Memories Should be Treasured

Yugi and Yami sat in the library, curled up together under a blanket on
the leather couch




Yugi and Yami sat in the library, curled up together under a
blanket on the leather couch. Both were impatiently waiting for Kiore to come
back with the verdict of Keith’s punishment and also were extremely nervous
over what it would be as well.

 

Finally, after seeming like decades they heard the front
door open and close and they scurried out of the room into the entrance hall.

 

Kiore looked at both of their faces with a frown on her face
and she could see r anr anxiety of what she had to tell them. Then a smile
broke out on her face and walked over to give the two boys a large hug. “It’s
going to be okay now boys. Everything’s going to be safe from now on.” She
promised.

 

“What happened, mother?” Yami asked after Kiore released
them.

 

“Keith’s going to jail for three years and there’s also a
restriction order placed on him from ever seeing us again and if he is caught
in trying to contact us he’ll be locked up for an additional year each time.”

 

“That’s great, mother!” Yami smiled happily, looking over to
Yugi who had tears streaming down his face. A frown quickly replaced his
excited smile and he held Yugi close. “Love, what’s wrong? Aren’t you happy
that Keith won’t be able to bother us anymore?”

 

“It’s just so overwhelming, Yami.” Yugi admitted as he wrapped
his own arms around Yami’s waist. “I don’t know what to say.”

 

Yami only shook his head and held Yugi tighter. “I’ve got to
call our friends and Nuka and tell them what’s happened. They’re waiting to
find out what happens to that bastard.”

 

“Yami! Watch your language!” Kiore scolded.

 

“Sorry, mother.” Yami mumbled before hurrying over to the
phone, pulling Yugi with him.

 

~~

 

The doorbell rang and Yami hurried over to answer it with
Yugi right behind him. When they opened the door they were completely freaked
out when all their friends stood there and yelled out, “Congratulations!”

 

“What’s this all for? You said you were just coming over,
not bringing a party with you?” Yami finally asked.

 

“We thought you deserved this.” Malik answered. “You get
Keith out of your lives forever so you never have to face him again and he has
to go to jail and live with what he’s lost for the rest of his life. How much
more perfect can a punishment be for a an asshole like him?”

 

With that said everybody walked through the door and headed
for the kitchen where they said they were going to put everything for their
celebration.

 

“Yami, I don’t get it. Why would they do something like this
for us even if they are our friends?”

 

Yami shook his head and led Yugi to the kitchen so he could
supervise his friends and make sure the house didn’t become a pigpen. “Well,
Yugi, that’s part of our group. You didn’t get to know them as long as I did
when we were in school. Whenever somebody in our group has something really
exciting like what just happened to us then they do something really big for
you to celebrate. I was just surprised they did it because I wasn’t expecting
them to now that we’re out of school, but I guess they’re still a bunch of
crazy people I like to hang around with I guess.”

 

“I guess this just proves how far great friendships can go,
ne Yami?”

 

Yami nodded and watched as his friends scurried around
excitedly as they set everything up for their party.

 

~~

 

Just as the door closed late that night after their friends
finally decided to leave the phone rang. Yami answered it tiredly before
brightening up as the voice of his cousin came over the phone.

 

Yugi yawned and mumbled to Yami he was going to go to bed.
When he walked in the room he noticed the shoebox he was packing small things
of his into sitting on the bed. He walked over and stared into it, his eyes
resting on a crimson box nearly hidden beneath a few pictures that he’d saved.
He remembered putting the box there the day before when he was trying to take
his mind off the trial when they got home; he hadn’t opened it to see what was
in it though. Just as he abouabout to open it Yami walked in complaining that
Nuka never sleeps and tends to forget other people need to. Yugi only nodded
and covered the shoebox with its lid before putting it up in the closet.

 

By morning he completely forgot about it.

 

~~

 

It was that fateful day nearly two weeks later that had
everybody nervous to death. Kiore had received a call from Mr. Johnson to come
to his office right away concerning Keith’s time in jail.

 

It was hours before she arrived back home and it seemed like
there wasn’t any blood circulating into her face it was so pale. When Yami
touched her arm to comfort her she broke down and hid her face in his shirt,
she wasn’t crying though she just held onto her son and didn’t want to let go
for some reason.

 

“Mother?”

 

“Oh, Yami!” She sighed nervously. “It’s just so terrible!”

 

Yugi walked cautiously down the stairs when he saw that
Kiore had collapsed into his lover’s arms. Curious as he was to find out what
was wrong, he didn’t want to interrupt them so he sat down on the bottom step
and waited to be noticed by the two standing in front of the open doorway.

 

“Mother, what did Mr. Johnson tell you about Keith? Did the
court change their minds or something?”

 

Kiore shook her head and gestured for Yami to follow her
into the study, both stiot not noticing the violet-eyed teen watching them.

 

Yugi stood and decided it wasn’t going to hurt anyone if he
listened quietly to what they were saying.

 

Kiore used the remote on the desk to turn on the T.V. in the
far corner of the room. She changed the channel to 15 and all three listened to
what was happening in the world that day.

 

“…I’m Shane Wesley and this is Channel 15 news. Sorry to
interrupt your regularly programmed show but something extremely important has
come up at Kyoto State Prison(1). Keith Bandit, recently put in jail for a term
of three years for rape and child abuse two weeks earlier, has escaped from
jail and has left no trace to his current whereabouts. The police have found
that Keith’s cell had a tunnel barely big enough for him to crawl through
underneath his bed. Searching back to earlier events it was found that another,
less dangerous threat to society, had also escaped from the same cell Keith had
been occupying. The previous criminal who had escaped had left a diversion
though so it seemed like he had picked the lock on the door with a sharpened
bone from one of his meals rather when he really had created the hole under the
bed.

 

This man is a dangerous threat to society and will not
hesitate to harm anyone. If you see this man,” a picture of Keith appeared on
the screen as the voice continued on, “it would be in everybody’s best
interests if you would immediately call the authorities.”

 

A voice in the background said something about now returning
to the regularly programmed show before Kiore shut it off and looked at her
son.

 

“He escaped because the police couldn’t bother to search the
cell? Are people really that incompetent? He’s dangerous for Kami’s sake and
they didn’t give him high security! What is this world coming to! How am I
going to tell Yugi?”

 

Just at that moment a crash was heard behind them and they
turned to see Yugi sprawled on the floor with stricken wide eyes and a pale
face, the table that occupied just outside the study’s door was now laying on
the floor with the vase of flowers that sat on it spreading on the floor and
glass broken and sparkling in the light.

 

“Yugi!” Yami rushed over and helped Yugi up. “Yugi, are you
okay? What happened?”

 

Yugi just held him tightly and shook his head back and forth
as memories of Keith and what he’d done flooded through his mind. “I heard
everything, Yami. Keith’s going to come for us, I know it.” He cried into the
older’s shirt.

 

“Shh, don’t worry, Yugi. Everything’s going to be okay,
Yugi, don’t worry.” Yami tried calming him as he rocked them back and forth on
the floor, but it didn’t seem to be working. Finally he decided he needed help
and he picked Yugi up off the floor and carried him in his arms. “Mom, I’m
going over to Joey’s. I’ll be back in a few hours.” Yami called as he walked to
the door.

 

Kiore only nodded as she understood Yami needed his friends’
help. She went to the closet in the kitchen and took out a broom and a
washcloth to go clean up the mess from the vase.

 

~~

 

Yami parked in front of the apartment buildings and carried
his smaller lover to the door and up the stairs to where Joey and Seto stayed.
nocknocked rapidly on the door until finally the brunette opened the door.

 

“Yami, what happened?” He asked when he finally took in the
scene in front of him with a disheveled Yami standing there with a pale face
and holding Yugi who was even more pale faced and tears coursing uncontrollably
down his face and he held Yami’s shirt tightly.

 

“I can’t calm him down, Seto. You’ve got to help. He saw the
news and…Oh, Seto; you’ve got to help me. I don’t know what to do.” Yami
pleaded desperately.

 

Seto nodded and led Yami to the living room and sat him down
on the couch. Joey just came out of the bedroom with wet hair and a towel
grasped in his hand.

 

“Yami?” He asked as he saw his best friend sitting on the
couch with Yugi crying hysterically in his arms.

 

“Joey, go get that one thick blanket from the closet.” Seto
called as he walked into the room with two mugs of hot chocolate in his hands.

 

Joey nodded and went down the hall again.

 

Seto sat down on the couch and handed one of the mugs to
Seto and set the other on the table to give to Yugi after he calmed down.

 

Joey came back with the blanket and he and Seto helped curl
it around Yugi small body and watched as the younger teen curled into it and
grasped it tightly.

 

After a few minutes Yugi finally calmed down and was nearly
asleep in the soft blanket. Yami watched amazed as Seto took the mug off the
table and gently handed it to Yugi who took it gratefully.

 

Red eyes stared at the brunette questioningly and Seto
laughed and shook his head. “I think I’m going to call that blanket the miracle
blanket, it works every time.”

 

“How did you get him to calm down so easily?” Yami asked
curiously.

 

“Like I said, the blanket’s a miracle. Every time somebody’s
been impossibly hysterical and won’t calm down for anybody we just wrap it
around them with some hot chocolate waiting for them if possible and they calm
down in just minutes. It really puzzles me how it works, but it does.” He took
the now empty mug from Yugi and set it down on the couch.

 

“Thanks, Seto. I really appreciate your help.”

 

Seto waved it off. “What are friends for? So what happened?”

 

Joey also sat on the couch now to find out what happened to
make his friend’s lover get so hysterical.

 

“He saw the news.” Yami answered simply. “My mother got a
call from Mr. Johnson and when she came home she was upset. When I asked her
what was wrong she took my to the study and she turned on the news where it
said Keith had escaped and nobody was safe now that he wasn’t being watched and
hadn’t even come close to finishing his three year period in jail. When it was
over there was a loud crash and Yugi was on the ground with the table and the
vase on the floor. He told me that he heard everything and then he started
crying and he wouldn’t calm down.”

 

Seto thought for a minute before nodding. “That makes
sense.”

 

“Glad it does to you. Mind explaining what happened to my
boyfriend?”

 

“Well Keith raped him and said terrible things about you and
him, right?” Yami nodded. “Then he made him lose his memory,” Yami nodded
again. “It’s my opinion, so I might be wrong, but since Yugi’s so innocent and
nothing like this has ever happened it was such a shock. When he saw the news I
suppose he finally snapped and couldn’t control himself anymore.”

 

Yami held Yugi closer. “I see now. Poor Yugi; I never wanted
something awful to happen to him. I feel like the worst person in the world.”

 

“Aw Yami, don’t beat yourself up. Something like this was
going to happen and you wouldn’t have been able to stop it even if you tried.”
Joey told him seriously.

 

Yami nodded. “I suppose.” He stood. “Thanks for your help,
guys. I don’t want my mother to worry since I don’t even remember if I said
where I was going so I should probably get back.”

 

Seto and Joey stood with him and helped him with the now
limp Yugi back to the car. Before closing the door for him, Seto asked if Yami
would call tomorrow and tell them how Yugi was doing.