It Was a Dark And Stormy Night

Body

Here we go - the last chapter. Big, big BIG thanks to everyone who reviewed!!!!

And yes, I do have something big in mind as a followup.....

Cartoon Network (in the US) just started airing the show again (yaay!) and they picked up right at the Kaiba/Pegasus duel. I have to confess that I was gloating the first time I saw it - at first, anyway. Seto Kaiba had been coming across as such a rotten arrogant bastard up until then that I confess I was very much enjoying seeing him go down (by the same nasty little trick he played on Yugi, nonetheless) - that is, until dear sweet Yugi started to cry. Then I felt like I was maybe an inch tall. (In less adept hands, a character as sweet and good-hearted and compassionate as Yugi would come off as an insufferable little goody two shoes and Yami would just be pompous and annoyingly preachy - not the adorable angel and the sexy dark avenger.....) Actually, I think the moment I fell in love with Yugi's character was a few episodes earlier, after the duel with the Paradox brothers, when he declared "All right! Grandpa, here I come!" started toward the castle - and tripped and fell flat on his face. He's so brave and so vulnerable all at once that you just can't help but love him.

No warnings - just some angst, apologies and the quest for pizza continued......

Disclaimer - they're not mine, except for Jada. If they were, Tea would be comotose. ("Oh, but you have to let us in! We're the cheerleaders!" Rrrrrrr. Ever actually wanted to strangle a character on TV?)

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Pegasus awoke abruptly, not because he'd heard something - but because he wasn't hearing anything - except snoring. The onslaught of wind and rain had abruptly ceased. He sat up to squint at the clock across the room - his vision in his one good eye wasn't all that stellar, either - and saw it was a little past two. According to the radio, that was about the time the eye would pass over Domino City. The Eye----he shivered, closing his. How he wished he'd never heard of the Ra-damned thing. That strange man in the turban had totally misled him, and he'd allowed it to happen - and the full extent of the damage he'd done made him wonder if he really would be better off dead. Worse, the heartache that had driven him to such brutal extremes hadn't subsided; time had dulled it from a slashing knife blade to a slow throbbing ache, an actual physical pain that awakened him at nights, there, in the center of his chest -- the line from the old Peanuts strip about the jagged edges of a broken heart poking you in the sides at night and keeping you awake was, in fact, quite accurate. He was absolutely at a loss for what to do now - and, he realized, utterly, completely alone. He shivered again, opening his eyes to look around the basement. He was sleepon ton the surprisingly soft rug, using a discarded sofa cushion for a pillow. Closest to him were Yugi and Yami, snuggled serenely together on the air mattress he'd insisted they take. The little duelist was cuddled back against his darker half, teaspoon nestled into tablespoon - make that a half-teaspoon, Pegasus thought in amusement. He'd forgotten just how small Yugi Mutou really was. The dark spirit -- Yami -- was curled around him from behind, one arm locked protectively around his little one's waist, the other pillowing Yugi's head. Nearby were Ryou and Bakura, also asleep and using a sofa cushion as a pillow. Tristian, the source of the snoring, was a few feet away, snoozing on a recliner. Seto and Joey were asleep on one of the two convertable sofas, which they hadn't bothered to convert. Jada and Mokuba were asleep on the one nearest him, which was where the sofa cushions were from. Mokuba was snuggled innocently against his cousin's back. Pegasus sighed again, closing his eyes. He missed Cynthia. He always missed her, of course, but right now it was even worse than usual. He needed to be held, reassured that he wasn't entirely awful, that someone could love him.

Nearby, Yami shifted in his sleep, bringing the arm under Yugi's head up and accidently hitting the little duelist on the nose. Yugi started awake, eyes wide, ducking out of the line of fire as the pharaoh rolled over on his back. He started to snuggle back up against his dark love, but realized Pegasus was sitting up.

"Are you all right?" he asked softly, not wanting to wake the others.

Pegasus nodded. "I think we're in the eye of the storm. I'm going to take a look upstairs and see how bad it is."

"I'll come with you," Yugi said, easing away from the exhausted Yami without awakening him. Pegasus smiled, glad of the company.

Upstairs wasn't as bad as they expected, given the horrible noises earlier. The hole in the roof wasn't significantly larger than the last time they'd seen it. Overhead, the clouds had thinned enough to let a hazy moon show through. The air filtering into the house, however, was heavy and dank, smelling of the sea and steam and swampy decay.

"Maybe it won't be too bad," Yugi said hopefully.

"Maybe." Pegasus sat down on the top stair. "How is your grandfather doing, by the way?"

"He's fine. He got stuck in Cairo because he couldn't get a flight out, so Seto invited us over here," Yugi said, sitting down as well.

Pegasus looked at his hands for a moment, then back up at Yugi, his one visible eye troubled. "Yugi, I'm very sorry for everything I did to you and your grandfather - and to Yami. I wish I could think of some way to undo the damage I caused on Duelist Island. However, I would not undo your ultimate victory. You deserved to win the championship." He smiled, a warm smile very unlike his usual smug, chilly smirk.

Yugi blushed, looking down. "It was Yami, not me."

"It was you, koi." Yami had awakened and come to see what was going on. He sat down by Yugi, putting an arm around him. "Is the storm over?"

"I think it's the eye," Yugi said.

"Yami?" Pegasus said. "I owe you an apology, too, for what I put you and Yugi -- and his grandfather --- through on the island. I was wrong. There's nothing else I can say. I was completely wrong." He looked down again.

Yami was taken aback. It took him a moment to find his voice. "Yugi long ago found it in his heart to forgive you," he said at last. "If my aibou can find forgiveness in his heart, then I can as well."

"Thank you," Pegasus said, his voice very nearly breaking. "Perhaps someday I'll be able to forgive myself, too."

Yugi didn't say anything - he didn't know what to say - but his big amethyst eyes filled with tears. Pegasus was reminded of the disasterous duel with Seto Kaiba - he would have expected Yugi to gloat, seeing his adversary fall to the same trick that had nearly cost him his only chance to save his grandfather - but instead Yugi had broken down crying, devastated and vowing revenge. At the time, he had dismissed it as weakness. Now he prayed to whatever gods might still be up there that he could find that sort of strength before it was too late.

Clouds quickly scudded over the moon, hiding it, and they all looked up apprehensively.

"I think the storm's coming back," Yugi said apprehensively.

"We'd better get back downstairs," Yami agreed, offering Pegasus a hand up.

~*~

"Cool! The house didn't fall down!" Mokuba scampered up the stairs to see if everything in his room was okay.

"Careful!" Seto hurried after him.

"It doesn't look too bad," Joey agreed, looking up through the missing corner of the roof. It was late the next morning. The sun had come out about nine AM. The sky was a brilliant blue laced with puffy clouds and a fresh breeze was blowing. "Now we just have to get the duct tape off the windows---"

"I told you not to use duct tape," Yugi said. "My Grandpa put up Christmas lights with it once and we almost couldn't get it off the store windows."

"....power should be restored fully to all areas by early this afternoon," the radio was saying. Apparently the money the city had spent burying the majority of its power lines after the last hurricane had paid off. The lights had come back on in the Kaiba household about half an hour ago. Outside, a lot of trees were damaged or down, but overall, it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Ryou, Bakura and Tristian had already headed home.

"So where are you going to go now?" Jada was asking Pegasus. She had showered and changed clothes - for once wearing a yellow sleeveless top without any sarcastic sayings on it at all - and jeans that had lavish, predominatelylow low trim with a pattern of hieroglyphs around the bottom of the legs. Yami didn't have the heart to tell her that the glyphs spelled out something obscene.

"I'm not sure. I guess I should see if they'll still let me into my own house," he said, smiling wryly.

"Well, give me a call sometime, okay?" she said. "Let me know how you're making out."

He smiled. "I intend to. I still owe you a thank you dinner, at least."

Seto came downstairs. "Upstairs is pretty intact," he said. "Just a couple of broken windows." He looked at Pegasus. "Will you be all right heading back over there?" Pegasus ahd apologized to him and Mokuba as well,t mot morning. Seto had found himself unable to hold a grudge, as much as he would have liked to. Apparently Yugi was rubbing off on him.

"Oh, I'm giving him a ride, Dragon Breath," Jada said.

"In whose car?" Seto smirked.

In reply, she held up the keyring for his Cherokee. "Duh."

"Oh." He hurried to the door after them. "Just don't ride the clutch this time!"

Yami chuckled, then looked at Yugi. "How are you, chibi tenshi?"

"Better." Yugi leaned against Yamhen hen looked up into his darker half's eyes. Yami hugged him closer, kissing him tenderly.

"Hey, Yami?" Yugi said when their lips parted, "When Jada gets back, do you want to go out for hamburgers?"

Jada suddenly poked her head back in. "Hey guys, come on! Pegasus and I are going to track down the biggest freaking pizza in Domino City!"

"Now you're talking!" Joey whooped.

"On second thought, let's get burgers later," Yugi said.

Yami laughed as he followed his beloved and Joey. "As you wish, aibou."


"Damn, you're still on that?" Seto said in mock exasperation as Mokuba ran by, yelling "Yeah! PIZZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Seto ran after him. "Hey, wait for me!"


~end~