Wings of Time

Uncommon Camping Trip

"I swear! There were great bloody pads all over my tent! Women are not innocent or nice at all--gods, Tristan, stop laughing!"

The young man in question just howled all the louder, rolling back onto the seat of the van Yugi's grandfather had rented for the weekend. Joey glared at the brunette besides him.

"It's not funny! I was traumatized for life! And then they started screaming in the middle of the night like their heads were being torn off and screaming about bears! No one could have being unscarred by that."

"Obviously," snorted Tristan. Behind him, Yugi smiled weakly to Tea, who sighed heavily, leaning on her hand and looking out the tinted window. Her short, brown hair hid half of her expression.

"We won't be eaten by bears." said Yugi calmly. "I'm pretty sure there aren't bears in Japan anyways. Right grandpa?"

"Oh no, there's something worse than bears. The Yeti."

Yugi blanched. Tristan laughed some more, and Joey gritted his teeth.

"I hope something ugly eats you in the middle of the night." he said to Tristan. "You'd deserve it."

"Aw, come on, that's not very nice." said Tristan, wiping tears from his eyes.

"It's plenty nice where I'm coming from, you git."

"Hey, gramps, how long until we get there?" asked Yugi, not bothering to ask what the Yeti crap was all about. He had a hard enough time sleeping outside as it was ever since duelist kingdom. His grandfather smiled in the rear view mirror to them. Spruce and various trees slipped past them as the white van weaved through the narrow roads.

"Just about there, if you lot can stay quiet long enough for me not to drive over a cliff."

Tea sighed again. The sound caught Yugi's attention and he turned to her with a faint look of concern. She had been the one to suggest the camping trip for summer break, but so far she had fallen quiet, so unlike her bubbly chatty self, sighing and staring at the window with her lips pursed tight. Yugi had the feeling he didn't want to know, but felt the question bubble to his lips anyways.

"What's on your mind?"

"I already told you, it's nothing." she said.

Yugi scowled. Besides him, invisible to all but him, sat a nearly mirror like image of himself, except taller and with sharp, challenging eyes. The spirit frowned at Tea as well.

"I've seen women act like that before." he said to Yugi, the only one that could hear him. "It always has to do with some romantic interest. Don't ask." He made a face and Yugi had to hold down a chuckle. It wouldn't do to suddenly burst out laughing, even when his friends knew that Yami existed. But his comment only made Yugi wonder more: did Tea have problems concerning romance?

The thought made him strangely uncomfortable, and he fiddled with his millennium puzzle, a nervous habit he had picked up. He didn't much like thinking about girls in that category. Being an official midget with a score of geek points to make even the greatest nerd embarrassed made dating a dangerous subject to think about.

Yami now frowned at him too.

They eventually made it to the legendary camping spot of his grandfather's. To Yugi, it was beautiful, like a secret getaway, but to his friends it was simply a flat spot in the middle of some trees with a stream besides it. What Tea thought about it all was a mystery. The only times she bothered to speak were to scold Tristan and Joey for joking about falling into the river while doing number two and fish that swam into uncomfortable places if you peed in the wrong place. It was one of the few times Yugi was jealous of the ancient Pharaoh, who laughed long and hard without fear of her angry gaze. But that jealousy soon vanished as the spirit amused him with bewildered inspections of the hot dogs.

That night, after loud storytelling, fire roasted foods, and old astronomy lessons from his grandfather, Yugi still felt the strange discomfort. As he heard Joey, his tent mate, slowly slip into snores, he sat up and unzipped his tent.

"Where are you going?"

The spirit of before, Yami, crouched beside him in the tent, his eyes curious. Yugi waited till he was outside to answer.

"I'm...not quite sure. I'm just worried about Tea. And...I dunno. I just can't sleep."

"You sense it too then?"

"Sense what?"

The Pharaoh frowned towards the forest. "I'm not sure. Just...anticipation. I've been feeling it since I've gotten onto this mountain."

"Well...no. And if I did I probably mistook it for excitement. I like camping."

Yami smiled. "I know."

Yugi followed his gaze to the trees. The night wasn't as foreboding as he thought it would be without his flashlight. The moonlight and stars lit up the land and he thought he could make out even the shadows beneath the gentle, silvery light. He could hear his grandfather's snores sounding across the clearing, nearly in perfect timing with Joey's. It made him grin. Still, the uneasiness swirled in his stomach.

"Yugi, where are you going?"

There was a sense of alarm to the Pharaoh's voice as Yugi made his way down to the river. The cool air of the night made him shiver inside his dark blue flannel pajamas.

"I'm just...going to go think."

"What do you have to think about? Is something bothering you?"

Yugi hesitated before sitting down atop a boulder next to the stream. "I'm not sure...I just feel...uneasy. I don't think Tea's bothered by anything romantic. I think it's something else."

The spirit sat beside him on the rock, violet-red eyes watching him carefully.

"I'm sure there's no reason to worry. With all those rants on friendship I'm sure if it was something bad she would tell you about it. Have some faith in her, Yugi. She can take care of herself."

"Yes, but..." Yugi didn't know where he was going with that sentence. But the kind smile Yami gave him assured him he understood. He put an insubstantial hand on Yugi's shoulder, which he oddly felt.

"You have a loving heart, Yugi. You're friends are lucky to have you."

His face heated up and he ducked his head in attempts to hide it between his legs. "If you say so. But I think I'm the lucky one. I'm not much use as a friend compared to what they have done for me...for what you've done for me."

Yami shook his head, gripping his hikari's shoulder tighter. "When will you get over that mindset?"

"Don't worry about it."

"I'll worry."

Yugi sighed, a thing not unlike Tea's own sighs that day. A comfortable silence passed between them in which crickets thrummed in the grasses and the stream hushed to them. An owl hooted somewhere in the distance. Yugi found himself fascinated by the glitter of the stars reflected on the faceted surface of the river. It made the water look like diamond.

"So," asked Yugi a few minutes later when his feet had turned numb against the stone. "If Tea is in the throws of some crazy love, who do you think is the special someone?"

"Why, me, of course."

"Yami!"

The spirit just threw his head back and laughed bark-like into the night. Yugi couldn't help but laugh as well.