Within the Shadows

~(*)~
Wearily, Yuugi rolled over onto his stomach, cursing the brilliance of the light that dared to disturb his slumber. He hid his face in the crook of his elbow, shielding his eyes from the offending rays. He didn’t want to wake up yet; he was so comfortable.

He shifted on the ground, trying to hide his face in the shadow of his body. Sighing happily at the accomplishment, Yuugi snuggled down ready to go back to sleep again.

Wait a minute…ground?

Eyes flying open, Yuugi shot straight up. Instantly, all the blood rushed to his head and he spiraled back down with a painful moan. He waited a few precious moments to let his head and eyes adjust to being awake, then slowly sat back up again. Blinking furiously, Yuugi searched his surroundings.

Trees were the first things he recognized, then his brain caught up with his eyesight and he recognized the familiar scenery that surrounded the way station. He turned his head to look behind him, and true enough, the way station stood quietly behind him.

What…happened? The last thing he remembered was being on the path, worrying about getting to the way station before dark. He didn’t remember actually getting here, had he slept walked?

The package! He remembered suddenly. He would be skinned alive (not quite literally) if the package was gone and he had no excuse except that he didn’t remember! Panicking, Yuugi searched for the package. His heart sank when he couldn’t see it after the first few moments. Grandpa’s gonna kill me. He let his body fall over to the side in exhaustion. How was he going to explain this?

“Ouch!” Yuugi yelped, rubbing his shoulder where it had hit something sharp and hard. Glaring, Yuugi turned to see what he had nearly fallen onto. “The package!” he gasped happily. Sure enough, the package sat innocently next to him, sharp edges and all. Quickly, Yuugi searched the package for any signs of damage, sighing gratefully when he found none. That was one tragedy averted.

However, his relief did not last long. His mind turned back to the reason behind why he was lying on the ground outside of the way station. That had been his destination, but why hadn’t he made it? He didn’t remember getting sleepy enough to actually fall asleep walking, but how else could he have gotten here?

The ground was soft against his hand, causing him to pause in his thinking. He turned his eyes downward curiously.

A blanket lay underneath him. Darkened colors of blue, green, and red outlined some rather intricate patterns. Awed, Yuugi fingered the soft fabric. It felt like cotton, but it was thinner that the cotton Yuugi knew of. It wasn’t silk, that he was sure of, but he truly had no idea what kind of fabric it was. Where did this come from? He wondered silently. Did a tribesman help him? But there were no tribes nearby! Another traveler, perhaps? Yuugi shook his head; no, people nowadays were too suspicious to help a stranger. Wait a minute…why did this pattern look familiar?

...Yuugi’s heart thudded as the dim light revealed the other person. It was a man, maybe a few inches taller than himself, with wild black and red hair. He was wearing distinctly foreign clothes: flowing and robe-like in design, but the ends of the sleeves and pants were bound to their respective limbs with a golden ring, deep, rich colors of green and blue highlighted with red created strange patterns, and he was shoe-less. Strings of bead and feathers decorated the man’s hair, and a strange circle rested on his forehead...

The red-eyed man! How could he have forgotten him?! Suspiciously, Yuugi looked around. Aside from the birds squawking in the trees, he was alone. There was no smoke coming from the chimney of the way station, and there weren't any tied up beasts of burden. Heart beating furiously, Yuugi tried to remember why his blood raced so at the thought of the other. What had happened?

...Yuugi couldn't recall when the other had leaned down closer to his face, but he instantly noticed when the stranger’s mouth rested right above his. Mentally and physically, he froze, unable to even voice a protest when the stranger closed the gap and kissed him...

W-What?! He had been kissed?! And by a guy?! Furiously, Yuugi scrubbed at his face with his hands. There was no way that he liked it! That was wrong! Unnatural!

Shakily, Yuugi scrambled off of the blanket, afraid of the meaning behind it. He remembered last night now: the kiss, the feelings, and the fight. Were they fighting over him? But why? He was nothing worth fighting over.

Implications of the kiss continued to hit him over the head. Hadn’t he thought about last night how none of the women he had encountered had attracted him? Sure, he could appreciate the body, but truly none had ever really stirred any feelings in him like that one kiss had.

“No!” Yuugi screeched. He refused to believe that he had liked that kiss! He must have been drugged! That’s it! The red-eyed stranger had slipped some kind of potion or liquid drug into his mouth at that first contact! It was the only explanation!

Sneezing, Yuugi dusted himself off. When he thought about it, the blanket did smell a lot like that stranger had. He couldn’t identify what kind of smell it was: it wasn’t bad or good, it was just a smell. His clothes were clean, he also noticed, too clean to have been sleeping on the ground. His skin was free of grim too. What…exactly have gone on during his lapse in consciousness?

Afraid and unwilling to think more of it, Yuugi grabbed the package, shoved it up onto his shoulders, and set course for the town.

~(*)~

“Yuugi!” Yuugi braced himself as a blond blur launched out of the house and onto his shoulders. “Darling, I was so worried!” Grimacing under the added weight, Yuugi tried to shrug off his pack from his shoulders, scowling when the one of the straps caught and held fast. “Where have you been!”

“It’s nice to see you too, Rebecca.” He mumbled, attempting to shift the strap into a more comfortable position until Rebecca detached herself from his arm. Honestly, it hadn’t been that long since he and his grandpa had visited the Hawkins’s home. Grandpa was here when Mr. Hawkins had placed the order (and, of course, Yuugi had come with him).

“Is that all you're gonna say?!” Rebecca huffed dramatically. Wait, were those tears?! “I can’t believe you, Yuugi Mouto!”

“Rebecca dear,” interrupted an elderly voice. “Give the poor boy some air.” Thank you! Yuugi thought gratefully as Mr. Hawkins stepping in to save his life. “He’s not going to vanish right in front of you.” Rebecca, after a moment’s hesitation, finally let him go.

Gasping in air, Yuugi carefully set the pack on the ground. He rolled his shoulders, stretching the stiff muscles of his shoulder and upper back. Man, that home stretch to the town seemed a lot harder than it should have been.

“Where were you?” Rebecca demanded harshly. Yuugi blinked at the emotion in her voice. Was it really that big a deal that he stayed the night at (next to) the way station? They should have know that he would have stopped there when it got dark, and Grandpa had sent them a telegram about the time of his departure.

“What are you talking about? It’s only been a day; I had to stop at the way station ‘cause it got too dark to travel. What?” The two Hawkins were giving him incredulous looks, Rebecca’s near to explosion while Mr. Hawkins’s was just shocked.

“Rebecca dear,” Mr. Hawkins said after he had composed himself. “Why don’t you go telegram Mr. Mouto that Yuugi’s here.” Rebecca hesitated again, like he wasn’t going to be here when she got back, but she still did as she was told and disappeared into the house.

“Yuugi,” Mr. Hawkins started after Rebecca was fully gone. “what exactly happened on your way here.”

“I told you,” Yuugi insisted. “I stopped at the way station because it got too dark to travel. What’s wrong? You guys act like I’ve been gone for days.”

The following pause spoke volumes.

“W-wait,” Yuugi stuttered as Mr. Hawkins watched him. “You’re saying that I haven’t just been gone a day? B-but that’s not possible! I would remember if I had been gone longer than that! Tell me you’re joking!” Yuugi pleaded. He couldn’t have been gone that long. There had been no dust, no animal droppings near where he had been laying this morning. And anyone who used the way station would have recognized him and helped him inside.

“Yuugi,” The old man paused dramatically. “...you’ve been gone for five days.”

~(*)~

Shakily, Yuugi sipped his herbal tea. Normally, he wasn’t much for tea, but the situation called for it now, before he went into shock. He suspected the Mr. Hawkins had slipped something else into his drink, but it was only helping to make his mind clearer so he didn't comment on it.

Rebecca was bustling around the room, nervously cleaning things until Mr. Hawkins bade her to calm down. She eventually left the room, claiming that she was going to make something for her poor Yuugi-kins to eat. Mr. Hawkins, however, was taking the pressure much better than his granddaughter. He was sitting across from Yuugi, sipping regally out of his own teacup.

Quietly, Yuugi glared at the foreign blanket sitting on the table. He didn’t know why he couldn’t leave it back at the way station. He had just subconsciously put it into his pack as he had left, and it now found its way into the open. Mr. Hawkins, thankfully, wasn’t interrogating him like Rebecca had repeatedly tried to do for the past hour or so. She was frustrated at his lack of answers, but there was nothing he could do about it.

He truthfully didn’t remember what happened to him for those other four days.

Aside from the questions, his grandpa had been contacted. The old man was nearly weeping with grief, and Yuugi immediately felt guilty. The old man had instantly declared that he was coming to the Hawkins’s home, and after some heavy convincing, he agreed to wait for one of the caravans that were leaving early the next morning. To some extent, Yuugi was grateful for the delay; it would give him time to get his head back on straight.

“Yuugi?” Mr. Hawkins finally prompted, having successfully given Rebecca something constructive to do. “What do you remember?”

Yuugi discreetly hid his blush behind his teacup. How was he to word this without Mr. Hawkins getting the wrong idea?

“It was dark,” he started, “and I was heading for the way station to wait until morning. Grandpa knew that was probably what I was going to do, since I hadn’t left until late that day.” Yuugi paused, trying to pick his words carefully. “I…there was another person on the road. He was wearing weird clothes, a lot like that blanket there, and some golden jewelry. My first impression was that he was a tribesman.”

Mr. Hawkins looked thoughtful at Yuugi’s confession. No doubt, the old man was going through all the books and scrolls he had read to find any similarities. Each tribe was rather unique, so it was difficult to get one confused with another. Eventually, he waved Yuugi on, bidding him to continue.

“I-I…he got so close, then I t-think he drugged me. I can’t remember anything from then on; it gets all fuzzy.

“Yuugi, what did he do when he got close?” Mr. Hawkins, ever the sharp thinker, caught his little omission. “Please, Yuugi, this may be important.”

“H-he…ah, he,” Yuugi stuttered, blushing uncontrollably. “He …kissed me.” Yuugi whispered the last part, and looked frantically around for a way out. Mr. Hawkins’s jaw had gone slack momentarily, but he had covered his shock better than Rebecca did, who had just walked in to hear that last part. And she immediately jumped to conclusions.

“No! My poor Yuugi-kins was raped!”

“Rebecca!”

“I was not!”

Sinking deeper into his chair, Yuugi had a feeling that it was going to be a long night.

~(*)~

Yuugi lay silently in his borrowed bed, staring blankly at the ceiling. His eyes trailed unseen patterns, and his mind fought to find some kind of understanding. Thoughts from his conversation with Mr. Hawkins plagued his mind, and the implications made his heart twist painfully.

He couldn’t have been raped. For one thing, he felt perfectly fine, and from conversations he had overhead from women, you were sore after…doing it. Men always talked about the feeling of elation and of superiority. He felt neither of those, he just felt like…Yuugi.

As he turned over, he caught sight of that blanket hanging over a nearby chair. Too tired to glare properly, Yuugi slowly sat up in the bed. He stared at it for a few moments, before rising and walking over to it. Reaching out a hand, he marveled at the texture once more, wondering why it was given to him. What had the stranger done? Had he just kidnapped him for a few days, and then sent him back on his merry way with a blanket to remember him by? Why? It didn’t make sense.

Nothing made sense right now. If Rebecca was right, and the stranger had…taken advantage of him, then why? Why him? And that other person, the one the red-eyed stranger had fought. Why had they fought over him? If he really was just used, then why hadn’t he just been handed over when the red-eyed stranger was done? It made no sense.

Mentally and physically exhausted, Yuugi retreated back to the bed, not caring how his fingers gripped onto the blanket and dragged it with him. He curled on top of the cover, pulling the foreign blanket over him and holding it tight. Yuugi breathed in deeply of the strange scent, oddly comforted, and finally closed his eyes, letting his mind drift away into sleep.

~(*)~

A.N: Once again, thanks a bunch to Tavi who has helped me with this story so far. ^^ I luffs you!

Review please?