Memories Should be Treasured

It took a few days to see what things Yugi remembered and what he didn’t




It took a few days to see what things Yugi remembered and
what he didn’t. It hurt Yami the most when he learned Yugi didn’t have any
recollection of him or of ever having a relationship at all in his life.

 

Yami even had to cancel his cousin’s next trip over to his
house a few weeks after the ‘accident’. Nuka had been upset but he understood
and wished them all good luck.

 

After the call had ended Yami went to look for Yugi and
found him in the library. He smiled when he saw Yugi looking at the book he’d been
reading; the one about dragons. A twinkle lighted up in his eyes as he realized
he finally remembered the name of the book on his own – Dragons Through the
Ages. (He’d found it hard to remember only because it had nothing to do
with the book other than the ‘Dragons’ part.)

 

Yugi looked up after getting the feeling he was being
watched. He smiled sadly when he saw Yami standing by the door. It seemed like
he was always smiling sadly towards Yami now only because he couldn’t remember
him from anywhere.

 

Yami shuffled uneasily, unsure of what to say to Yugi
anymore. Thankfully though, it was Yugi who broke the silence.

 

The violet-eyed teen lifted the book to show Yami and let
loose another sad smile. “I remember reading this once.” He explained. “Only I
can’t remember what happens.”

 

“You’re welcome to read it again if you want.” Yami smiled
back at him.

 

Yugi frowned and gestured to the bookmark. “Aren’t you
already reading it though? Or somebody else?”

 

Yami shook his head. “It’s okay, Yugi. Go ahead and read it
and I’ll finish it when you’re done.” He told him. “Besides, I’m a slow reader
and you’d never get it a day less than your eightieth birthday,” he lied the
last part; hoping Yugi would just take the book.

 

The smaller teen gave out a large smile, overjoyed at being
given the chance to read the book over again. He jumped off the large chair
he’d been sitting in and hugged Yami tightly around the middle. “Thank you,
Yami! I’m going to go to my room right now and start on it.” He collected the
book and eagerly left for his room. “Can you call me when dinner’s ready?” The
ruby-eyed teen nodded. Yami stayed behind, well after Yugi had left, with a
hurt expression taking over his face and trying to force his tears away at what
Yugi had just told him.

 

Yami had given Yugi the guest bedroom on the other side of
the bathroom ever since the day after he came home from the hospital. He’d told
him that he wasn’t really comfortable sleeping in the same bed with somebody
who felt like a complete stranger to him. They’d even tried using different
beds, but Yugi still hadn’t felt all that relaxed. He’d been hurt immensely
about it, but understood all the same and tried not to show how he really felt
around Yugi so he wouldn’t feel any guiltier with knowing he was hurting
somebody.

 

Yami hadn’t seen Yugi the whole rest of the day, not until
he went to get him for dinner. He knocked on the guest bedroom’s door and
opened it when he heard Yugi answer.

 

“Dinner’s ready, Yugi.” He told him.

 

“Thanks, Yami.” Yugi replied, not looking up from the floor.
The book was closed beside him with a slip of paper holding his place; not only
but a few pages were past the beginning cover.

 

‘That’s strange,’ Yami thought as he saw the book. ‘He’s
been up here for hours and he’s only gotten maybe five pages finished. I know
he’s a faster reader than that.’ He also noted with a twinge of regret thaugi ugi wouldn’t look up at him for some reason.

 

“We’ll be waiting for you then.” Yami closed the door behind
him and headed for the dining room. The only thoughts of ‘what’s Yugi been up
to all this time if he hasn’t been reading’ going through his head.

 

~~

 

Near the end of the day Yami found Yugi staring desolately
at the front doors. Curious, he walked over to him and asked him what was wrong.

 

Yugi turned to him slowly, a defeated look on his face. He
looked as if he was trying to give some kind of smile to Yami but failed
miserably. “I’m so sorry, Yami,” He cried, tears starting to shine brightly in
his eyes. “I’ve tried so hard for you – but I just can’t take it anymore.”

 

Yami took a step back in worry. “What’s wrong, Yugi? What’s
going on?”

 

“I’m going to go stay with Joey and Seto.”

 

Yami was surprised at the answer, but as soon as he realized
what was g ong on his heart clenched even more painfully than when Yugi had
asked him for a different room. At least then he would still see Yugi during
the day, but moved out he was sure to fall even further apart than he already
had.

 

“I’ve already called them and they’re going to be coming to
pick me up soon,” he gestured towards his bags that Yami hadn’t noticed
earlier.

 

Yugi had remembered Joey and Seto when Yami showed him a
picture of them together. It was surprising to him that he remembered nearly
everything about them and with amazing accuracy as well.

 

The doorbell rang shortly after their short conversation had
ended and Yugi opened the door, smiling up at his blonde friend and his
boyfriend. He then picked up his bags and headed for the car, turning back to
Yami and apologizing once more.

 

“I am sorry, Yami, please believe me. I wouldn’t do this if
I didn’t think it was for the best. About what happened with my memory, it’s my
fault too, Yami. It’s my fault and I know that only because I can feel it
inside and every time I try to remember it hurts even more like I don’t want to
remember how I lost it.” He turned and stepped into the car, Seto’s driver
closing it behind him.

 

Joey turned to his best friend and gave him a comforting
hug. “Sorry about this, Yami, I know you’ve probably been hearing it a lot but
it’s true. He pleaded with us before we agreed to let him stay; we really
wanted him to stay with you.”

 

Seto, not knowing what to say, just nodded his agreement
with what Joey said and then gave him a hug before they left.

 

The minute after they closed the door, Yami ran up to his
room and locked himself in, crying until no more tears came out and his voice
turned hoarse. He didn’t leave his room until noon the next day only to wrap
himself up in the library, where he noticed Dragons Through the Ages placed
on the center table in front of the chair Yugi had sat in when Yami had given
it to him.

 

Yami was miserable without Yugi around, with or without his
memory. The house was quiet and seemed too empty. Also, once more, he was the
main target for Keith. Every chance his stepfather got he would attack Yami to
satisfy his lust for him and leave him soon afterwards to cry for the guilt he
felt towards Yugi about letting what Keith did to him happen.

 

~~

 

Yugi was also miserable; he noticed not long after he was
alone in his new bedroom within Seto and Joey’s large mansion how truly alone
he felt. When near Seto and Joey it didn’t feel so bad, but still a little
painful for some reason. It only started to hurt when he had first left Yami’s house,
but near his two friends it wasn’t so bad and thought it to go away soon.

 

Now, alone, he felt it increase by a hundred fold; he didn’t
understand it either. He’d never felt it when he was with Yami. He always felt
some kind of pulls towards the older teen, but he didn’t understand it enough
to mention and was still afraid of his loss of memories; afraid he’d get thrown
more pity at him for something else he couldn’t remember. It only took him but
a short while to figure out that he was only hurting because he wasn’t with
Yami and it was his fault for doing so.

 

Briefly he wondered, as he cried silently into his pillow on
the bed, if Yami was feeling as horrible as him or if he even cared that he’d
left.

 

“Don’t hate me, Yami.” He chocked hoarsely into his
tear-dampened pillow.

 

~~

 

After a couple of months Yugi gradually remembered more
things, but he still couldn’t remember anything about Yami, no matter how hard
he tried to.

 

Joey had told him what had happened to get the two together,
but he couldn’t remember it happening.

 

“Don’t worry about it, Yuge. If I know Yami as well as I
think I do, which I’m pretty sure I do, than he still loves you and always
will. He’ll wait a lifetime and another for you as long as he knows there’s
still hope you’ll want him. Even if you didn’t he wouldn’t want anyone else.”

 

Yugi almost told him about how he’s felt since he left
Yami’s house, but decided against it.

 

That night Yugi could be found sleeping restlessly on his
bed, twisting and turning in the thin sheets and shifting from one side to the
other, and grabbing the sheets every so often in a white knuckle grasp.

 

Yugi was standing in complete darkness. Only one light
seemed to be coming from somewhere above. No matter how fast he ran towards
Yugi never seemed to be coming any closer.

 

Then a shadowed person appeared where the light was
shining. It didn’t occur to Yugi that that should be possibf thf they were
standing in a light, but he still tried to reach it. Finally, Yugi could make
out the person as the shadows around them faded away into the darkness still
surrounding the light. It was Yami; and he was watching him with broken eyes
and melancholy and pain etched all over his figure. Somehow though, just by
seeing how Yami was acting, Yugi couldn’t help but clutch at his heart as it
clenched painfully in his chest.

 

As Yugi could feel himself beginning to wake, unable to
force himself to stay sleeping any longer, Yami turned and started to walk away
from him and the light vanished turning the entire scene black.

 

The amethyst-eyed teen collapsed to the dark floor and
started to cry.

 

Yugi’s eyes burst open and he lay on the bed in a gasping
heap, dried tear tracks coursing down his pink-tinted cheeks.

 

‘Why’d he walk away from me?’ Yugi thought in desperation.
‘He promised he’d always be there for me; he promised!’ He cried, tears
starting to refresh the dry tracks on his face. “Joey told e hae had.” He
whispered quietly.

 

He didn’t know what had come over him. The teen couldn’t
even remember Yami and yet he felt terrible pain by being away from him and
that the dream that wouldn’t seem to get lost in his scrambled mind hurt him
the most when Yami had looked at him like he had and then walked away from him.

 

“Yami, what’s going on with me? Why does hurt so much when
you’re away when I don’t even know who you are?”

 

~~

 

Yami sat in his bed with dry tears still visible on his face
and blood smeared down one side of his face. Keith had just finished another of
his play times with him and left him broken just like the previous times. He’d
left a ‘love bite’ for Yami on his neck deep enough to draw blood. He licked
some of the blood from his neck and swiped it down his cheek instead.

 

The ruby-eyed teen felt he couldn’t take much more of his
life if this was how it was going to stay. He’d kill himself before Keith got
the chance to touch him again.

 

‘Why do I let him touch me?’ The thought often flit across
his mind, mostly just after he was used and thrown away like an old toy. The
answer always became the obvious soon after, as though somebody inside his mind
was answering for him. ‘You didn’t want to see you’re mother’s disappoint in
you if she ever found out.’ He’d told Yugi though and he found out Nuka
knew all along after the ‘accident’.

 

‘What if she wouldn’t be disappointed though?’ He’d then
ask; it was almost a routine for him.

 

‘She would be. She loves Keith and you’d be taking that
away from her if you ratted him out.’

 

The voice once again knocks sense into his head. Ever since
his father had died Yami promised himself he’d do anything to make her happy
and he hasn’t yet broken it.

 

Then thoughts of what had happened to Yugi and how he
must’ve felt when Keith used him and then made him lose his memory, lying about
it when asked.

 

Anger overtook his thoughts and he stormed out of his
bedroom and into the bathroom to wash his face.

 

It felt a little dizzy and it never failed to be noticed by
Yami that Keith had started to get rougher and harder with him since he took
Yugi. It was sometimes too painful for him to stand and it would worry his
mother sometimes when he wouldn’t come down for hours.

 

Looking at his reflection in the mirror the same anger
flared in his face. Bruises covered his face and Yami had taken to sneaking his
mother’s makeup to cover it up; Keith was starting to get careless. Rage then
took over the anger as he remembered how Yugi had looked when he saw him laying
unconscious in the bedroom. Unable to control his actions his fist came up and
before Yami knew it his knuckles were covered in blood and the mirror was
cracked into different sized shards.

 

He ignored the mess he made and all but ran down the stairs
to find his mother; he wasn’t going to let himself or Yugi or anybody else be
touched ever again.

 

“Mother?” Yami felt like growling, but kept his tempter in
check. He was glad to find her alone.

 

“Yami, dear,” Kiore gasped. “Yami! What happeno yoo your
face?” She rushed over to him and caressed the cheek with the blood smeared on
it. It didn’t take her long to look down and see the bite on his neck with a
large green and blue bruise forming around it.

 

“I need to tell you something important, mother.” He told
her, not bothered she was touching his sours.

 

Kiore nodded and looked him over, frowning at the bruises
also forming on his arms and what looked like red rashes over his wrists. She
sat down on the kitchen chair behind her and continued to hold Yami’s hands in
hers, hoping somehow that it would help the both of them.

 

“It’s Keith, mother. Keith’s been doing this since the
summer of my sophomore year. I didn’t want to tell you because I thought you’d
be disappointed and I knew how much you loved Keith.”

 

“What’s he been doing, Yami? What’s happened to you?” She
asked worriedly.

 

“He’s been raping me, mother.”

 
at’sat’s outrageous,” a laughing voice joked from the corner.


 

Yami turned and didn’t know why a sudden sense of fear
overcame him as he moved closer to his mother.

 

“Kiore, dear, he’d obviously out of his mind. You’ve seen
how he’d been acting ever since Yugi left for what-his-name’s place; he’s gone
out of his mind with heartache and wants to blame it on the only person in the
house when the accident occurred; even when he knows what happened for real.”

 

Crimson eyes flared dangerously and he growled low in his
throat. “I do know the truth, you bastard! You raped him and didn’t care when
he knocked his head on the floor and the dresser!”

 

Kiore gasped and was suddenly reminded of the phone call
she’d received from the doctor about Yugi showing signs of rape. ‘But how did
Yami know that? He didn’t listen to it.’ Realization suddenly dawned on her,
not comprehending anything gone around her at the minute. ‘Keith must’ve raped
Yugi and caused him to lose his memory just like Yami was saying.’ It easily
became clear why Yami would never try and get along with Keith either.

 

Looking up she nearly shrieked. Yami lay on the floor in a
bloody heap staring daggers at Keith. A large bruise was forming over his right
eye, forcing it closed.

 

“Yami!” She turned to Keith. “What’ve you done?” She dropped
to her knees and cradled her son in her arms, his head resting in her lap still
glaring the best he could at Keith.

 

“The boy’s gone mad, Kiore. He was going to attack me and I
had to do something to protect myself.”

 

“By hitting him?” She felt like screaming. A loud cry echoed
through the house and Shiro made the point of being awakened by her nap. Nobody
made a move to go take care of her though.

 

“It was the only thing I could do; he left me no other
choice, Kiore. You’re son has been going mad ever since that boyfriend of his
left and he wants to place the blame on somebody other than himself. Stop
acting like he’s five-years-old because he’s not!” He argued back.

 

Shiro’s cried became unable to ignore and Kiore motioned for
Yami to go take care of her. Yami understood and stood, wobbling a little to
gain balance, and hurried off towards his mother’s bedroom.

 

“I’ll take care of my son however I want until he asks me to
treat him differently!”

 

“No wonder he’s such a selfish snob; you treat him like that
he was bound to turn into one! I told you once we married that he was going to
have to be taken care of for that attitude of his and you said it was only
temporary for the change! Now look what you’ve done!”

 

“Yami chooses to act like because of what you’ve done to
him! I envy him for how long he’s been able to hold you off on his own!”

 

“I HAVEN’T DONE ANYTHING TO HIM!”

 

Kiore flinched at his loud voice, scared of what he would do
to her if he would hit Yami the way he had without guilt. Before she could
react he had grabbed her wrists and held her back against the wall, raising one
of his hands to slap her.

 

“Mother!”

 

Before Keith knew it Yami tackled him from behind and Kiore
escaped from the kitchen and locked herself in her bedroom as soon as she got
there, finding Shiro playing with her toys on the bed.

 

Minutes later a near silent knock rapped on the door and
Kiore hesitantly opened it, keeping sure to leave her foot behind the door so
she could close it quickly if the need came. Gasping as she saw Yami collapsed
in front of the door she dragged him inside.

 

“Yami!” She called to him, hoping with her life he was going
to be okay.

 

“He’s unconscious, mother.” Yami managed to say. He looked
even worse than when she last saw her and looked near to being knocked out as
well. She kissed his cheek gently and nodded. “Okay, honey. Just rest and I’ll
take care of it from here.” Tears shown in her eyes as she saw her son flinch
in pain as she moved him carefully from her lap.

 

She went to the phone and dialed for the police.

 

“Can I have officers come to my house immediately, please.
My husband just attacked me and my son and we don’t know how long we havtil til
he wakes up.” She rushed out over he tears, glad her voice hadn’t cracked.

 

“Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. The address it
209 Talino Drive.”

 

She hung up the phone and rushed back over to her son lying
in stillness on the floor, blood soaked into the carpet around him. He’d gone
unconscious while she was on the phone. Not wanting to leave him again, even if
just a few feet, she’d ask the police to give her a ride to the hospital.

 

Fifteen long minutes later a knock rapped on her door and
she asked shakily who it was.

 

“Ma’am? It’s the police; we’ve got you’re husband.”

 

Relief washed over her and she stood to unlock the door.

 

“Thank you, officer. There’s a few more charges on him as
well, but may I ask a favor first?”

 

“Of course, ma’am. What’s wrong?” He asked comfortingly.

 

Kiore gestured to her and son and she even saw the policeman’s
eyes widen at the sight. “Please, may I have a ride to the hospital?” She
pleaded desperately.

 

“Of course, of course.” He rushed over and picked Yami
gently up in his arms. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

 

Kiore followed him downstairs and into his car, watching as
he carefully placed Yami in the seat next to her before driving off. She
briefly saw in the car next to her that Keith was slowly starting to wake.
She’d hate to be in thre wre when he finds out what’s happened.

 

“You can tell me the other charges once we get your son some
help.” The man told her as they pulled onto the main road.

 

“Thank you.” She whispered, her eyes turning to watch her
son for the ride and hoping he’d be okay.