Beastly King (Yu-Gi-Oh fanfic Puzzleshipping/Blindshipping)

Autumn and Winter (8)

I swear just with the picture you people will panic with this chapter.

I stared at them. The man held Yuugi's arm. "No money, huh?" he growled. "Your kaa-san said you'd be good for it. But if you don't have money, there's  ways to pay."
"No! Let me go!"
"Yuugi?"
Man and victim turned. It was Yuugi, all right. My instincts, animal though they were, had been true. The man—the monster—held his hair. He held a gun to his head.
"Yuugi!" I started toward him.
"You're here!"
"Don't move, or I'll shoot."
He held the gun to his head. He could not hurt him. I hadn't come this far to have him hurt my Little One. Without knowing it, I let out a low growl, an animal about to spring.

"I mean it," he said. "Don't—"
He stopped. He saw me, and his beast eyes met my beast eyes, and the animal I was smelled his fear.
"What the—?"
"If you harm him," I said in a voice more animal than human, "I will kill you."
"Don't eat me!" he yelled.
And he turned the gun from Yuugi to me.
That was all I needed. I lunged. My teeth were in his arm, my claws in his neck. A shot rang out. My teeth were in his neck.
And then he stopped moving.
I threw him off me and crumpled to the ground.
I was bleeding. I wasn't supposed to bleed. I looked away. The bleeding didn't stop. Maybe my skin couldn't heal over the wound if the wound held a bullet. That would make sense. But it hurt.
Yuugi was running to me, stumbling over the wounded gunman. "Yami, you're here."
"I'm here," I agreed. The world was getting fuzzy, so fuzzy, fuzzy and dark, and clean and sweet-smelling as a rose.
"But how did you know?" he said. "How'd you know where I was?"
"I knew." My stomach hurt where the bullet was. "I knew by…" Magic. Love. Animal instinct. As Jane knew of Rochester . "I just knew." I reached for him.
"I should call the police. Or an ambulance." He started to go.
I thought of the mob in the subway, of a police officer arriving here to find me, taking me away, of dying in a squad car, alone, of losing Yuugi when I'd finally found him. I grabbed at his arm. "Please. Please, no. Stay with me. Be with me."
"I wanted to be with you." He was sobbing now. "You told me to come back in the spring. And I wanted to. My kaa-san was screwed up like always, and she promised to go into rehab, get a job. She did for about a week. But then she quit. She said she didn't have to work just because I wanted her to. It was the same sort of thing she always said, but now it was different."
"Why?" I tried to keep my voice normal. If he knew how hurt I was, he would leave, go for the police.
I hurt so much. So much, like the life was seeping through my skin. I didn't look down because I knew it would be a bloody mess.

"Because I'd been with you. Before, I knew only what it was to be her sochi, to live day to day and wait for it to be over. But now I knew what it was to have someone talk to me, care for me … be with me…and…"
"Love you?" The words were a gasp, and from the corner of my eye, I could see my watch hand move.
11:59. I'd set it that morning. It was over. But I was with Yuugi. It was enough. "Why didn't you come back?"
"I wanted to come, but I'd lost the address. My kaa-san had taken me to your house by force, and now she wouldn't tell me where it was. She lied when I asked her, or said she didn't know. But I remembered your house was near a subway station. I could see it from the window, remember?"
I nodded.
"So I decided to go to every station in Domino, then look for a house nearby with a greenhouse. I went to a different one, every day after school. But it was going too slowly, and tonight I decided I would find you. If I had to walk through every inch of Domino, calling your name, I'd find you."
"Calling my name?"
"Like Jane Eyre. I just reread it last week, and I thought of you—how the lovers were separated, and—"
"Lovers?"
It was so hard to keep my eyes open. He was with me. I could just stop now.

"No! I should get an ambulance. If anything happened to you, I—"
With difficulty, I pushed myself up. "I love you, Yuugi."
It was midnight. It was over. I would be a beast always. But Yuugi was back. He was here.
"I know I'm too ugly for you to love," I said. "But I'll always …"
"I love you too, Yami. But please, let me—"
I grabbed his arm back. "Then kiss me. Let me have the memory of your kiss, even if I die."
It was too late. It was too late, but he leaned forward anyway, and kissed me, my eyes, my cheeks, and finally on my lipless mouth. I was fading away, but I tasted him, felt him. This was all I wanted. Yuugi. My Aibou.
Now I could die happy.
And in the corner, I saw a shadow, moving.

"Watch out, Yuugi!" I said with suddenly renewed strength. The air smelled funny all of a sudden, like roses. But it must have been my imagination. "Behind you!" I yelled.
I saw the man. I tried to make for him, to go after him and bite him as I had before. But my whole body felt numb and tingling, heavy, as if I already had died. I saw Yuugi lunge for the gun on the floor. Then, struggling, four hands grabbing for one object. Gunfire, glass shattering. Then the shadow ran for the door.
Yuugi turned to me. He held the smoking gun.
"Yami?" He stared into the darkness like he couldn't see me. The world was black and spinning. The air smelled heavy with roses now. And under my hands, I felt something. Rose petals. They were everywhere, under my hands and on my body, and even in Yuugi's hair. Where had they come from?
"I'm here, koibito." Did I say that? Me? But my body felt so nice, like nothing could ever hurt me again. I didn't hurt anymore. Was I already dead?
Still, he stared strangely. Finally, he spoke.

"Atem Sennen? But…where's Yami?"
I'd misheard. "I'm here. But what did you call me?"
"Atem Sennen, right? From Domino Academy. Maybe you don't remember me, but you once gave me a rose." He stopped, looking side to side. "A rose…Yami!"
"Yuugi …" I put my hand before my eyes, and it was a human hand. A man's hand. So perfect. A man's arm. I touched my face. A man's face! "Yuugi, it's me."
"I don't understand. Where is the boy who was here before? His name was Yami, and he was—"
"Ugly? Hideous."
"No! He was hurt. I have to find him!" He started for the door.
"Yuugi!" I struggled to my feet. My strength was returning, and when I looked down, there was no blood, no pain. I was healed in every way. Yuugi ran to the door, and I ran after him, for I was better. I was alive and well, and I caught his hand in mine. "Please wait."
"I can't, Atem-san. You don't understand. There was a boy here, and he was—"
"Me." I grabbed his other hand. "He was me."

"No!" He struggled to get free, but I held his hands. "No, he wasn't you."
"Please." I pulled him toward me. I was taller than Atem had been before, and strong. I pulled him toward me so he couldn't leave. He thrashed against me, hitting and kicking. "Please, Little One, just close your eyes, and you'll know that what I say is true." I wrapped my arm around him and put the other hand over his eyes as he froze at the nickname.
"One night, there was a lightning storm. You came downstairs, frightened, and we made popcorn—two bags—and watched The Princess Bride." I stopped. He was frozen. "Do you know my voice, Yuugi? When the movie was over, you'd fallen asleep. I picked you up and carried you to your room."

He leaned against me now, like he needed me for support.
I continued. "You woke in the darkness and spoke to me. You said my voice sounded familiar. It was familiar. It was me. Atem. Yami. We're the same. I will always remember that day because it was the first time I had hope, the first time I spoke to you without you noticing how hideous, how less than human I was. The first time I thought that maybe you could love me."
He turned to me. "Yami? But how?"

"Magic. A witch put me under a spell—I would say a cruel spell, but it really wasn't because it led me to you."
"How was the spell broken?"
"Magic. It was magic, and the magic is called love. I love you, Yuugi." I leaned and kissed him. He kissed me back.

"Yami!"
"Hai." I was laughing. I couldn't help it.
"Can you take me home now?" he said. "Your home."
I nodded. "We'll take the subway." I looked down at my clothes, my too-large beast clothes. "I know I look a little strange, but probably no one will notice."

This book is coming close to an end. And now blindshipping have meet! The spell is broken and Yami/Atem almost died a beast.

Ja Ne

Sagario