story, thus I really appreciate them!

Thanks again for reading and stay tuned for the next chapter! :D

~BlackLily22