It Was a Dark And Stormy Night

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Chapter 3 - No, this isn't quite as plotless as the movie on TV in the first paragraph. I'm starting to tie this in with another story I'm working on, one I've been trying to get to come together for quite some time. I think I might finally have an idea that isn't totally ridiculous, but I'll have to see how it comes out.

Warning: nothing too bad this chapter, but we do get to see what happens to those who displease the pharaoh ;-)

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An hour or so later, Yami was still sitting sideways across the sofa, with the exhausted Yugi lying limp against him, head on his darker half's chest. The pharaoh had turned the TV on after Yugi finally stopped crying, in an attempt to distract him a bit. Neither of them had any idea what was on, nor did they care. It was apparently some plotless horror movie that seemed to involve a lot of dark alleys and helpless endangered heroines.

Yami cuddled his little one closer, kissing the top of his head, and Yugi looked up, violet eyes dazed.

"I--I'm sorry, Yami---" he whispered shakily, huddling closer. Residual shivers still shook his small body. His chest and head were aching, and he felt slightly sick, never mind absolutely mortified. That hadn't happened in so long ---- he'd felt the attack coming on after his friends left and tried his best to fight it off, but he couldn't. He'd never been able to. It was a swallowing darkness, crushing him, stealing the air from his lungs faster than he could take it in, and no matter how much he wanted to run from it, tried to run from it, he couldn't escape - and he had no assurance it wouldn't take him again, and maybe the next time there would be no escape---

"Shh, don't apologize, koi," Yami soothed, rubbing Yugi's back. He was encouraged; at least Yugi was starting to respond to him again. "Do you want me to run you a warm bath? You might feel better."

"Just hold me for a few more minutes, please---?" Yugi hid his face again.

"What frightened you so, aibou?" Yami said, hating to ask. He couldn't use their mental link to find out; all he could get through it was Yugi's confusion and residual fear. He'd had to block it off altogether during the worst of Yugi's panic attack, otherwise he would have been as blinded by panic as his aibou.

"I don't know---" Yugi's voice was muffled. "I -- I've just had this awful feeling ever since Grandpa left for Egypt that something's going to happen."

"Koi, you have a lot of -- what's the word? There's a lot happening right now." Yami shook his head, , unable to come up with it. "School just started again, your councilor is already telling you that you should have a college picked out, your grandfather's halfway across the world and now this storm."

"And they want me to be in the Battle City tournament again this year and I don't want to. I just want to --- I don't know what I want." Yugi sighed, looking up at Yami, amethyst meeting ruby. "Is that all it is? Stress?"

"That's the word I was looking to find, aibou," Yami said. "And then you try to keep it all inside and hide it even from me, and that's not good." He kissed the tip of Yugi's nose. "If I can't figure out what hurts, koibito, I can't kiss it and make it feel better."

Yugi almost giggled. As he did, the phone rang and he nearly screamed, startled badly. Yami reached over and scooped it up, still holding Yugi tightly against him. "Hello?"

"Yami? It's Solomon."

"Mutou-san? Yugi's right here. Let me get on the extension," Yami said. He handed Yugi the phone and ran to grab the cordless phone out of the bedroom.

"Grandpa?" Yugi tried his best to sound normal. "How are you? How's Egypt?"

"It's beautiful. Next trip I'll bring you and Yami along," he said. "How's school so far, Yugi?"

"It's okay." He didn't want to get into the whole "what are you doing with your life, Yugi Mutou" thing with his guidance councilor over the phone. His grandfather and that woman already didn't get along.

"Yugi, are you all right? You sound like you don't feel well," Solomon said worriedly.

"I'm okay. Yami and I had to board the windows up and I'm kind of tired." It wasn't a lie, he was a little tired.

Solomon sighed. "I was going to try to fly back later today but they're already cancelling flights into Domino City. I can't get a flight out before Wednesday. At least you and Yami have each other there, though," he said, then brightened. "By the way, I found the strangest thing here in one of the markets abut an hour or so ago."

Yami's head shot up. An hour or so ago?

Solomon had gone on. "It's a faceted crystal ball made out of a ruby the size of two fists. At least, I think it's a ruby. It's a very dark red and it seems to glow with its own inner light when you look into it. The guy sold it to me for fifty dollars. He said it was glass but I don't think so. I'm going to let an old friend of mine take a look at it when I get back."

Yami quietly excused himself from the conversation, letting Yugi and his grandfather talk in private. He went into the kitchen to see what they had for dinner, trying to quell his nervousness at the mention of that --- whatever it was. The former pharaoh had spent too long in the Shadow Realm to dismiss the timing as coincidence. For all their sakes, he hoped Yugi's apparent premonition was false, merely anxiety. He sighed, looking back in at his hikari, who seemed to be recovering from his scare, then looking back in the refrigerator with a silent plea to Ra not to allow any harm to come to either Yugi or Solomon.

He was looking in the freezer and realizing they didn't have anything he felt like eating when a pair of small arms wrapped tightly around his waist. Slightly startled, he looked around into Yugi's big amethyst eyes. "Aibou!"

"Grandpa said to tell you he loves you," Yugi said as Yami turned around to hug him close. "Yami, I'm sorry. I'm such an idiot, aren't I?"

"Aibou, if you speak of yourself that way again, I'll be forced to turn you over my knee and spank you," Yami scolded affectionately.

"But I am an idiot---" Yugi said miserably. "I over-react to everything. I ---" He broke off with a squeal as Yami abruptly picked him up, tucking him under one strong arm. "Yami, what are you doing? Put me down!"

"I warned you, small one, but you still dared disobey the pharaoh," Yami said, his crimson eyes alight with mischievous humor. "Now you will pay the price." He sat down in the closest kitchen chair with Yugi stomach-down across his lap.

"Oh, pharaoh smaroah, I ---" Yugi squealed again when Yami smacked him playfully on the seat of his jeans. "Yami, what are you doing!?" He squeaked when Yami smacked him a few more times, not hard enough to hurt, just enough to make him squeal and squirm and giggle. As he did, he managed to slip his hand unnoticed under Yami black tank top and softly work his fingers into the pharaoh's very sensitive side. Yami let out a yell that was half hootenanny yodel and half opera aria, starting so convulsively that they both ended up tumbling to the floor. Yugi wasted no time pouncing on his darker half and proceeding to tickle the living daylights out of him. "Say uncle, Yami!"

Yami was laughing so hard that he couldn't get any words out for a moment. "All right, all right, uncle, aunt, sister, brother, cousin, whatever!"

Yugi took pity on his darker half and curled up with him, giggling almost as hysterically as Yami was. Yami hugged his little hikari tight, nuzzling into his hair, relieved almost to the point of tears to see Yugi acting like his usual self. "I love you, koibito."

/I love you too, Yami koi,/ Yugi replied mentally, because his voice would have been muffled against Yami's chest.

They held each other for a few minutes until the TV caught their attention for the first time and they sat up, still clinging together. "....storm warnings have been issued for the entire Domino City area, including adjacent coastal waters. Cyclone Chebi is expected to make landfall within twenty-four hours. This is a very dangerous storm. Mandatory evacuations have been ordered for residents living along the coast. The storm surge is expected to reach up to thirty feet, along with twelve to fifteen inches of rain and winds up to 150 miles per hour. Residents should start preparing now if they haven't done so already---"

"You were right, koi. That is worse than a sandstorm---" Yami whispered.

"Yami, what are we going to do?" Yugi's voice held a touch of panic again.

"We'll be all right," Yami said, hugging him tight. "Now what do we need?"

Before Yugi could answer, the phone rang again. This time they both jumped, then Yugi, who was closest, answered it. "Hello?"

"Hey Yugi." It was Seto. "Did you guys just see that about the storm?"

"Yeah," Yugi said nervously. "Yami and I were just trying to figure out what to do--"

"What you're going to do is come over here before the storm hits," Seto told him. "I have plenty of room, this place has its own generators in case the power goes out, and it'll be a whole lot safer than where you are now. I'll have everyone over, it'll be great!"

"Yeah, c'mon Yuge, we'll have a blast. To hell with this silly old storm!" Joey put in, presumably on the extension.

"I'll pick you guys up noon tomorrow, okay?" Seto said.

"Hold on, let me ask Yami," Yugi said, looking at his darker half. "Joey and Seto want us to wait out the storm at their place."

"Sounds like a good idea, koi," Yami said, putting his arms around his hikari's waist. That was perfect; they'd be with all their friends and maybe it would ease Yugi's frayed nerves.

"Great!" Seto said. "See you noon tomorrow!"

After he hung up, Yugi said, "I should call Grandpa and tell him where we'll be."

"Good idea, koibito," Yami said, looking at the clock. Ten after five. "And then why don't we go get something to eat and find a movie?"

Yugi looked shy. "Yami, I --- there's this place Jada was telling me about -- it's like a club, you know, a dance club---" He looked down, blushing.

It took Yami a moment. "And you'd like to go out dancing instead, aibou?"

Yugi looked up through his golden bangs. "Would you mind?"

Yami smiled. "I wolovelove to, koibito."

Yugi squeaked and hugged him. "I'd better call Grandpa, then I guess I'd better take a shower first---" He got up and headed out of the kitchen.

"Not without me, you're not!" Yami called, chasing after him.