Yu-Gi-Oh 1. Lost Cause

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything relating to Yu-Gi-Oh**

**Warning: Cursing can go from mild to mass amounts at times**

**Note: There will be blood in later chapters, mentions of sex, and possible lemons...**

**Keep in mind that Yami is a GIRL. So she worries about GIRLY things and has these things. Called INSECURITIES. They happen. She has them. Because she's human. **

**As far as the group dynamics go, by the way, things are strained and iffy and will be explained throughout the story so keep that in mind.**

Chapter I: Lost Cause

"Oh please, the picture is hardly that bad."

She let out a scoffing noise, pushing the magazine away and pressing her tongue against her cheek to keep from snapping at him in frustration. "Rebecca looked better than me."

"What?"

"She actually has more boob than me in that shot."

Like the good boyfriend that he was, the small teen blinked in shock and then leveled her a curious and somewhat worried look, obviously more than a little surprised by how badly she was taking this. She didn't have to think about it to know that he hadn't really taken the time to _study_ the images, just glanced at them, looked at hers, and then didn't bother with the articles beneath them. But now she was sitting there, next to him, with their friends around them at the table, all of them watching her as if they were waiting for her to explode.

If there was nothing she hated more than the fact that Rebecca had bigger boobs than her in that picture or losing, it was being stared at when she had no way to actively fight it off without drawing more attention to herself.

"What?"

She pushed the magazine towards him, tapping the picture as she glanced at it and felt her stomach twist; the freshman looked like she had bigger boobs and better hair and everything in comparison. She was far from the bustiest girl in the world, but she had always been able to boast having bigger boobs than the blonde.

After all, she looked twelve and barely had breasts to fill an A cup.

Not that she was much farther ahead, sitting at a weak 36B and hardly thinking that it was something worth celebrating. She was far smaller than the rest of the girls at this point; Tea, Mai, and _especially _Vivian proved that point pretty effectively.

Tea was a 32C, Mai a 36C and Vivian a 34D.

He finally really looked at the images, frowning at the way that the blonde really _did _appear to have more cleavage than the girl next to him. The bright blue of the bow that sat in the center of her shirt was somewhat raised from the push-up bra she must have been wearing, breasts pressed together and appearing far from as small as they normally were, barely noticeable and the center of teasing for the blonde. He glanced at the second picture and, where the others had cringed in sympathy, merely furrowed his brows slightly.

Well, there was an easy enough conclusion to be drawn from this photo.

She hadn't been wearing a bra in the first place, not that it meant much because her breasts were perky and fun to play with, but they were lifted or forced together by a bra and the very thing that shielded a shot of her nipples was what made them look tiny and miniscule in comparison. The thicker fabric of the pink jacket that went with the school uniform rested comfortably, the blue bow in the center of the white undershirt, and it made her chest look extremely small. Any other day, had she been wearing a bra beneath the uniform, they would have been perky and an eyeful in the picture that had been taken.

"It's still not that bad," he snorted, passing the magazine to her and glancing at her face with a slightly sharpened look that made her eyes narrow in frustration; he didn't want an argument with the statement and it wasn't as if she cared enough to do so in the first place, but she was stubborn and there was no real changing her mind.

She huffed and grabbed the magazine again, staring at the article; two weeks before, the high schools had been tested to see who ranked the highest in student intelligence as they were every year, trying to figure out which school got more money than the others to increase funding. Then three girls and three guys were chosen as the highest marks and put in the newspaper with an article about their scores, somewhat random facts about them, and how they matched up to others with their normal grades.

She, Rebecca and Vivian had gotten the highest marks in the entire school and the entirety of Japan after they had all made a bet that they were smarter than the other; how she had actually gotten drawn into that was no question. She didn't back down from a challenge, and considering that they were talking about her as if she hadn't been there had been enough to piss her off to the point of jumping into the "competition" with them. They had gotten interviews in the newspaper and Vivian and Rebecca seemed to actually _know _when that was going to happen because both of them looked amazing and she had literally just run from the house that day after waking up late and missing the others when they normally walked to school together.

Now that wouldn't have been a problem because she didn't care about the newspaper in the first place. She had just wanted to prove that she wasn't someone that they could easily intimidate or push around, and that was exactly why she was now featured in the school's new fashion magazine.

With Rebecca.

And Vivian.

As her "fashion opponents".

"Gods, even her hair is shinier than mine," she mumbled, tilting her head and frowning in annoyance. She wasn't superficial by default, but this was really getting under her skin for one reason and one reason only, the fact that her two rivals for her boyfriend looked better than her in these shots. By the gods, she was going to lose her mind if she didn't think about something else…

And yet there was that annoying habit of hers where she couldn't look away from something she hated because it just naturally drew her eyes to it and it was all impossible to leave alone.

The new fashion magazine had come out two years before, with Miho—Vivian's best friend and someone who was mutual with her—as the editor. While no one could claim that Miho had played preference with the article considering that she had bagged on all three of their outfits and the way they had put them together, she had definitely taken the brute force of it.

_Yami Sennen, dear, dear, Yami Sennen. This was _not _your day. The only thing more painful than ranking this picture is having a baby vomit up on you. Then again, the vomit could have made up for the stunning lack of care you put into this. The school uniform can make anyone look beautiful so, really, the only reason you haven't dropped _past _an L is—well, first of all, we don't have anything ranking past L though I'm sure we could come up with something special just for this picture—because it managed to pull through for you. But it didn't help stop the fact that you look like you just crawled out of a ditch somewhere. Let's begin with your hair._

_Wind-swept, stray strands, your bangs are sticking out _everywhere_, just _everywhere_, and that cute little unique look you have going with the way your hair naturally settles_?_ No, that failed here. It seems like it has a life of its own or you crawled out of a ditch after getting too drunk to realize just exactly how badly you needed to touch up on it in the first place. Let's be honest, I've always been jealous of that head of hair you've got, because it's unique and exotic but this picture is enough to make me second guess that._

_It looks stringy and gross from the wind, looks like you put your hand through it one too many times, that gold streak you have that goes through the top_?_ Normally it's pretty enough that it would distract if you had a bad hair day, but this time it was just as scattered and atrocious as the rest of your state in this photo. Next time, try with a ponytail, okay_?

_Next we'll go to makeup because if I spend anymore time on that hair, this article will take a _year _to read. You normally don't wear it and good for you that you're comfortable enough not to, but in this photo, there is _evidence _that you wore it before. Now either it was the day before or you rushed through your morning ritual—bad move, by the way, always a bad move—but either way, you have smudge marks and your eyeliner looks awkward and messy. Thank god you didn't use mascara because those eyelashes are long _enough _as it is. They would be like a highway over your eyes if you weren't careful with that shit. Now look, no one should believe that the next-day look is as simple as wiping off a few smudges, applying fresh eyeliner or mascara and slapping on a fresh coat of foundation, but that looks like what you did here. And have you ever heard of using blush in _moderation?

Yami stared at the article for a moment and then glanced at her picture, searching for this blush for a moment before realizing slowly that she meant her _actual _blush. She'd been so caught off-guard by the entire situation and the fact that the news crew was there at the entrance waiting for her as they had been for Rebecca and Vivian that she had ended up red-cheeked and flushed out of nervousness and absolute horror of the situation.

_Must I point out that you look like a startled cat about to get run over by a fucking truck, Yami_?_ Look at that face and those _eyes_. I think you outdid how large Yugi's are with that look on your face. Regardless, that really gave you a couple of points, just because normally you can't _see _that much red without getting run over. No, kidding. Just kidding. No, but your choice of being wide-eyed helps a little to tear away some of the embarrassment of the rest of your photo._

_Let's drop to your choice of accessory. Okay, you and Yugi, both of you have that weird little…bondage fetish, I suppose. Or you just like chokers. Good for you. Whatever. But honestly, you didn't think to take it _off _before they took the photo_?_ Bad choice is _bad, _Yami._

_Okay, so, the uniform looks great on everyone, as I said already, but I should point out that with the way that you wore it, I would think that even the dinosaurs in your…rather nonexistent wardrobe choices from your closet would have suited you better. Honestly, Yami, have you ever heard of shopping_?

_But Kami, what happened here_?_ I think most guys will agree that they're total pervs and like to stare at a girl's boobs in class—yeah, looking at you, male population_!_—but I'm kind of questioning Yugi's sexuality after this picture. What happened_?_ Did you forget to stuff your bra or something, Yami_?_ Goddamn, if you want to pretend to be a girl, that's fine, but don't _forget_ your disguise_!

Yami nearly banged her head against the table; no doubt that Vivian had added to this commentary because Miho was one of her friends, even if they weren't the best, and this sounded a little _too _vicious to be just her. Plus, the jabs at Yugi for dating her sounded suspiciously like the brunette. She cast a small glance towards the corner of the cafeteria and stared for a long moment; the brunette was laughing and talking to someone and she had no doubt that it was about her, in all honesty.

_Really, the only thing that you actually have going for you in this photo is the fact that you neither have a muffin top nor showed too much. But that still ranks you at a Lost Cause, so maybe next time you get featured somewhere, you'll actually put in some actual _effort?_ You would honestly expect more from an ambassador's daughter_.

She rolled her eyes and pushed the magazine away, leaning back in her seat and narrowing her gaze into slits; fucking harlot over there. Not that it helped much that most of the points were pretty true.

She looked so flat in the picture that it wasn't impossible to imagine that she had been stuffing her bra the entire time. Small and perky or not, they were not doing her any good in that photo and she hated that. They should have done _something _to appear nicer. Honestly, what was the point of boobs if they didn't even _look good_?

Yami let out a small huff and ignored the way that her boyfriend tilted his head and studied her at his side; he was trying to think of some way to make her feel better but when it came down to it, there wasn't much to try at. It wasn't like this was really going to matter by the time Monday rolled back around. It was just big now and she could easily twist it around and make herself look five times better if she had to…

"I swear to the gods, if one more fucking guy turns around and squints at my chest, I swear I'm going to beat the shit out of them," she snarled softly, glaring down some random redheaded guy who scrambled to turn away again immediately, the others at the table laughing at him. If it hadn't been going on all day because of the article, she would have smacked someone for doing so already.

A picture from two weeks ago that had already been featured in the newspapers and then taken—as was some kind of "law" in Domino High—for the school fashion magazine for everyone's entertainment. She was honestly a little surprised that the school didn't have a rule against the cursing and slandering that went on in it but Miho's dad was a massive beneficiary for the school as it was so it wasn't much of a surprise to her that she got away with making the magazine like this.

Yami chewed her cheek some thoughtfully; only two years ago she had started the two magazines, _Gossip_ and _Absolution_. Yami and Yugi had been together since they were twelve—or six if you counted an awkward first kiss as a sign of being together—but when Miho had found out, she wanted a feature of them in _Gossip _which had proved to be anything but fun because she asked a million questions, didn't wait for an answer, insisted that she wanted a picture of them holding hands and kissing and then snuggling and laughing and a bunch of other things. The one picture she had gotten of them was an actually genuine one where Yugi had buried his nose in the hair in front of her ear and was whispering sweet stupid little nothings after Yami really started to lose her patience with the entire situation. They were labeled under "the cutest couple in Domino High" in _Gossip _but Rebecca and Vivian and even Tea had made the comment that he could do better, something that still managed to get under her skin no matter how many times she tried to ignore it.

What was worse that Tea had honestly been one of her closer friends and Yugi's best friend but since they had started going out, the brunette had grown a little distant and cold towards her while she continuously tried to point Yugi in her direction. It wasn't anything completely rude like saying she was horrible or badmouthing her behind her back but there were always moments between the three of them when they were alone where Yami just _knew _Tea was imagining her out of the picture and herself with Yugi.

And it wasn't like Yugi was oblivious to it all; he knew. How could he not?

He'd been the one to separate them when they started tearing each other's hair out and screaming and waging an all out war between themselves until he had talked them into calming down with Tristan's help after Joey had proven useless by cheering them on. They had settled on a loose truce that was honestly likely to blow over at any moment but for the most part they didn't hate each other nor did they really fight that often, just tended to grow uncomfortable with the obvious strain that made up their relationship now.

Rebecca and Vivian were a lot more obvious when it came to them wanting Yugi for themselves; the little A-cup blonde was always sure to greet him loudly whenever they were in the same room as her, completely ignoring Yami and occasionally being bold enough to grab his arm and drag him along after her. Vivian all but took her shirt off and threw Yugi's face in between her breasts every time they were in the same room, grabbing him and lifting him off his feet.

Yami had always been a tiny bit jealous of the fact that she had boobs she could press into Yugi's face like that but most of the time she didn't care because the teen liked to be able to cup them and snicker about "boobies" in a long drawn out murmur that always made her blush. And aside from that, from what she knew, larger boobs meant back problems later in life and she didn't need those. Plus…lower chance of cancer and all that…

Regardless, it went without saying that she wasn't inclined towards sharing, which was probably why the last time Rebecca had grabbed Yugi to lead him away, the red-eyed girl had all but grabbed her by her hair and thrown her across the room. The fight that had broken out had been Yugi literally thrown to the ground while the two of them had clawed at each other and pulled hair and screamed while the teacher had broken them up and they had both gotten suspended for a week. The fight that broke out with Vivian had been a lot more of her taken by surprise when the brunette had suddenly lunged at her and got her by the hair; it had escalated to the point that Yami had been pinned to the teacher's desk and Vivian had gotten a staple in her forehead when she wouldn't let go. That had been the only time Yugi had stayed far away from the fight instead of trying to break it up like he normally would have.

"That's it," Yami hissed, starting to get up only to have Yugi reach over and wrap his arm around her waist, pulling her into his side and refusing to let her get out of his reach. "Yugi, let go."

"Nope." The teen grabbed a piece of sushi from his tray and looked it over before putting it away again and turning to her. "If I let go you're going to go over there and pick a fight and we really don't need one."

Tea glanced at them for a moment, tilting her head and really looking at them for the first time in a long while. The two of them sitting next to each other like this made the point of showing just how weird a couple they honestly seemed to be. They sat at the same height, both of them had spiky hair that was tri-colored and they both had the most unique eye colors she had ever seen. They were both skinny and with their hips pressed together and Yugi's arm around her middle, it was pretty apparent just how subtle the girl's curves were, a small tiny twist in what would otherwise be a rather "straight line" as Joey had put it before. With their shoulders pressed together, it was even more apparent just how thin and small Yami really was, the pink of her uniform sharp against the royal blue of Yugi's, the fabrics seeming to draw a rather thin but well-defined line between them, like their personalities. Yugi was sweet and kind-hearted, one of those people who would go out of his way to help someone else even without knowing a thing about them just because he could. It was in his face and his eyes and everything about him. The small teen still had baby fat cheeks that were softly rounded but had a slightly sharpened jaw that was adorable and gave him a completely cherubic effect, not that his eyes didn't do that as well. Large and innocent with a gleam that always made them look that much brighter, blue specks surrounding wide black pupils and making up the outer layer of his large irises, all framed by long black lashes that made them that much more beautiful when he really looked at you. Even with the leather choker around his neck, something that he had just randomly grown attached to when he was younger, it didn't do anything to make his image any different than being the cute boy that he was. The spikes in his hair were predominantly black with a deep blue-violet at the tips and long sharp goldenrod bangs, three of which framed his right cheek with a tiny forelock in the middle of his forehead and two bangs that shot outwards to the left, but there wasn't much difference in their hair when it came down to it. Yami's was longer and fanned out, naturally spiky and long enough that it went past her shoulders, black to until it reached the tips where bright red made up the rest of the color like vibrant flames, almost a replica of her strange crimson eyes. The long bangs were goldenrod with three to her right, all of them sharp and framing her cheek like Yugi's did while the last went a little further upwards, the bangs on her left somewhat shorter and grown outwards rather than straight down, mirroring Yugi's almost exactly. But where he had the forelock, she had a streak of gold like lightning that shot up and framed the wavy spiky of hair that curled upwards softly but still looked just as sharp as the others that cascaded down her shoulders, and two other streaks of hair fanned out and upwards to her right and left, just past where her bangs fell; when Tea was feeling really mean, she sometimes called them Yami's devil horns just because they shot out there so strangely while other times they actually seemed a little like two broken halves of a halo. Her face wasn't as soft looking as Yugi's, mostly because of how sharp and defined her dark eyes were, framed by long glossy black lashes that looked perfect even without makeup; they gave her cheeks a somewhat more pronounced look but made her ears look smaller and her neck thinner while showing off her collarbone beneath the dark gray choker resting there. The soft colors against her golden-bronze skin didn't quite do much for her complexion while the deep blue made Yugi's look a little creamier where it was normally extremely pale when he was dressed in dark gray or black. Pushed together like this, the contrasts were hard to ignore but when they were separated, it was really only Yami's proud nature and sharp tongue that really made them stand out.

"I still don't think the picture is that bad," Yugi announced, glancing at her with a raised brow when she ignored him pointedly and glared at someone across the cafeteria who Tea guessed was probably keeping up the little game they had going on of squinting at her chest and pretending that her breasts were invisible. "So I really don't see why everyone is being so bitchy about it."

Tea bit her tongue to keep from saying that it wasn't the picture itself but the fact that it was of Yami and she didn't look perfect and Rebecca and Vivian scored _A_'s in comparison to her lowly L that made it that way. A for Absolution, L for Lost Cause.

"It doesn't matter," Yami stated softly, narrowing her eyes. "What matters is if this loser doesn't stop squinting at me, I'm going to go beat the crap out of him."

Her boyfriend rolled his eyes and pulled her closer to him, pressing his nose into her cheek and ignoring the way that she scowled at the affection; Tea had to admit that they were the strangest couple she had ever really paid attention to. That assessment didn't help with the fact that she was still a little sore over Yugi choosing to date her for two years behind their backs before finally coming out with it when Joey asked Yami out to the arcade down the street from the school. She still didn't know if it was Yugi's idea or Yami's but she was honestly willing to bet that it was more Yami's just because she seemed more likely to keep secrets than Yugi did.

They didn't really make sense, first of all because they looked so much alike; why would Yugi want to date a girl that could technically be considered his sister? Especially when he had others who had made it pretty well known that they were interested in him—herself included. And then there was the fact that Yami was a wildcard sometimes, hardly ever let herself be held down by something but somehow stayed anchored to Yugi like he was her life source. They got codependent and then so independent it wasn't even funny; Yami had a habit of striking up a demand of independence out of nowhere, wandering off on her own and doing stupid things and not bothering to explain to anyone else about it while Yugi tended to be a little too dependent on her at times, wanting her around close to constantly despite the fact that they had been dating for four years now and Yami was still as likely to wander off as ever. She didn't know what the hell kept Yugi attracted to her when she got like that, especially when she had heard him tell her on more than one occasion that he loved her while she would simply nod or kiss him once and leave it at that.

And Yami was more likely to ignore than she was to talk about something important like Yugi tended to like to do when things got stressful. She didn't talk that much to any of them but she spoke pretty openly to Yugi but she had a habit of dodging questions while they were in front of them, almost like she was reluctant to let them know anything despite the fact that they had all grown up together as best friends.

She guessed part of that behavior was her fault because when Yugi had announced that they were dating, Yami had been her best girl friend while Mai had been Yami's and she _knew _that Tea had been in love with Yugi since they were ten. Sure, it had been puppy love, but it had never lessened and had only grown as she had gotten older and not once had Yami told her or even _hinted _at the fact that she was dating him when they had turned twelve after Yugi had officially asked her out.

She still hadn't forgiven her for that, or the fact that Mai had instantly jumped up and hugged her and told her that she was so lucky while Yami had merely been staring at her the entire time around laughing at the blonde's enthusiasm. She didn't know if that was because she was sorry or if she was trying to gloat, because the red-eyed girl hardly ever really showed emotion, which was another reason that she didn't understand Yugi wanting to be with her. He showed emotion a lot and yet he dated someone who acted like there was only one setting for emotion and facial expressions and it was the default of a stare that seemed to burn your skin like someone was striking you with a white-hot fire-poker. Other than that, there was pretty much losing her temper but past that, not much more.

"It'll be over by next week," Mai said simply, shrugging a shoulder and smiling at the other girl who continued glaring and squirmed in her seat when Yugi sighed against her skin loudly. "By Monday they'll have moved on to something else."

"Yes, I know that," Yami hissed quietly. "But it is the fact that they're doing it in the first place that I hate."

"Should have looked better for the camera then," the brunette said thoughtlessly, startled out of her mind when the others all looked at her with wide eyes, Yugi's stunned while Yami merely looked thoughtful, as if trying to read her for a moment before turning away again. Joey gave her a look that said to drop it while she still had the chance and Tristan gave a sympathetic wince while Mai sported a look that said to watch her step.

"Perhaps," the red-eyed girl muttered, sounding distracted; Tea gave her a confused look, surprised by the way her voice had grown a little raspy and strange, warm, and found herself blushing when she saw that Yugi was rubbing circles over her stomach, discreet little movements of his fingers that seemed to throw Yami into a peaceful state. It wasn't anything sensual but it seemed too private to watch and Tea turned away immediately, face burning at the mere thought of having witnessed that, blinking a few times to rid herself of the heat in her cheeks.

* * *

She rolled her eyes as she opened her locker, huffing in annoyance as her nail caught on the handle for a split second before quickly releasing again. She looked it over for a moment, found that it wasn't broken, and turned back to pulling her door open and going to grab her notebook for the next class, stopping short when she saw a small thin pink index card with bright blue ink, freshly printed with cursive lettering.

She glanced around slowly and raised a brow in confusion before frowning slightly when she turned back and flipped the card around twice, trying to find first a name to say it was actually _meant _for her and hadn't been placed in her locker by accident, but found nothing.

Yami cast one more glance around, curious and more than a little aware of the fact that no one was in the hallway with her at the moment. The card felt cold and stiff in her fingers when she flipped it over again and decided to read it, see if there was a message to give her a hint at who it was actually meant to be for because surely it wasn't meant for her, right?

_I don't think you're an L, you're still an A_.

Red eyes narrowed in surprise and curiosity burned at the edges of her mind, insanely aware of just how strange a message that was when she flipped it over again and found that the _PS, it's so not Yugi _she expected to be there was nonexistent.

She was used to him doing something stupidly sweet like this when she was having a bad day, little cards or texts, sometimes reaching over in the middle of class and stealing her work to draw on it and then hand it back. When he left messages in her locker, there was always a _PS, it's so not Yugi _on the back because it was stupidly cute and she had to admit that she liked laughing at the sweet little note.

Now, however, the tag wasn't on there and the card seemed awkward and cold in her hand as she realized it wasn't from Yugi at all. She went to slide it inside the small metal folder rack she had put on the door, freezing in place when she found a perfectly bloomed bright red rose sitting inside of it instead. The red petals seemed shiny under the fluorescents and the dark green of the stem was so deep that it looked painted but the veins said that the flower was completely real. She glanced around a couple more times and then slowly turned back, furrowing her brow as she dragged her eyes up and down the long stem to the perfect bloom.

She hated roses.

Not that there was anything truly wrong with them, but something about them just always made her hate them. This rose, she liked, but not enough to really want to touch it or know what to do with it.

She glanced at the card again, stared at the bright blue cursive writing, and then looked back slowly; what the hell was she supposed to do with these? They weren't from Yugi and it felt wrong to keep them but at the same time, she had to admit that she was flattered that someone had done it, though it creeped her out at the same time that they had managed to get into her locker.

Maybe it was an apology from Tea?

She nearly laughed at herself. That made no sense. Tea wasn't going to apologize for that, not after she had been giving her the thawed-but-still-very-cold shoulder for the past year and a half. The brunette was still so mad about the way that they had run around behind their backs and she herself hadn't been all too happy about doing it in the first place, but at the same time, maybe they could have announced it at a better time and place. Or not at all…

Maybe if she had gotten the chance to talk to her alone before it happened she would have been able to explain exactly what had happened between her and Yugi and why, but now it was a moot point and she didn't really care for it when Tea was playing the passive-aggressive card with her.

She looked the rose over, raking her eyes along the stem and finding that the thorns had all been removed, completely clipped. Vaguely she wondered at the odds of a student putting it in here because that made just as little sense as the Tea thought had. Honestly, how would they have known her combination or to have the rose, that the magazine would be out that day?

But they had to be a student, didn't they?

They knew the ranking standards for _Absolution_…

Besides, the idea that it was someone older than her grossed her out a lot. Especially because the first thought that came to mind was, of course, faculty, and that was something that she couldn't really wrap her head around. She thought she would vomit if she found out that it was a creepy old dude who had left his for her.

Then again, she probably wouldn't find out who it was because it didn't matter in the first place, did it?

Yami looked at the card, at the signature that said _Your Secret Admirer_, and raised a brow. She didn't want an admirer. Especially if they were too scared to show their faces in the first place. While she liked the _idea _of someone liking her, she didn't see the point in encouraging it while she was with Yugi.

She'd have to wait to dispose of the rose and the card because she didn't need Yugi to get jealous over some nameless person who had a small crush on her. She understood the sentiment of being afraid to talk to her but the idea of leaving messages like this with the obvious conclusion of hoping to meet her and show himself was not something she wanted to happen anyways.

She cast a glance around and then turned away again, frowning as she dropped the card into the little folder pocket with the rose, and grabbed her books, swapping them for the ones she had balanced in her hands and wandered back to class again.

* * *

Yami slipped the rose and card into her messenger bag, prepared to toss them the moment she got home; she wasn't going to encourage some kind of secret admirer. If he wanted to meet her, he could do it without stupid little notes.

She cringed a little, not at the idea of throwing them away, but at the thought of actually putting it into action. It wasn't something that she was accustomed too; growing up, she had always been told that gifts given to her were meant to be kept. It didn't matter what it was or why they gave it to her, just that they had meant for her to have it and it was rude to ignore something like that.

But wasn't it ruder to keep them if it meant that she had to keep it away from Yugi?

Besides, she didn't want an admirer and encouraging them by keeping the items was like leading them on and she refused to let that happen. She didn't want someone else when she was happy with Yugi.

And as long as her dad didn't know about it, he couldn't lecture her about the fact that gifts were given for a reason and she should be grateful for everything given to her.

"Yo, Yami, you coming?"

She clicked the straps on her bag and zipped the pockets, turning around immediately to face the blond, nodding with a quiet, "Yeah."

"You still down about the picture? It's not worth this much attention," the tall boy announced, throwing his arm around her shoulder and pulling her closer to him; if he wasn't Yugi's best friend and she wasn't well aware of the fact that he was head over heels for Mai and didn't like her more than a friend anymore, she would have snapped at him to let go of her but with all of that in the equation, she didn't mind it.

"No, I just got stared at a lot again. Squinting and stuff like that," she stated, shrugging; she didn't mention that one guy had turned to her in the middle of class during a movie and pushed at his chest saying that he had more boob than her and asking what she stuffed her bra with. She also didn't mention that she slapped him so hard that the movie's thunder clip fell short of covering it and the boy fell out of his seat while the teacher yelled at her to get in the hallway before going out there and giving her a high-five for apparently putting him in his place.

Yeah, he didn't need to know just how awkward a class last period had been.

Besides Joey acted like her older brother sometimes and got riled up whenever she wasn't one hundred percent okay with something. If someone said something wrong about her, he was likely to fly off the handle at them. Yami had always liked but hated that trait in him, especially when it got Yugi in that same mood and he got just as hotheaded as the blond next to her.

Mai came around to her other side, ruffling her hair and sifting her fingers through the strands with a wide grin. "Well, no worries, by Monday it'll be a completely different conversation going on. Hell, who knows, maybe that picture got you an admirer or something?"

Yami leveled her a stare, questioning her but not bothering to speak out loud out of fear that Joey would hear; the blonde gave her a wink and the red-eyed teen frowned before fumbling with the idea of Mai knowing the person who put the card and rose in her locker. Odds were, she had helped because Mai and Yugi were the only two who could get into her locker after she gave them the combination a few weeks before. Mai liked to put things in her locker when hers got full with some of Joey's and Yugi just liked being able to steal things from hers and put them in his when she couldn't object. So far, he'd stolen two of her binders and made her chase him around all day to get them back. He had also sack-napped her canvas bag and taken off running when she wasn't looking during break and she had stolen his gym clothes and put up a picture in his locker of him asleep in Kuriboh pajamas with a Marshmallon pillow and Dark Magician blanket while snuggling a Dark Magician Girl doll. Yugi had spent three hours trying to figure out how she had managed that in Photoshop but had given up after a while and called for a truce.

It was like having Mai as her straight girlfriend and Yugi as her thieving boyfriend, something that wasn't really uncommon a joke because Joey and Tristan had both commented one time that they would _love _to see the two of them make out on video for them.

Yugi popped out from the other hallway, Tea at his side; if she had been so insecure about the blue-violet-eyed teen she would have worried about them coming over to them alone like this. But Yugi was nothing if not loyal and aside from that Yami trusted him wholeheartedly, just like he did with her.

The thought made her flinch inwardly. The strap to her backpack weighed a little more all of the sudden, the rose and card that much heavier. She had to get rid of them when she got home. She'd burn them or something, but she would do it. There was no question about it.

She wasn't going to keep them.

"Hey," Yugi said immediately, slipping in between her and Mai almost effortlessly, the blonde wandering to her boyfriend's other side while the small boy took Yami's hand and twined their fingers together. He didn't have to think about it to know that Tea had fallen to step on his other side but she was watching them from the corner of her eye and he felt a little bad but not enough that he was going to mention it out loud.

"Hey," Yami replied, looking slightly troubled but not enough to speak when Yugi gave her a subtle tilt of his head in question. The red-eyed teen turned away immediately again and squeezed his hand but was now listening in on Joey and Mai's commentary about watching movies as a double date.

Yugi turned away again, glancing at Tea from the corner of his eye like he knew she was doing to him, and tucked his left hand in his pocket to keep from having to touch the back of her hand with his again; he honestly wasn't sure what it was that had made her seek him out after class and talk to him about his relationship with Yami, as if she had a say in it in the first place. He wasn't really sure what was going on with them, but it'd been going on for two years now and it wasn't new but it still got on his nerves every now and then, especially since every time he asked, Yami dodged it and circled the conversation around and around until he couldn't remember what he asked in the first place or just said he would drop it and they both started in on another conversation altogether.

He hadn't been oblivious to her crush on him. It was impossible to be, in all honesty; when they were younger, she had always made them play this game called Marriage and they would all pick a partner to marry. She was almost always the wife so she always picked him and Yami would go on protest the moment that happened, Mai would end up snickering and Joey and Tristan would just awkwardly stand with him while he watched Tea try to talk Yami into playing again and Yami would wander off to play on the swings instead, ignoring her and her pleas. It only ever happened when Yugi was picked, however. If Tea chose the others, the second that happened, Yami would play the part of the maid of honor but if it was Yugi, she was a fireball of protests and refused to so much as be in the same place as them.

He had always loved that about her. She wasn't afraid to stand up for herself and argue even when the others groaned and complained and told her to just go along with it. Even back then she was a spitfire and it had only grown as she had gotten older.

He honestly didn't really remember the day that he developed the crush on her, just that he had teased her into kissing him when they were six and then she had snapped at him that he had better not have infected her with cooties before wandering off again. And since then he'd pretty much been chasing her like a puppy.

At ten he had managed to kiss her again when they play true or dare and at twelve he had finally asked her out like he had been dying to do for years, too scared to ask until then and feeling incredibly worried what she would say…

"Hey, let's go to the arcade!" Joey exclaimed, excitement leaking into his voice and startling the smaller teen who jumped slightly and made Yami's head snap around to stare at him in alarm, scanning him to make sure he was okay before giving him a soft huff that he blushed and smiled awkwardly at.

"I don't know if I can," Yami said, turning back to him and blinking once. "I have homework."

"You can finish it when you get home after the arcade," the blond said, not about to let it go at all; Yugi had to admit that they hadn't been to the arcade in a while and it was normally the place that they all hung out.

"Yeah," Tristan commented as he hurried to catch up with them; the red-eyed teen turned around, curious about how long he had been there in the first place. "You can finish it after we hit the arcade."

She rolled her eyes and shook her head, sighing softly. "Yeah, yeah, fine, after the arcade," she agreed in feigned exasperation. "I will do my homework after the arcade."

Yugi grinned the smallest bit; maybe he could get her to sit and make out with him again like he had the last time they were there. He chewed his cheek to keep from thinking about it because he didn't have to think about it to know that it would lead him down a much darker path—his _favorite _path—and Yami wouldn't find it nearly as funny as he would if that really happened.

Joey led them down the street and over to the arcade while Yugi trailed after Yami and Tea after him with Tristan at her side; occasionally Mai would turn around and glance at them and then turn back again and Yugi was growing a little curious about that but he didn't ask and Yami didn't offer an explanation.

The red-eyed girl squeezed his hand once and then led him along to the booths in the side near the window, taking a seat while Joey and Tristan ran off to play some fighting game and Mai and Tea eventually found their way over and sat with them. Yugi didn't like the way that Tea was watching Yami or the way that Mai was watching him or the fact that Yami officially refused to look at him now.

"You know, we should all go to the mall sometime," Mai commented, looking at Tea as the brunette looked ready to open her mouth and say something to the red-eyed girl diagonal her. The blue-eyed girl blinked and stared at her for a moment before glancing at Yami again and finally looking back at the violet-eyed girl, chewing her cheek for a split second.

"Yeah, that sounds fun. What do you think, Yami?"

"Sure," she muttered, not looking away from the window.

Yugi gave her a worried look and moved his foot to rub over her shin, the red-eyed girl smiling slightly but not turning to him for a long minute.

"Just us?"

"Well, yeah, girl's day."

Yami nodded slightly and let her eyes drift over to Joey and Tristan who were now snapping at each other that they won by chance, sneering and laughing before starting to play again; she turned her head, staring out into the street with narrowed eyes. There was something off, something that felt extremely wrong and it was starting to freak her out because it had only started up after they had wandered out of the school and now she was starting to feel like someone was watching her.

Of course she could have just been paranoid because of the card and rose in her backpack. They made her feel guilty even when she wasn't; just because they even existed she felt guilty…

Because, why exactly would anyone be following her in the first place? That made no sense to her. It wasn't like she had a million guys interested in her at school or anyone who cared so much as to break her and Yugi up in order to have her for their own. Unlike with Vivian and Rebecca, she didn't have guys who wanted to get between her and Yugi and win her through hurting and putting him down until she finally chose them.

"Hmm…I'm going to go get a soda. You guys want anything?" the blonde asked, getting up and looking at each of them; Tea shook her head and Yugi mumbled a "No thank you" while Yami got up with "Here, I'll come with."

Yugi sat up a little straighter; was something wrong with her?

It wasn't that Yami wasn't helpful at times or willing to help others out when she thought they needed it, but he was starting to wonder if he had done something to make her flee. He had touched her and now she was running off with Mai. Normally she would have started playing footsies with him under the table, maybe giving him coy little smiles and winking every now and then.

She cast him a small glance and then followed the blonde immediately; Yugi leaned back in his seat to look over Tea's shoulder, tilting his head and giving into his momentary thoughts of staring at her ass as she walked. While the school uniform's pleated design kind of made it more or less almost impossible to really see a girl's ass while she was walking, Yugi knew Yami's body well enough to imagine it…

"God, you look horrible. What just happened to you?" Mai asked, confused as Yami narrowed her eyes and put her hands in her jacket pockets, looking extremely small and unnerved for a second.

"The admirer thing, do you know who he is?"

"What? No, I was teasing. Why? Wait, oh my god, you got an admirer?"

Yami narrowed her gaze into slits and glared, giving her the clear warning to shut up before someone heard them; just like that, her initial excitement was gone and the violet eyes were wide and alarmed.

"What? What's wrong?"

She hesitated, unsure of herself. Was she supposed to tell her that she had the sudden fear that someone was following her? That there was really someone watching her? How paranoid would she found if she did? She had only gotten a rose and a card and now she was convinced someone was following her around…

"Nothing. I guess I just figured that you could tell me so I could set the record straight."

"Set the record straight?"

"Tell him that I'm with Yugi. I don't want to lead anyone on."

"Oh! Oh, please, honey, everyone knows that you're with Yugi," she laughed, smiling and shaking her head as she inserted a coin into the vending machine to get a soda. "I'm sure whoever it is already knows that. Probably they just wanted to make you feel better by giving you that little card so that you wouldn't feel so bad about the picture."

Yami bristled slightly; she didn't need someone looking out for her feelings like that, especially with stupid little flowers and cards. She was overreacting to her reassurances but it was because of the stress, the feel of someone watching her. She had actually been feeling that way for a week prior, since a day or two after the newspaper article had come out, and it wasn't at school but now there was that stupid note and rose in her backpack that seemed to have grown heavier to weigh her bag down and make her feel terrible. And the question was really, if they were a student, why wait so long? Most of the kids at Domino High had grown up with her, with everyone else. They had all grown up friends or mutual acquaintances, everyone knew each other's name unless they had just transferred, and this was just too surreal.

"Right," she muttered stiffly, swallowing roughly and grinding her teeth for a second. "That's always a possibility."

"Yeah, come on, let's go back over to the table, okay? Yugi keeps looking at you and I'm totally convinced that he's going to jump out of his seat and come running over any minute. Of course, he'd have to knock Tea on her ass, but that's easily done, right?"

"Mai," Yami stressed, shaking her head. "Don't do that. We're all…well, we're _supposed _to be friends."

"Oh yeah, we're friends, don't worry. Just come on."

She rolled her eyes. Mai and Tea had some kind of argument that she had never walked in on or been a part; both of them were frigid about the other, pretty much to the point that they might stab each other if they got the chance. Yami had never understood it and she was hoping she wouldn't have to at any point because if they wanted her to take sides, they would be sorely disappointed.

Yugi gave her a concerned look when she took her seat in front of him again; she started to open her mouth to ask him if he felt strange as well but shook it off in order to grab his foot from under the table and wink before turning to stare out the window again.

* * *

She frowned when she got to the door, staring at the single little white rose on the ground, tilting her head in confusion and then glancing around slowly; this person knew where she lived. Not that she had really done anything to attempt even hiding that in the first place. But either way, if it was someone from the school then it was pretty obvious how they knew where she lived; most of the buses passed through the area while dropping students off so that wouldn't have been much of a surprise.

But now she was staring at this rose and something was off about it even without her attempting to think about it and it was starting to make her skin crawl. She couldn't pin it down even as she stared at it and felt like her eyes were going to burn from the effort of trying to find this one little error that her mind was trying to point out that she didn't recognize.

Yami cast a small glance around and chewed her cheek; halfway through their time at the arcade, the feeling had vanished but now that she was back at her house, all of her instincts said to run and she couldn't figure out why. She crouched down and picked the rose up slowly, straightening and staring in confusion. It looked…almost as perfect as the red rose but something was still off in her head and so the image was wrong even without her knowing why.

She moved her hand to reach out and grab the card that lay at her feet. Pain laced through her finger for a split second and she dropped the flower, confused before she spotted the thorns that came out of the sides of the stem. How she hadn't noticed that in the first place was a mystery but now that she was looking at it, she could see her blood on the end and a droplet had splashed on the petals, painting them red as well.

She looked at her hand; her finger was really bleeding.

Thorns shouldn't have drawn that much blood.

She stuck her finger in her mouth, sucking and pulling it away to peer at the wet, momentarily clean skin. It was a little longer than she imagined the tip of a rose's thorn to be, a little knick that looked awkward and bled so quickly it made her stomach twist in shock.

Droplets of her blood kept falling and she awkwardly stuck her finger back in her mouth, snatching the card out from under the rose without touching the flower, flipping it over and staring at that impressive cursive writing in the shape of the message _Every rose has its thorn_.

"Cliché much?" she snapped around her finger, rolling her eyes at herself and shaking her head; he couldn't hear her and she was still pretty sure that thorns weren't supposed to be like that…

Yami grabbed it from the bottom and pulled it upside down, surprised when she noticed the bright red hue of one of the petals, eyes widening as she recognized her blood. Shit. She shook her head and worked the key into the door, hissing in pain as her fingertip stung with the mixture of air and pressure at the task of moving the metal to undo the lock. Her finger was bleeding everywhere.

What the hell?

The key was soaked in it and she refused to put it back into her pocket; the uniform cost too much and with her luck the blood would somehow leak through the thick material and it would be permanently stained.

Yami let out a soft huffing noise and scrambled for the kitchen, tossing the rose onto the table and turning on the faucet, throwing her finger under the water and shifting through the contents of the cabinet to grab the bandages.

Why was it bleeding so much?

She glanced at the small dots of bright red that made up her walk back into the house to the kitchen. The counter was covered in it…

Last time she checked, she wasn't anemic.

She pulled the paper strip off the adhesive side and dried her finger with a spare paper towel next to the sink, applying some pressure before quickly wrapping it with the band-aid, frowning at a strange buzzing noise that hit her ears.

Her phone was ringing from inside her backpack. She could see the light through the fabric and the way that it was vibrating.

Yami let out a soft sigh and looked at the bandage; she could already see the blood welling up underneath the cotton but she was pretty sure that it was safe to say it wouldn't be bleeding too much more. The red-eyed girl wandered over to her bag, flipping it open after undoing the locks and pulled the phone out of its little solitary pocket.

Yugi.

She hesitated for a moment; did she tell him about this? It would only worry him and she hated the idea of doing that. Besides, it was her fault for even picking it up in the first place when she knew she shouldn't have. Her own fault that her finger was bleeding. It was okay anyways…

The phone stopped buzzing and she winced; she'd missed his call.

She quickly scrambled to call back, tapping the icon a little hard in an attempt to make it work faster, surprising herself with the force of it. For a moment she only got a ring and then Yugi's voice murmured, "Aibou?"

Yami stared at the rose on the table and the card that sat there; was she supposed to tell him?

"Hi, koi, sorry. I was washing my hands," she muttered, trying not to sound distracted and hoping for a second that she hadn't heard her own voice wrong because it honestly sounded as if she were paying attention to him.

"Oh. Okay, so, hey, what are we planning to do for our anniversary?"

Yami tilted her head and furrowed her brows, looking at the phone in her hand for a moment and then glancing at the white rose, the way that her blood had painted some of the petals with bright red…

"Hmm…I don't know yet," she admitted, looking at the card on the table and narrowing her eyes into slits; her skin was starting to crawl, head snapping around to stare out the window. No, there was nothing there, but that feeling was back.

She shivered slightly.

"Are you okay?"

"Yes," she murmured immediately, nodding despite knowing that he couldn't see her. "Yeah, koi, I'm okay."

Yugi stayed quiet for a moment and Yami could just imagine the million and one scenarios that went through his head about how to approach the subject; he didn't know if he should ask further or not because the situation was so strange and they had never exactly been in it before.

"Okay then…"

"Hmm, so, our anniversary," the red-eyed girl said softly, leaning forward and smiling slightly as she rocked back and forth on the balls of her feet. "Let's see, our anniversary. Why does there seem to be something else to that date?"

"Oh, what? You want to celebrate your birthday _and _our anniversary? Uh, no, how about one or the other?" the boy snorted in her ear playfully, easily dismissing his worry in favor of making her feel better; she wondering if it was in her voice or if he understood her well enough that he knew even through the phone just how unhappy she was at the moment.

Did she tell him?

She glanced out the window, searching for a moment.

"Well then, if you can't celebrate two things on one day, I'm not sure that we should be together," she teased, scanning the woods behind her house and feeling sick to her stomach. There was someone out there; she knew there was. But they were hiding and they were watching her and she had no idea where the hell they were.

"Wow, women are so demanding."

Yami laughed quietly and shook her head, turning away and deciding to leave it for the moment; she would go and search later, but for now it was good to just be inside, on the phone, listening to Yugi talking to her softly.

"Sexist much?"

"No! Of course not!" he scoffed, huffing and clearing his throat. "Uh…maybe a little?"

"I knew it," she muttered. "Well, at least you have more balls than the rest of your gender."

"Sexist much?"

Yami laughed and scoffed, "Uh, now about no? I'm a girl. We don't _admit _to being sexist. We just make guys feel bad about it."

"So that's what that is!" Yugi laughed, voice fond. "I knew there was a reason you guys always wind up winning arguments."

"No, that would be because we like to argue and when we argue, we win because we're like mind ninjas," she corrected him, stiffening and looking out the window again, resisting the urge to snarl under her breath; who the hell was watching her? "We plant a little bomb in your head and then it stays there until a few minutes later and when it explodes, you guys are just too wounded to keep arguing anymore."

"Is that what it is? You guys are a bunch of ninjas, huh?"

"Damn straight."

"Hmm…"

He was purring softly now and Yami shifted awkwardly at the low, deep noise in her ear; she loved that sound almost more than she loved any other. But nothing topped the way his voice rose and fell and leveled out and dropped when he told her he loved her; that was her number one…

"I should try to figure out how to diffuse those sometime, huh?"

"You can try, but you won't figure it out," she stated simply, bristling at the feel of their stare but growing weak from the purr in her ear; that sound was always enough to bring her to her knees.

"We'll see about that, won't we?"

"Girls rule, boys drool."

"'You better not have given me cooties'," Yugi suddenly murmured in a loud high-pitched girly tone that made her cheeks turn red.

"Oh my god, Yugi, I was six!" she muttered, blushing hard. "Don't even tease me with that! You ate an ant!"

"Joey dared me to."

"Well…you shouldn't have forced me to kiss you."

"Forced? There was no force! You just can't say no to a challenge," Yugi laughed in pure delight. "And you got pissy when I told you that I knew how to kiss better than you did."

"I was six!" Yami whined, ducking her head and turning away from the window; they were out there and they were watching but they didn't get the right to spy on her doing something that only Yugi was allowed to see. "You…Shut up! I was six, okay? And I'm competitive so just…You're so mean!"

Yugi laughed softly in her ear. "Really? I'm mean? Here I am asking about what you want to do for our anniversary and you're trying to milk in two celebrations instead of one! I'm not made of money, aibou!"

"Really? I thought that was what guys were made of…"

"Smartass."

"I wasn't aware your intentions were to flatter me."

Yugi purred loudly and breathed out a low, "I'd love to flatter you sometime."

Her cheeks burned but she didn't plan to lose. "Really? You think you could flatter me, Yugi Motou?" she purred in response, pressing her weight against the table and laying her cheek on her arm; the thorn in the rose's stem stared back at her and her stomach twisted for a small moment, blinking as she tried to focus more on Yugi than on the sensation of being watched some more. "There's only ever been one person in my pants before. He kind of weaseled in there and camped there for a month or two. I'm kind of ashamed to say he wasn't that great and you probably aren't either. But try to flatter me anyways."

Yugi snickered softly. "Not that great, huh?"

"Nope. Not at all. It was a very disheartening venture in my life," she commented, smirking when her boyfriend huffed a little. "Such a disappointment. Like the first time—"

"You guilt-duced him into sex with you and then when you guys did, you start screaming and crying like someone had stuck a hot rod in you," Yugi said quickly, cutting her off as her face lit up. "And then you psyched him the fuck out because you started laughing when he was freaking out and you were all shits and giggles and 'I was joking, Yugi!'"

Yami couldn't help but laugh. "What the fuck is guilt-ducing?"

"The act of guilt-duction."

"Well, what's that?"

"Seduction by guilt."

"What? You cannot be serious! I never guilted you into—"

"Oh my god, yes you did!" Yugi laughed loudly. "Don't even pretend you didn't! Just turned fourteen and you're over here all 'So, uh, Yugi, have you ever wondered how hard it would be to go through high school if you were the last of your friends to lose your virginity?' and crap like that until I finally agreed!"

"I…Fuck you too then!" Yami snorted, laughing. "Hey, at least you get to brag that you lost it on your birthday _and _only twenty minutes after you ate your birthday cake, asshole."

"Oh please, no one wants to brag about a girl freaking them the hell out by screaming and sobbing and then laughing when they try to check on them!" he scoffed. "You ruined that experience for me!"

"Well…you ruined two months of camping for me!"

"I made it _fun_."

"You were horrible and your moves suck. Just saying."

"Yeah, well you smell bad."

"You're small."

"Oh hell no!"

"Hell yes."

"Well then it matches your boobs, doesn't it?" Yugi huffed.

Yami furrowed her brows slightly and straightened her shoulders before glancing out the window again; she could feel his eyes on her somewhere. Where the fuck was he? It was a guy, right? It had to be a guy…right? She didn't swing that way and it being a girl would just be _so_ awkward…

Like, how would she even explain that to someone?

_Oh yeah, there was once this girl who said she was my secret admirer and spied on me and…_

Yami left that rest of that thought alone because if she went any further, she was going to end up thinking a million and one different scenarios and none of them were going to end well at any point. She tilted her head, staring at the trees and searching; he was there somewhere…

"Aibou?"

The red-eyed girl blinked and felt her face drain of color; oh gods, now he was worried about having hurt her feelings. She admitted she got sensitive every now and then but that was just ridiculous. She swore Yugi was five times as worried as he should have been when it came to keeping her happy.

"Sorry, I got distracted for a second. Nightshade needs to be fed…"

"Oh, okay."

Yami rolled her eyes, smiling a little, at the relief in the boy's voice; Yugi was too sweet for his own good and he always worried far too much when it came to her.

Which…was exactly why she wasn't going to tell him about what was going on.

"Anyways, back to the point—"

"I win, I knew it," she snickered.

He huffed softly. "No you didn't, we're just…shut up," he mumbled. "Anyways, as I was saying, do you want to do anything different this year? Because I was thinking if you did, there's that new restaurant that's going to be opening up and we could go there…?"

"How about the new restaurant on your birthday but ours on our anniversary?"

"Oh, thank the gods, you made a choice on what we're celebrating."

Yami snickered as she glanced around the room at the clock; she had about five hours to do her homework and get dinner going so she could eat and then relax a little.

"You're so mean."

"Says you!"

"I'm the only opinion that matters," she purred softly.

Yugi breathed a little too sharply and she burst out laughing at the sound. "Goddamn it, shut up," he hissed, chuckling. "God, you're just so mean. Why the hell are we dating anyways?"

"I'm not sure I like your tone." Yami wrinkled her nose and leaned against the table with a glance at the birdcage in the corner of the living room, watching the raven as he picked at a feather and shook his wings out. "I might just have to break up with you over it."

"And _I'm _the mean one."

"You're only letting us celebrate one special occasion!"

"You want to go through this conversation again?"

"…Hmm…good point."

"I know it is. I just won an argument."

Yami snickered softly. "Maybe just a little."

"I'll take it."

Her skin crawled; she could literally feel his eyes on her skin and it was driving her insane…

"Good, because that'll be the only one you get for the next twenty years."

"Shit," Yugi cursed. "Do I still have those coupons around the house?"

"You better," Yami laughed. "You only get those on your birthday!"

The other teen let out a noise of surprise and complaint before she could hear him running up the stairs loudly. "Oh my god, where are they?"

"Just for that, no more sex for you."

"…How long does that stay in effect?"

"Forever."

Yugi choked loudly. "_What_?"

"Find the coupons," Yami snickered, clicking her tongue. "Find them, Yugi. Find the coupons so you can have sex again!"

"I'm actually picturing you leaning over and clapping your hands on your thighs while you're saying that," the boy laughed, making her giggle. "Found the coupons!"

"…Wait, there are actual coupons?"

"Not for what you're thinking! Geez, such a sex addict," he teased playfully. "No, uh, pizza coupons. I don't want to make dinner and they're going to be here in a few minutes, maybe ten."

"Oh…" She trailed off for a second. "Okay then. Wait, are the others over there with you?"

"Hmm? No, Joey and Tristan left."

Yami stayed quiet.

Yugi sighed and groaned, "Yes, Yami, Tea is still here." He paused and the red-eyed teen looked out the window for a second before turning back to the phone. "Her mom is going to come pick her up later."

"You don't have to explain it to me," she replied. "I just wanted to know if you were going to eat a whole damn pizza. God, Yugi."

He sighed softly. "I know, sorry. I just…I don't know. Something's been weird with her lately and I guess it's just starting to stress me out a little."

Yami stayed quiet for a moment and ground her teeth together; Tea had been paying attention to how weird she had been acting lately. She was probably going to talk to Yugi about it or something. Maybe try to make a move on him or something…

She shook her head. Tea wouldn't do that and even if she did, it wasn't like Yugi would go running into her arms or anything. She would point that she was acting weird and Yugi would be his Yugi self and disregard it.

Because Yugi relied more on his heart than his head when it came to his life.

Yami wished she could do that too sometimes.

"Yugi?"

"Yeah?"

She hesitated, looking out the window and then turning back. "Have fun, okay? Don't worry about it so much. I'm sure Tea is fine, koi."

He sighed softly and she closed her eyes; she wasn't going to tell him. He'd get drawn into it and she didn't want him to get hurt. She shivered slightly.

"Yeah, okay. Are you sure you're okay? You sound really tired…"

Yami smiled a little. "Yeah, I'm okay, Yugi. It's just been a long day. A lot of squinting at my chest and all that." She paused. "That should be a code phrase or something."

"For what?"

"I don't know! God, Yugi, get your shit together and become creative, damn it! I can't be the only one in this relationship!" she cried loudly.

"Oh my god," he snickered.

"Go and talk with Tea already."

"…So the same restaurant then?"

"Yeah, same one. Like we've done for the past four years," she laughed. "I mean, honestly, Yugi, get your shit together."

"Oh my god, this is why I shouldn't listen to people saying that women like change," Yugi sniped. "Bullshit, absolute _bullshit_!"

Yami snickered and straightened, heading over to where the birdcage sat, glancing at the raven that plucked another feather and watched her with its head tilted and its eyes on her. "Of course it is. God, I don't even know why you _try_."

"I don't know either."

For a moment Yami could hear Tea calling out for him, telling him that the pizza was there, and her boyfriend sighed softly.

"Okay, I'll call you later tonight," he announced unhappily.

"Sure, koi," she murmured.

"…Bye."

"Bye."

She waited, nodding the seconds out until Yugi huffed and cried, "Why don't you ever say it first?!"

"Because it's cuter when you're frustrated and you say it first," she said immediately.

"Goddamn it, Yami!"

"Goddamn it, Yugi!"

She grinned at his laughter.

"Fine, bye."

"Bye."

He waited a second and then sighed, "I love you, Yami."

"I love you too, Yugi," she laughed, listening to him huff about how she was so mean to make him say it each time before hanging up; she looked at her phone for a second before pocketing it in her jacket and looking at the raven for a moment.

The black bird was only a bit larger than a crow but that was good enough for her because she hadn't wanted a massive bird for a pet, just something small and different. And he wasn't really that much of a pet. The reason they had him was because he had permanently broken his wing two years back when she had found him. He'd gotten roughed up by a cat and the wing wouldn't heal even with veterinary assistance. She hadn't really paid attention to the bigger details, just the fact that he was pretty much defenseless and would have been put down otherwise.

The raven clacked his beak loudly and Yami stared for a moment, watching him curiously before that strange pitch came forward out of his mouth, loud and guttural as he formed her name. "Yami."

"Say it again," she instructed, clicking her teeth at him.

"Yami."

Yami grinned and clicked her tongue at him until he finally growled out, "Evermore."

* * *

**And THAT is the first chapter of Umbral Oath. Just note that the story is probably going to get confusing at times but it'll be for a reason. Anyways, feel free to ask questions or tell me how I did. Because female Yami is not a common thing so it feels a little strange xD**


	2. Y is for Yami

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything relating to Yu-Gi-Oh**

**Warning: Cursing can go from mild to mass amounts at times**

**Note: There will be blood in later chapters, mentions of sex, and possible lemons...**

**Keep in mind that Yami is a GIRL. So she worries about GIRLY things and has these things. Called INSECURITIES. They happen. She has them. Because she's human.**

**As far as the group dynamics go, by the way, things are strained and iffy and will be explained throughout the story so keep that in mind.**

**I forgot to mention before that the story is pretty fast-paced, so yeah, it picks up pretty quick.**

**xxLoveless: Honestly, you're not alone. I have that same problem with genderbent characters. Something about the idea of it seems just awkward and sometimes it just seems like you're not even looking at the same character, but an OC that has the same name. So trust me, you're not alone at all. Thank you for giving it a shot. I'm glad you like it :) Yeah, I don't agree with the fem!Yugi thing. For one reason or another, I always see Yami as being genderbent but never really Yugi. So, yeah, I couldn't do it with Yugi genderbent. I've never even been able to properly picture it, to be honest. Something about Yami works that way for me but never Yugi. Thank you :) Yeah, everything I write seems to be rather lengthy honestly.**

Chapter II: Y is Yami

Yami was still staring at the scab on her finger, one long line of crushed blood and wrinkly skin that was too pink and strange for her to wrap her head around. What the hell was that? It was almost two centimeters long. No rose thorn was two centimeters long like that.

Or that perfectly straight. What the fuck was that?

It looked more like some kind of knife tip had been pushed into her flesh than anything else.

Overnight it had healed pretty nicely for the most part but she was still finding it kind of hard to do much with it; every now and then, if she so much as stretched her finger all the way out, it sometimes stung and burned like something was cutting into her bloodstream from it.

Actually she was pretty sure that was just her being paranoid but she couldn't help it and her head was starting to hurt; she'd attempted to burn the roses and the cards but at the last second had chickened out.

And she wasn't sure if it was because she was afraid of what her dad might thing if he found out or if it was because she had somehow fallen for her curiosity.

But that made no sense when it came down to it because she found it hard to even consider that; she hated roses and she didn't care for an admirer so why become curious?

Her blood still painted some of the petals on that stupid white rose and she found herself feeling sick with discomfort; something about this entire situation said that there was reason to be alarmed and completely alert.

A week of being followed—more or less—and two little cards and flowers and she was starting to grow more than a little freaked…

She got to her feet immediately; she had wasted enough time just thinking about this entire situation. Now she needed to figure out a course of action to see if she could find out who this guy was…or girl…

She winced. Could it really be a girl?

Yami blushed a little at the thought, shook her head, and then considered rushing out the door but it didn't take her more than a second to realize just what would have been wrong with that decision. First of all she was in snuggly pajamas and she didn't need more of an awkward little moment than she had already had before.

She shook it off and headed up the stairs, grabbing some faded black jeans and a gray shirt, throwing both on and scrambling to find some sneakers; maybe if she could figure out who this guy was, she could set him straight right then and there. She didn't want gifts, she didn't want an admirer, she sure as fuck didn't want someone thinking that she was interested in them when she was with Yugi, and this entire thing was starting to get under her skin too much.

If they had been following her and had just given her the two roses and cards just now, then it needed to end right then. She could stop it early and the problem would be solved because she didn't need to feel like someone was watching her like she did…

She pulled her sneakers on, grabbing her black hoodie at the last second before snatching her phone off the charger, and made her way down the stairs for the door, pausing when Nightshade called out her name; that was weird. She had already fed him, so normally he was quiet and only spoke when she made a soft clicking noise at him.

She walked around the corner of the kitchen to the living room, furrowing her brows when she found him picking at his feathers with "Yami" around each one. Was his wing hurting or something?

Yami shifted uncomfortably, balancing her weight on one foot and then the other before starting forward; the black bird turned his head and cawed loudly, a deep guttural noise that made her flinch. What the fuck was wrong with him? She wouldn't he surprised if he was just being pissy again.

He got that way sometimes because he couldn't fly anymore. So it wouldn't be that surprising anyways.

"All right, Nightshade, I'll see you in a little while," she stated loudly, rolling her eyes when he cawed again, growing a little louder; she thought she could see something in the corner of his cage, among the shredded paper bits that he liked to play with when he was bored, but when she looked, all she could see was old newspaper articles.

She shook her head, feeling stupid for wasting time like this, and went for the door; the bird let out a caw of her name again but was silent when she didn't respond, something that rattled her slightly but didn't make her hesitate to run out the door.

A quick glance around said that there wasn't much going on but it still made her skin crawl in frustration; were they still watching her? And where was he if he was doing so? Was it that bad an idea to see if she could find him?

Yami shook that thought off immediately; that was the classic way to get killed, wasn't it? Thinking that you could go and find them without them knowing that you were trying to do so in the first place?

She ignored the way her finger stung when she put her hands in her pocket and unconsciously touched the screen of her phone, stomach twisting for a moment. She could still feel them watching her from somewhere and it was making her feel slightly panicked.

She had always listened to her gut and any feelings of paranoia or discomfort just because that was normally something that was overlooked and most people wouldn't really pay attention to that kind of thing. If they lived, they regretted it and if they didn't well the reason was obvious, right?

She'd grown up with the overprotective father who always told her instinct was the way to go; when something wasn't right then she was to try to assess the situation and figure out what was wrong. If it was more than just a simple feeling and grew on her, then she was supposed to find out if she could see exactly what it was that had her feeling that way. If she couldn't figure it out and it persisted, she was supposed to tell someone.

But what the hell was she supposed to say in the first place? That for the last week she'd been feeling as if someone was following her and now two cards and roses means that she was right and something had to be done?

She didn't see that going over very well.

Besides, most likely she'd make the entirety of the police stations all laugh their asses off at the idea and aside from that, she couldn't really find it in herself to take this seriously either. It was more likely that the guy was probably just too shy to speak to her and had just wanted to make it known that he still thought she was pretty even with the picture circulating around.

Like Mai had said, he might have been trying to make her feel better because of the article that Miho had written in _Absolution_.

Which was exactly why she needed to cut this while she still had the chance and make sure that no one assumed to have a crush on her anymore; she wasn't about to let that happen. First of all because Yugi was a little bit of a jealous boyfriend who got really defensive sometimes when someone complimented her and second because she just didn't need it.

She glanced around, checking for someone else around before pushing her way inside of the floral shop, feeling slightly anxious as she walked towards the counter; yep, there she was, coming from the backroom in her little family floral shop apron uniform…thing.

"Yami."

The red-eyed girl resisted the urge to huff in annoyance at her surprise; did she really need to stop short a step and stare with such a shocked expression?

"Hello, Tea," she managed, glancing around and scanning some of the flowers; there weren't a lot of roses from what she could see. So did that mean that her "admirer" had bought a bunch of them at some point or that they were just low in stock?

Her stomach twisted uncertainly as she looked them over; none of them were as deep a shade or red as the one that she had been given and the stems were hardly as deep a green. There weren't any white roses in the first place. There were lavender roses, gold and orange, but there were no white…

"Um…W-what can I do for you?"

Why the hell was she stuttering?

Yami turned her gaze on her and stared for a long minute; had she done something after she and Yugi had hung up? Yami didn't really see her as the type who would try to make moves on Yugi or badmouth her behind her back or anything, but then again, she wasn't really sure about her anymore. Things were a little too strange and stressed for her to really assume much. Honestly she would have been stupidly pointing her finger at the brunette without proof and that was far from something that she cared to do as it was, no matter what the situation. And even if she had made a move on Yugi at some point the day before, she was pretty sure that he would tell her _himself_. He wasn't one to skirt around the issues in their relationship when they arose and he didn't keep secrets from her, a two-way street between them, though sometimes she had to admit it seemed more as if he obliged by that but she stupidly found her way around it.

Especially now. Oh gods, she felt so guilty and stupid. If Yugi found out about this, what was he going to think? Was he going to be mad? Try to push it aside to make her feel better like he normally did whenever something went wrong? Yami didn't think she could take that on top of everything else.

Now the question was really whether she was going to push at Tea until she cracked and admitted to it because obviously she had something that was making her like this, or if she should just stay quiet and pretend to be oblivious.

She narrowed her eyes and studied her for a moment before finally glancing at the roses with a small nod of her head.

"I was wondering if anyone has been ordering any _white roses_ from here recently."

Tea stared at her with wide blue eyes and then slowly frowned and shook her head, looking confused and slightly suspicious as she studied her; Yami didn't need to try to pick at her brain to know that she was wondering at her cheating now that she had brought this up.

It wasn't exactly a secret that Tea suspected her of two-timing Yugi as it was. She did admit that her streak of getting independent and sometimes acting as the wildcard in the group when she got anxious about things didn't do much good for her image as far as the brunette was concerned but she hardly cared about what Tea thought about it all. Maybe before the cold shoulder, she would have but she was being childish and Yami wasn't about to play this game with her. She didn't care for it and she didn't really see the point of it as it was.

Tea could think of her cheating on Yugi all she wanted because it didn't matter.

"Yugi hasn't been ordering any roses," the brunette stated, narrowing her eyes.

Yami tipped her head to the side and gave her a long stare. "I asked if _anyone _has been ordering white roses."

"Yugi hasn't been ordering any roses," Tea repeated after a long moment.

"I didn't ask if _Yugi _was," the red-eyed girl replied, narrowing her eyes and fighting the urge to snap at her; she was just worried about her friend, right? That would be the only actual reason she would have to get like this; besides that, she did admit that the request was strange and more than a little suspicious considering. Especially after the brunette continued her repetition.

Tea stared at her for a long minute and then finally glanced at the computer screen and the register, frowning as she chewed her cheek. "What is this about if it isn't about Yugi?" she finally asked.

"I'm not cheating on him," Yami snapped, bristling angrily now that she was all but saying it; Tea looked at her with wide eyes, mouth opening the slightest bit in the shape of an "o" before she regained some of her composure though she still looked terribly shocked by her frustration. "I want to know if anyone has ordered any flowers from here."

"But I don't understand why. What's the point?"

She gave her a sharp look and then glanced at the blossoms for a second before turning back. "I am not under any obligation to explain my actions to you," she hissed, feeling her skin crawl; he was watching her again. "I just want to know if anyone has ordered any roses from here. White roses."

Tea frowned as she finally went to work, searching the computer catalogues for a little while before turning back with a slightly affronted look to her eyes. "No, nobody has ordered any roses. Not white and not otherwise. It's not even February yet. It's only the seventeenth. No one is going to be buying flowers right now."

Yami squeezed her eyes shut and stood back for a moment, rubbing at her temples; she tried to picture places that he could hide and observe her from without being too obvious. The problem with that was that there was the café across the street, the casino, Burger World…

He could be anywhere, honestly, and the idea of being stared at by someone when she couldn't do anything to stop it or even really see him in return was starting to make her feel sick to her stomach.

She hated attention when it wasn't asked for and she loathed when someone liked to give it to her without her desire for it.

"Are you okay?"

Yami nearly ignored her just because she could, rubbing her temples again and grinding her teeth together; she wasn't fucking okay. She was tired and those cards and roses were still at her house because she couldn't figure out what to do with them because now she was getting suspicious and possibly over-thinking it, but she was starting to wonder if there was a clue as to who this guy was…

She thought it would have been okay if they—or possibly someone else—hadn't been following her before. She would have just spoken to them and made it clear she was disinterested but someone was watching her and it was making her paranoid.

Yami rolled her eyes at herself and jerked backwards when Tea touched her arm. Her eyes snapped open and Tea looked startled, slightly scared by her reaction, but Yami hardly cared to pay much attention to that. Tea already knew that Yami wasn't one to be touched, especially when she was thinking so why the hell would she do that?

Yami fought back a snarl of annoyance, grinding her teeth and biting her lip; at this rate, they were going to burn holes into her back and leave her bristling and nasty for weeks on end. Gods, didn't their parents teach them not to fucking _stare _at people?

"Sorry."

She shook her head. "Thanks for looking. I appreciate it." Yami glanced over her shoulder and searched for a second, realizing just how insanely stupid a move that really was when she realized that Tea was probably wondering what was going on. She turned back to the brunette to find her staring at her with wide eyes, confused and more than a little suspicious but definitely worried.

"Are you sure you're—?"

"I'm fine," she ground out, glancing at the roses and chewing her cheek; fucking roses. She wondered if they clipped the thorns when they sold them or if it was just something that her little "admirer" had done specifically for her. She subconsciously tucked her hand in her pocket, fingertip stinging when she touched the screen of her phone. "Stressed, but fine."

Tea looked ready to ask again but stayed quiet when she locked eyes with her again, the two of them staring for a long minute before Yami ground her teeth together once more. The brunette was surprised and confused, a little scared for her sake, but suspicious as well and Yami was getting frustrated with that small bit of open inquiry in the other girl's eyes. She bristled, feeling those eyes on her shoulders again, and finally looked away from her in favor of searching again.

There wasn't much to see. Everyone was moving around and looking around and she couldn't just pinpoint someone like that. It was impossible.

"Yami"—she flinched slightly at the way that the red-eyed teen turned to face her again, eyes narrowed into gleaming slits of complete annoyance—"if there's something wrong—"

"There is nothing wrong. I'm tired. I didn't sleep well. I'm stressed, okay?" she snapped, feeling slightly guilty for her tone but also justified by the way that Tea continued staring at her; did she really think that she was cheating on Yugi of all people? Was she stupid?

Of course Yami could justify her suspicions just by her own behavior when it came down to it but she wasn't about to do that for her when it was something that she didn't deserve in the first place. Tea had been everything just short of bitchy since Yugi had announced they were going out and she'd never given her the chance to explain what had happened in the first place and at this point, Yami didn't even care to ever tell her as it was. But if Tea was honestly talking to Yugi about thinking that Yami was cheating on him and tried to actually make a rift between them, she was going to prove her so completely wrong she would savor the moment.

"Thanks for your help." _Though, in retrospect, that is your family's job so why am I thanking you for that_?

* * *

Yami stopped short at the door, staring at the two of them; wow, that almost looked like the blond was giving him a blowjob. She furrowed her brows, trying to figure out what they actually _were _doing only to stop short when she realized he had his phone out. Yami bit her lip; maybe Yugi was right and she really was a sex addict…

Then again, she could always blame him for being so hormonal all the time.

Yeah, she'd blame him.

Girls never got blamed for sexy times. Nope.

"She's pretty. Who is she?"

"Name's Kisara. Hot, right?"

Yugi tilted his head. "I guess. I don't know."

"Are you serious right now? She is _hot_!"

"Maybe…"

"What? Please, dude, how could you _not _want to tap that shit?" the blond cried enthusiastically, gesturing wildly. "You have got to be shitting me if you're saying you don't want to tap that!"

Yami rolled her eyes; obviously they hadn't heard the bell and she was getting tired of listening to the conversation already. She wandered off towards some of the older games that Yugi's grandpa sold commonly. The game shop wasn't the most popular but it was far from disregarded. A lot of game or toy collectors liked to shop there because of the rarer items that they could find around there; Yugi had told her on more than one occasion that some of the merchandise was actually from ancient Egypt, passed on through the family.

She hadn't really believed that for the most part, but she had to admit that a couple of them really were practically relics.

She stopped short and straightened her shoulders, not the least bit amused as she pursed her lips in annoyance and turned her head to look at him over her shoulder, peering at him through her lashes and raising a brow slowly.

"Can I help you with something?" he purred in a deep voice that made her smirk in amusement.

"Uh, yeah, you could take your hand off my girlfriend's ass right about now," Yugi stated with narrowed eyes; Yami glanced at him and then at Marik as the blond froze and looked at her and back before stepping back with his hands up.

"Shit! Sorry, I…wow, she's hot. I thought you were joking."

She glanced at him with her eyebrow raised again, studying him for a moment; did he really just say that she was hot? When her hair was messy, she didn't have makeup on, her clothes were just thrown on, and Yugi was right there? The last one wasn't too surprising and normally she wouldn't even second guess a compliment because that always seemed rude, but right now she wasn't feeling the luxury of simply taking one and not bothering to really think about it.

If Marik was her admirer, he wasn't doing a very good job of a first impression. Honestly, groping her ass instead of even a hello or something simple like that? That didn't amuse her in the least when he shot Yugi a sheepish smile that the other teen merely stared at before turning back to her.

"What? You didn't think I could get a girlfriend?"

"Well, yeah, but more like…Tea or someone. Not…_her_."

Yugi's eyebrows shot up in surprise and Yami snickered, smiling slightly as her boyfriend shook his head and blinked a few times.

"Did you just call Tea ugly?"

"What? No, she's pretty she's just not…hot." Marik shrugged and gestured vaguely towards Yami. "Plus she always wears makeup and I like my girls all natural."

Both of them stared at him for a second and Yami rolled her eyes as she tuned back to the display in front of her; maybe she should get one of those five-hundred-piece puzzles and do them all day because her head was kind of starting to hurt again and it seemed simple enough a game to do without hurting it worse…

"I thought you were a boob guy," Yugi argued, confused.

The red-eyed girl chewed her cheek for a moment and ducked her head slightly, reaching for a tiger puzzle and straightening again; did Yugi really have to point out just how small her breasts were?

Then again it was hardly his fault that she was so unhappy with them most of the time, especially when they were compared to other girls'. He hadn't meant anything by the comment anyways, so that wasn't nearly as bad as it seemed to come out at that moment.

"Dude, boobs are boobs," Marik snorted dismissively.

"Actually, they're called breasts," Yami stated a little coldly, rolling her eyes when he looked at her with wide eyes and then promptly made a point of staring at her chest as if she had just given him the go-ahead.

"Stop that!" Yugi snapped, bristling in annoyance as Yami snickered and looked at the box in her hands; did she want a tiger or a cat? Hmm…maybe she could find a little bird or something?

"Gods, calm down!" Marik cried, spinning on him with wide eyes, holding his hands up and blinking in shock. "Just…shit, it's not like I was groping her or anything."

The blue-violet-eyed teen narrowed his eyes into slits. "You mean, it's not like what you were already doing a minute ago?" he muttered, huffing slightly and glancing at Yami again; she didn't look upset, more just amused than anything else, but she hardly ever got upset about guys and their banter as it was. She _did _hang out with Joey and Tristan and himself, after all. It was honestly no surprise that she had grown more than a little indifferent to it.

While Tea still got defensive every now and then when they showed just how perverse they were, Yami didn't seem to mind in the least, instead amused out of her mind when the arguments started and the brunette normally ended up smacking one of them angrily.

Now that he thought about it, it was really no wonder that Joey commonly joked that she was one of the guys.

The thought made him frown; he knew that Yami hated when they said that even if she didn't openly show it, guessing that it was probably insecurity that made her so unhappy about it. Joey and Tristan never had called Tea or Mai that, after all, just Yami.

He had always considered that just because she didn't react to things like Tea and Mai who were far from the tomboy that Yami was most of the time; the only time she wasn't wearing skinny jeans and a graphic tee or a nicer top with a couple of accessories and sneakers or boots was when they went on dates and she went all out for him.

"That was an accident. I didn't know she was your girlfriend! You've never shown me any pictures or anything!"

Yami bit back the remark that he could easily find her in the newspaper if he was smart enough to read it, growing frustrated now that Yugi was trying to make sure she was okay, almost as if he was afraid to hurt her feelings with something so miniscule that it didn't even matter in the first place.

"Eh, whatever, but if you touch her again, I'm going to punch you," Yugi said, nodding once at Marik's incredulous expression; Yami turned her head with a brow raised, about to object because that seemed a little stupid, but her boyfriend was staring at Marik with such an intense look that she couldn't help but feel a little shocked.

Yugi really looked pissed now that she was actually studying him. His eyes were sharp like daggers and narrowed faintly, his jaw was set, and he really _did _look ready to punch him at any second.

The blond held his hands up and scurried back behind the counter, taking a seat and pretending that they weren't there anymore. Yami furrowed her brow, watching him, and then turned back to find that Yugi had moved closer, grabbing the puzzle and looking it over.

"Wow, you're going to spend a Saturday just sitting around doing a puzzle?"

She tilted her head, looking at the tiger. "Maybe." She glanced at his dubious expression and blushed slightly, feeling sick to her stomach now. Maybe she should tell him about the roses and the cards? Because she had a feeling that Tea would do so if she got the chance considering just how weird her behavior was back there in the shop.

She ground her teeth together.

Tea.

She had told Yugi her suspicions and now Yugi was getting defensive and bristling over nothing but a little thought that the brunette had in the first place.

Yami wanted to tell him that she was wrong but how awkward a statement would that be with Marik right there? And the fact that she even _needed _to say it after four years of dating the blue-violet-eyed teen made her feel sick to her stomach. He trusted her, right? Or did he already know about the cards and the flowers and was trying to make her come out and tell him herself? Maybe he was testing her?

But then what had she done to merit that?

He knew exactly what she did and where she went those times when she got anxious and didn't want to be around the others constantly; hell, he was with her most of the time when they weren't around them in the first place.

She opened her mouth just as he placed the puzzle back and grinned at her, saying, "I have a better one in the storage closet. I think you'll like that puzzle better."

Yami blinked once and went to object but he was already rushing off and she couldn't find it in herself to call out after him to say that he didn't have to do that. Instead she stood there awkwardly, frowning and shifting her weight back and forth, trying to think of a way in which to explain to him without saying too much.

She bristled, head snapping around towards the window and then back towards the display case where Marik sat; the lavender-eyed teen was staring at her with his head tilted, elbows on the glass and chin in his palms. She almost snapped at him in annoyance but instead settled for making a show of dragging her eyes across his body enticingly for a second.

Marik sat up a little straighter, eyes widening drastically as she took in the spikes of his strange pale blond hair, the way that his bangs were pushed up away from his forehead naturally and spread out oddly like wings, tapered and somewhat long. His hair fell past his shoulders, resting only slightly lower than his collarbone on either side, and she could see that it was probably close to his shoulder blades where it ended. His skin was a sharp but nice contrast to the pale features of his hair, a deep caramel tone that made up the soft but strong definitions of his jaw. His eyes were a strange shade of lavender that had small specks of something akin to blue-gray in the edges and his eyelashes were pretty long. The three bands of gold around his neck played off the earrings he wore and made him look even more exotic that his skin tone already did.

Yami tilted her head, narrowed her eyes, and then wrinkled her nose in feigned disgust, turning away with a scoffing noise that made Marik gawk before he burst out laughing and leaned back in his spot.

"Okay, I guess I deserved that one," he snickered.

She ignored him in favor of watching Yugi come out of the storage room, empty-handed and looking a little more upset than she thought a puzzle really warranted.

"I think I misplaced it," he admitted awkwardly as he got to her side, frowning and putting his hands in his pockets, searching her eyes for a second; she couldn't tell if it was because she was confused or if he was looking for something else entirely. Maybe he had seen her looking at Marik before? But surely he would have seen her turn her nose up at him as well, right?

"That's fine," she murmured easily, nodding even as she furrowed her brows and stared at him in confusion; what was this even about? She swore if Tea had gotten under his skin with her little comments, she was going to make her pay for it; she had no right worrying Yugi so much about something that was far from even inside the realm of possibilities.

And suddenly she felt her stomach drop and her heart leap into her throat, pounding violently as her eyes stretched wide; what if Tea had told him about her suspicions and Yugi found out about the cards and the roses and sided with her?

Was this some kind of set up?

Was that why Tea kept saying that Yugi hadn't ordered any roses?

Or was she really just trying to watch out for her best friend?

His frown deepened slightly and Yami couldn't tell if it was because of her or if he was just really unhappy about this puzzle. But she could hardly see a point in being so upset about something like that…

"Do you still want the tiger?" he mumbled, blushing slightly when Marik choked and burst out laughing, covering his face with his hand and snickering harder while Yami shook her head and rocked back and forth on the balls of her feet.

She wanted to ask if they could talk for a moment but fell silent again immediately, instead chewing her cheek and fighting the urge to shake her head at herself; she bit back the impulse to tell Marik to shut the hell up and instead looked Yugi over for a second. He looked pretty crestfallen now that he couldn't find this puzzle and while the blush was cute where it lingered on his cheeks, it wasn't as appealing to her as it normally was.

He was still the cutest boy in the world when he blushed, but the miserable look to his eyes did wonders to kill the adorable aspect of it.

"I could help you look for it if you wanted?" she offered; anything to get rid of that look on his face. It didn't belong there and she wanted it gone. He deserved to smile constantly and laugh about stupid things, not feel immensely guilty about a child's toy.

"No, that's okay," he muttered, forcing a small smile and blinking a couple of times; he gestured at Marik with a roll of his eyes and a nod. "I've got this moron helping me all day anyways. Between the two of us, we'll find it at some point."

Yami blinked in surprise, feeling surprisingly small and rejected with that statement. That was new. Normally Yugi would leap at the chance to spend all day with her, just like she did when the others weren't likely to come around and put dents in their plans…

"Oh…"

Thank the gods her voice didn't come out sounding as weak and small as she felt. Yugi still seemed to catch on to it, however, because his eyes stretched wide and he opened and closed his mouth once, at a loss about how to comfort her.

She snorted and rolled her eyes, pushing away her own feeling of worry and oncoming panic; had Tea actually managed to get under Yugi's skin so far to the point that he was actually unsure of whether he wanted to spend time with her or not?

She was overreacting; she had to be.

If they were having a problem, Yugi would have talked to her about it by now; they would have spoken about it and worked it out. He was always fast to do that despite the fact that she didn't always want to talk in the first place.

The fact that he was saying no now was a little alarming but she was seriously blowing this out of proportion. Even she knew that but it didn't help to calm her any.

She shifted her weight awkwardly and bit back a snarl at the feel of Marik's eyes on her again; she couldn't really tell if her "admirer" was looking at her now because she was a little too inside her head for it and she only noticed the Egyptian in the first place because he was watching her with his head tipped to the side and his gaze just slightly narrowed. He was in her periphery, in the same room, and her "admirer" wasn't…

"Okay, I'll call you later then," she muttered, feeling her stomach twist violently for a moment; there was nothing off about Marik aside from her own dislike of having her ass grabbed and him doing that first thing, but he didn't make her skin crawl and she felt neutral about him being around her. So she guessed that alarm going off in her head and making her skin twitch had to be her little admirer watching her from somewhere…

"Yeah, okay," Yugi agreed reluctantly, seeming to want to say something else but losing his nerve at the last second just as she had done the moment before.

She honestly wasn't sure if she should just leave like that or if "I love you" was necessary or what because, really, she was starting to feel a little disoriented. Her head was spinning a little too fast and she was pretty sure that her thoughts were running into each other, especially where it concerned her admirer and Tea and Yugi and Marik and the roses and cards. By the gods, her head was starting to hurt again…

Yugi hated to kiss her in front of Marik, purely for the fact that he was pretty sure the promiscuous Egyptian would rate them as soon as it was over, call out a random number and then explain it to get a rise out of him or a laugh and attention out of Yami. The blond had always been like that, always ready to jump at the first opportunity to tease him into annoyance and get a rise out of everyone else involved.

He wasn't oblivious to the fact that this was the first time that Yami had ever met him and if he ranked their kiss, he could end up with her feeling even more hurt or just plain _pissed_. And he was pretty sure he didn't want her to start tearing Marik a new one, no matter how enjoyable that would have been.

He chewed his lip and searched her face; she was somewhere lost in the back of her head, like she normally was when she got troubled about something and couldn't quite focus for whatever reason. Yugi honestly didn't know if he had done something to bring it on or if it was just because she was stressed about something that had nothing to do with him in the first place, but either way, she was likely to spend hours in that head of hers if he didn't try something…

He leaned forward, thankful for the fact that she was the same size as him because it didn't require more than reaching out to grab hand to twine their fingers together and press their lips together. He didn't have to have his eyes open or his head turned towards him to know that Marik was sitting up and studying, ranking in his head and starting to prepare for his grand outburst.

Yami didn't respond immediately, seeming a little too lost in her head to really know what was going on before she finally reacted. She squeezed his hand for a second and then moved her mouth against his, neither of them bothering with much more; Yugi guessed it might have been because she was self-conscious about kissing in front of others because of her hatred of being stared at or the fact that she was raised to think it was impolite, but either way, she pulled back almost a second after she responded.

He stared at her for a second, waiting for the blond to shout out their ranking, and waited some more, turning his head to look at him to find that the lavender eyes were focused on something in the display case; so…he _wasn't _going to rank them?

Oh thank the gods.

Yami glanced out the door and then turned back, pecked him on the cheek, and headed off before he could really wrap his head around her departure.

What just…?

"Negative five," Marik drawled. "That shit was _weak_."

Yugi groaned and shook his head, walking back towards the blond and sighing, "I hate you so much."

"Ooh, so we're mutual."

"Oh shut up." He paused. "Wait, so why didn't you say that in front of Yami?"

Marik ignored him.

"Marik!"

"What? You told me to shut up!"

Yugi groaned and covered his face with his hands, shaking his head. "God, just answer the question."

"I don't know, she just seemed really stressed about something. Now sit down so I can show you some more bikini shots without the camera getting them."

He sighed and scooted closer so that their hips were pressed together, Marik leaning forward and starting to drift through his pictures again.

The bell chimed, a gasp sounded, and a woman scurried out of the shop.

Yugi's eyes widened in mortification.

Just what the fuck did it look like they were doing?

* * *

The entire house felt strange, something completely off that she couldn't really place. She was half-tempted to make a run for it, because this was the kind of thing that would get you killed in a horror movies and she was a horror fanatic even if Yugi hated them most of the time. Yami glanced out the door and back and flinched when Nightshade let out a caw that made her ears ring, the throaty noise making her head spin for a split second.

So much noise…

She pursed her lips; if Nightshade was okay and he wasn't freaking out that someone was in there that shouldn't have been, then it was okay. It had to be.

Hell, the last time Yugi had attempted to throw her a surprise birthday party at the house with the others hiding with him, Nightshade had screeched so loudly that Yugi had given up and said if he didn't shut up he would cook him like a chicken.

So no one was in there now, even if she could feel just how _wrong_ the house was.

And then she noticed it.

Two roses tied together with a black silk ribbon where a matching black card with bright blue cursive lettering attached.

She glanced around slowly, turning to glance inside of the cage, finding that Nightshade had shed a few feathers and looked extremely ruffled and upset, so far from happy that it made her skin crawl.

So obviously it hadn't been her dad to put them on the table like this.

Maybe if she tried to talk to Nightshade he could describe him or something? Maybe give him descriptions until he tapped his beak against the bars or repeated them?

He was a smart bird, just like the rest of the raven family…

Of course, he wasn't much of a conversationalist, but he did answer pretty simple questions or give answers when she really nagged him.

But she was too tired to really even consider doing that.

_I am glad to see that you return my interest, my precious little rose_.

Yami froze in place. Interest? She didn't share his interests.

Oh gods, he had to have followed her to the floral shop and heard the conversation with Tea, heard her demanding to know if someone had bought the damn roses from there.

She felt a little weak, reaching up and rubbing at her forehead.

If he had followed her then it definitely sounded as if she had been interested enough to know, enough to ask and demand an answer. If he had followed her there, then he could have mistaken the statement of not cheating on Yugi hinting at a breakup between them, especially if he had seen their awkward interaction before she had gone to get a soda at the café and wandered home.

If he saw that, then it would make sense that he thought she was interested.

She shook her head and stared at the roses, confused out of her mind for a moment; there was something she had read before about roses tied together but she couldn't really remember what it meant…

Wait…did he call her his _rose_?

She stared at the card.

Not _just_ his rose, but his _little _rose.

Oh hell no, he was not referring to her height.

Fucking asshole; she was _well _aware of how short she was without him pointing it out. She wished he was there just so she could slap him a few times.

Nightshade suddenly screeched so loudly that she stumbled backwards, rattled by the alarming cry and looking around immediately for anything out of place. The air had changed a little inside the house, not as thick and foreign as before, but definitely far from natural.

And it was cold. Why was it cold?

There was a chill lingering with the warmth of the house's normal temperature and it was lapping at her skin as she looked around.

She winced at her own stupidity; of course she should have thought to figure out where her "admirer" had come into the house. Doors, windows, she needed to check before she missed something.

Yami headed into the living room, searching with sharp eyes, scanning the area to see if she could get some kind of clue as to what was going on, and finally looked straight at the back door.

Well, at least he was smart enough to pick a lock. She would have felt a little ashamed if he turned out to be an idiot.

Of course that didn't mean that she wasn't freaking out a little.

The fucker had gotten into her house.

_Her house_.

He'd planted roses with a card that he was glad he intrigued her and he must have done it recently because the air was still too warm to have been exposed to the outside temperatures for too long.

Nightshade screeched again and she rolled her eyes, going to the door and closing it with a loud "You big crybaby."

The raven shifted his weight back and forth and stared at her with his dark beady eyes, lowering his head and cawing once, that deep guttural noise that _still _kind of freaked her out just because of how strange it was. So freaking different from a crow…

She shook her head and went back to the kitchen, looking at the two roses tied together; there were no thorns this time. They had been neatly clipped as they had the first time he had given her one.

What the hell was going on?

Yami turned and looked out the window past Nightshade's cage for a second before chewing her cheek and rocking back and forth on the balls of her feet; she needed to get rid of these stupid flowers. She had made the mistake of not doing it the day before because of her fascination with the blood she had spilled and the obsession that came with the strangeness of the thorn that had pricked her finger.

She still didn't think that was a thorn.

No _thorn _was that long or sharp to make a mark like the one that existed on her finger.

"Y is for Yami," Nightshade said loudly, suddenly, in a new pitch of voice that was oddly deep but high all at once, scratchy around the edges from the way that the new words felt to the bird.

She stopped short, staring at the card and roses before slowly dragging her eyes towards the glossy black-feathered bird.

Son of a bitch.

She clicked her teeth at him.

"Y is for Yami," he repeated, flexing his wings, his broken one hanging at that odd angle even as he tried to flex it out, the feathers looking so terribly damaged that it was disgusting. "Y is for Yami."

So he had taught him to say something.

"Say it again."

"Y is for Yami."

She tilted her head and stared at him for a long minute; there was something in his feathers and it was making them look strange, settling awkwardly when he lowered his head. He screeched loudly and shifted from foot to foot awkwardly, turning his head and screeching again.

Yami blinked a couple of times and then finally wandered back towards the cage. She had figured it was the cold air that had disturbed him so much but now she knew it was whatever was around his neck.

If he had hurt her bird, she swore she would maim him.

She opened the cage door and Nightshade shot down from his perch and hooked himself on her arm with a grip that made her wince. He was unhappy, extremely so, to the point that he was getting aggressive.

"Y is for Yami," he cried in her ear, hopping up her arm and making her wince. "Y is for Yami."

The red-eyed girl turned her head and stared at him in confusion; that voice was just too weird and it was indescribably awkward to listen to, something that she couldn't quite wrap her head around. Was he really trying to imitate her admirer's voice?

She remembered teaching him Yugi's voice a week before, something that had been guttural and nasty until he had gotten the pitch completely right, and he had only picked up so quickly because she had started a reward system with him. But he still got bored with learning and turned away quickly even while being rewarded.

So how long had he been there?

How long had he been _in her house_?

Yami looked around wildly and felt her spine tense to the point that she thought it would freeze like that.

"Y is for Yami."

He was still watching her. He was watching her and he was having fun seeing her freak out. He had to have been, right? Isn't that something that stalkers enjoyed? Watching their prey fall victim to their little games?

Because no fucking "admirer" broke into someone's house and traumatized their birds or spent a while just standing around feeding and teaching it to say such a moronic phrase. And they didn't watch them like creepers.

She awkwardly reached up and ran her hand over Nightshade's glossy head, breathing a little hard as he screeched, "Y is for Yami" in her ear, distressed and unnerved and aggressive with it.

By the gods, what the hell had he done to her bird?

"Nightshade," she muttered, watching his head turn and the way that he clacked his large beak in anger, "get back in your cage."

He screeched and ignored her and she was pretty sure if she wasn't careful to try to keep him calm, he would probably end up pooping on her arm.

"Back in your cage."

The corvid ignored her again.

"_Back in your cage_," she snarled, startling him to the point that he nearly fell off her shoulder, jumping down to her arm and then moving back to the cage; oh gods, if he had pooped on her, she was going to kill him.

He screeched loudly and she hurried to see what the hell was around his neck, holding his beak shut and sifting through the feathers until she found it.

A thin golden chain that looked so fragile she was almost afraid to even try to move it; Nightshade started to shift his weight again and she hurried to strip him of the necklace, pulling it away and releasing him so that he could sit back and screech indignantly.

She ignored him, staring at the chain and feeling sick to her stomach.

_Y is for Yami_.

Yeah, she guessed Y _was _for Yami.

She shook her head and looked it over.

The chain looked extremely delicate but the Y that it held, the pendant itself, was a little thicker, bright golden with hints of something like white gold, framed by long rows of diamonds that went along the shape of it…

Gods, her head was starting to really hurt again.

Yami narrowed her eyes and looked the entire pendant over; as thin as it was, it looked pretty fucking expensive and the fact that the diamonds looked pretty real—something she only knew from being with her cousin Seto when he was helping Mokuba pick out a necklace for his new "girlfriend"—scared the hell out of her.

How had he gotten this?

She glanced around the room for a second and then headed for the trashcan in the kitchen, looking out the window and searching for the source of her discomfort even as she dropped it into the trash.

She would have to burn those roses.

All four of them.

Because she sure as fuck wasn't going to encourage someone breaking into her house and stalking her.

* * *

**And THAT is the second chapter of Umbral Oath. Just note that the story is probably going to get confusing at times but it'll be for a reason. Anyways, feel free to ask questions or tell me how I did. Because female Yami is not a common thing so it feels a little strange xD**

**By the way, I am curious to see who you guys think is her stalker. I want to see if anyone gets him on the first try xD**


	3. Gel Pens

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything relating to Yu-Gi-Oh**

**Warning: Cursing can go from mild to mass amounts at times**

**Note: There will be blood in later chapters, mentions of sex, and possible lemons...**

**Keep in mind that Yami is a GIRL. So she worries about GIRLY things and has these things. Called INSECURITIES. They happen. She has them. Because she's human.**

**As far as the group dynamics go, by the way, things are strained and iffy and will be explained throughout the story so keep that in mind.**

Chapter III: Gel Pens

Yami was staring at the rose. There was something so wrong with it at the moment that it made her want to vomit. It wasn't the thorns this time, though she knew that was one of the things that was off about it. No, not the thorns.

She closed her eyes for a long moment and as the spots of bright blue and mahogany that had developed there from the harsh light finally started to fade some, she figured it out, nearly dropping the flower. She twisted it around rapidly, eyes growing wide with shock.

The blood on it.

While some of hers had dropped and stained a few petals, the color had turned dark red, fading to nearly dark brown and extremely close to black, but there was a new patch of blood that was brighter by several shades. A deep red that shouldn't have been there…

She looked around slowly; had her dad maybe pricked his finger too?

She highly doubted it. If he had, he would have told her that Yugi was a horrible boyfriend for leaving such a large thorn there.

Now that she thought about it, if he had then he might have just ended up calling Yugi up and saying that she wasn't allowed to see him anymore if he did such a horrible job with trimming thorns off a goddamned plant. Overprotective fathers were so awkward.

Then again, he did like Yugi so maybe it would have gone along the lines of if he ever gave her _another _rose like that, he would chop his fingers off.

Yami rolled her eyes and settled back into her seat on the bed, chewing her cheek and tilting her head as she studied the petals some more. What would be the point of bleeding onto the rose in the first place?

Because now that she thought about it, it was pretty obvious that there had to be a reason for it, whether it was her blood or…his, there had to be a reason for it, right? Otherwise he would have chopped the "thorn" off like he had with the others.

What the hell was that anyways?

It sure as hell wasn't a thorn.

Yami wrinkled her nose as she looked it over, tilting her head and slowly twisting it back and forth for inspection; there was only that one thorn. The question was how he knew that she would prick her finger in the first place, however. Because, honestly, how could he have known that she would do so?

It was oddly placed, almost perfectly placed, actually, so that if she grabbed it like she had the rose from her locker—by the gods, he'd been there; he'd seen the way that she had grabbed it from the top rather than the middle, but then he also much have seen the way that she had unceremoniously tossed it into her bag without a second look.

She shook her head and pulled on her hair for a moment, frustrated; she wanted to burn them now that she was honestly thinking about it, but her gut was saying something along the lines of keeping them for one reason or another that she couldn't even begin to understand.

Yami tossed it back into the drawer in the nightstand and chewed her cheek.

Did burning them really send a message at all?

Because she was pretty sure that if he thought that she was interested in him, just burning these stupid things and throwing that necklace out wasn't going to do much.

Especially if this was really a stalker she was dealing with and not just some kind of stupid admirer; she had never counted herself as a dumb girl, so she was well aware that it was far from just some stupid infatuation.

But it could have been a prank too. Maybe someone trying to scare her; in all honesty, that was probably just as likely as having an actual stalker. More likely, actually.

Some guy might have been playing with her or Vivian or Rebecca. Maybe one of them was trying to intimidate her and scare her enough that they could make fun of her at school or something? But as vindictive as Vivian was, as smart and cruel and malicious as the brunette happened to be, she was not one for elaborate plans. In fact, she kind of sucked at strategic games and anything to do with planning ahead, her weak point where Yami was strong. Rebecca was the exact opposite, smart and so good at strategic games that she honestly had sent Yami on a run for her money on more than one occasion, as she had done with Yugi once or twice. But Rebecca was a pest and while Yami refused to underestimate the blonde, she didn't think she was as cruel as to play some kind of prank on her, especially not something this extreme. She liked to be obvious, as did Vivian, and by now both of them would have been gloating. They would have had to because they sucked at keeping that victorious expression off their faces whenever they got ahead of someone else. Like they had done when they had thought that Yami had failed their little challenge with the test only to be reminded just why everyone referred to her and Yugi as the King and Queen of Games, the Gaming Couple.

And Yami had to question the likeliness of a boy having such a bright blue pen; she didn't know of any guys who had a pen like that though she did think she knew of a few girls who had gotten those bright neon gel pens a week back when they were a big item. Now, however, she doubted the idea of a guy having them. And that handwriting. She had never seen a guy with such nice handwriting aside from Yugi and Tristan and Timaeus once when she had been handing out graded tests after the teacher had asked her to. Timaeus had this weird but beautiful script and Yugi wrote small and neatly, almost printed, while Tristan had a cross between them, small and nearly printed but changed just enough that it was pretty unique.

She supposed what it could have been was a try to get her attention, to peak her interest, intrigue her to the point that she got truly curious enough to seek him out. But that wasn't going to happen and she hated the fact that it was even happening in the first place.

The blue was a bright color, almost neon but bordering a little darker, a shade that she honestly would have loved in any other situation. But almost all girls liked a bright color in such a beautiful script, right? That cursive handwriting was truly something that she had never seen before, and printed on that card as it was, it looked even more wildly beautiful. She liked the color but she didn't like the message it bore. To say the color got her attention was an understatement but to say that it would keep it was a misjudge of her character.

Yami knew of a bunch of people with pens almost identical to that color. No guys, however. Just girls.

So, either the guy had bought it specifically for the reason of gaining her attention and trying to play with her head or this stalker was really a girl and not a stalker at all but someone who just wanted to intimidate her.

She shook her head; maybe she should tell?

But she still doubted that it would hold much merit. Most likely someone would end up saying that she was overreacting to a couple of flowers and cards. There was, of course, Nightshade, who had seen and listened to and attempted to mimic his voice, but she doubted that the raven was much help with something like this.

_Y is for Yami_.

She chewed her cheek again, glancing at the nightstand and shaking her head. How the hell had he gotten his hands on that necklace anyways? She recognized it from the store that they had gone to that day; the thing was expensive as hell because, if she remembered correctly, the actual pendant was platinum and the rest of it was gold with the diamonds.

She hadn't paid attention to pricing because she didn't want it and she never so much as glanced at it more than once while looking for an S among the letters.

The doorbell rang and Yami supposed it was Yugi as it normally was, but when she opened the door the person standing on the other side was far from her boyfriend.

"What…?" she muttered, staring at the roses and the card; it was one of those generic white ones, no cursive blue lettering, just a small white paper card with black ink. "Um…thank you?"

The deliveryman nodded slightly and then spent a second staring at her, glancing at the flowers and back before whistling, "You have quite the boyfriend."

She tilted her head, unsure of whether that was a compliment or an insult, especially after flipping the card over.

_Sorry for yesterday, I just wanted to say that you're one of the most beautiful girls I've ever seen_.

She didn't have to think about it to know who it was from, glancing at the deliveryman again and really staring; had he just called her ugly? She was pretty sure he had just called her ugly.

She stepped back and slammed the door, the man laughing on the other side before wandering off to his car again; Yami rolled her eyes and looked the card over. She actually knew who this one was from and she had to admit that the statement appealed very nicely to her vanity, especially as she continued looking it over.

By the gods, Marik at least knew how to flatter someone.

Not really her.

But it definitely appealed to her vanity, especially after that jackass had just called her ugly. And where the fuck did he get off anyways? He had no hair and was fat. He could kiss her little half-Egyptian ass.

Yami threw the card in the trash and tossed the flowers onto the table; not roses, but hibiscuses. Apparently Yugi had informed him that she hated roses and the boy had been smart enough not to send her them anyways.

She drummed her fingers on the table and shook her head in annoyance.

This was already starting out to be a shitty Sunday.

Not that Sundays weren't normally shitty, but this one was definitely starting to take the cake.

She glanced at Nightshade on his perch, those beady eyes focused on her, and she wondered vaguely if he wanted to play with the flowers; maybe he would want to tear them to pieces or something. He was pretty well known for doing that with other things as it was, so why not the flowers?

She may not have hated Marik, but the fact that he had even touched her in the first place was enough to make her want to smack him if she saw him again. That brought up the question of when he had come to Japan. She didn't think he was her stalker if this wasn't just one elaborate prank, especially after he had found out about Yugi being her boyfriend and backing off like that, but either way, she was a little suspicious.

Then again, she had always figured a little suspicion was a good thing in life.

Yami grabbed the flowers, pulling them out of the wrapping paper or whatever it was, and wandered over to the birdcage; Nightshade instantly straightened and tilted his head, watching her through the bars as she smirked and held out a flower. His beak cut through the petal and she pushed it further in so that he could pluck the stem from her fingers, beating it against the wood of his perch for a second before putting it down and holding it there with his foot. Yami stretched out the other three one at a time and watched as he promptly started to tear the flowers to pieces, even breaking up the stems and scattering them around the cage.

She was watching as one of the last bright orange petals hit the floor of his cage when she noticed it.

Her picture, from the newspaper, was inside of the cage, and where it should have been torn up and completely destroyed, it was in one piece, and Yami stared in confusion as she looked at the bird and back. There was no way…

She cast a small glance around and chewed her cheek; yep, she had just found the original pictures, torn to shred and scattered around, so that meant her little stalker had put that in there this time.

She honestly hoped this was just a prank because a stalker was really pushing it and she didn't have time for bullshit like this. If this person truly turned out to be a stalker, she wasn't really sure what she was supposed to do with the situation. There weren't many times where a stalking didn't turn violent because the victim had offended them somehow in one way or another.

But if this was a prank, had it been someone she knew who was doing this? Because otherwise they had broken into her house. And everyone who visited there regularly such as Yugi, Tristan, Joey, Tea, and Mai actually knew how to get in without trouble. But why teach the bird a new phrase? To scare her?

If that was what they meant to do, they were playing with the wrong girl. She didn't scare easily and this attempt was starting to get on her nerves.

If it actually _was _an admirer, she would handle that quickly enough by telling them straight that she wasn't interest.

If it was a stalker…

She closed her eyes for a moment, tipping her head to the side. Was it better to assume the worst first or last?

She would rather be prepared for the worst than underestimate the entire situation. That was smarter than thinking _solely _that it was just an elaborate prank or a simple admirer.

Yami rolled her eyes at the sound of her phone ringing, leaving the picture behind and going for the stairs; she wondered if she would get in trouble for booby-trapping the house. She doubted that her dad would be very open-minded to the concept of it.

Especially if she didn't tell him _why _she had the desire to do so in the first place.

And she had no plans to do that as it was so she honestly couldn't see him supporting the idea at all.

"Hello?"

There was a pause and rustling and then Yugi was shouting, "Grandpa, I still can't find it!" in a familiar whine that made her smile; she loved it when he whined like that. His voice just got so cute when he whined.

Solomon said something or other in response but Yami couldn't hear it, choking on laughter when Yugi whined, "But _Grandpa_! Come on, that's not even…Okay, maybe it's a little true. But come on, please help me find it!"

Solomon was closer this time and she could just imagine Yugi's face bursting into flames as he chuckled, "Well, I would help you, but I think your girlfriend is listening to this conversation and you wouldn't want her to know your dirty little shame, would you?"

"I don't have a shame!" Yugi cried, high-pitched and blushing furiously as Yami snickered in amusement; she could hear him moving around and wandering into his room now, closing the door as he plopped down on the bed. "I don't have a shame."

"I never said you did," she snickered.

For a moment the other teen was quiet and then he muttered, "You okay? You sound a little…strange…"

Yami chewed her cheek. "Yeah, I'm fine. What do you mean by 'strange' exactly?"

"I mean that your voice is a little off…" Yugi stayed quiet for a second. "Like you're unhappy. Or stressed or something…Oh gods, tell me he didn't actually send you flowers."

"He did. Hibiscuses actually."

"Oh thank god, I thought for sure he was going to go for roses."

Yami laughed softly and glanced at her mirror for a moment, tilting her head and studying her profile; she didn't think she looked too bad today. Stupid deliveryman…

Sure, maybe she could touch up on her hair a little because she was pretty sure it was getting greasy and she needed to wash it again, but aside from that she looked okay. Her little _It's cute how you think I'm listening _bunny shirt that made her breasts look bigger and her faded black skinny jeans…She thought it was a nice combination.

"No, he didn't," she mumbled, reaching up to pull at her bangs thoughtfully for a moment. "So what's up?"

"Not much. I was actually wondering if you wanted to do something for the day."

She debated for a moment whether or not to tell him, feeling guilty immediately after and wondering just how Yugi would react. He wouldn't be happy but he wouldn't be mad at her either; that wasn't anything close to what she was worried about.

He'd get protective and if that happened then she was going to be worrying about him in the meantime and not worrying about herself and she needed to have a clear enough mind to worry about herself and figure out how to stop this stalking habit her little admirer had. Because this wasn't normal and if she had to worry about Yugi getting defensive and possibly overreacting, then she was going to end up screwed. Then again, she was being eaten alive with guilt at the fact that she hadn't told him when she knew she should have, even if it was just in passing conversation.

A whole week and she hadn't told him. Well, technically it was the second week considering it was Sunday, but she wasn't about to put that out there at any rate; she could start marking off the days some other time.

Maybe, if this was a prank, Vivian or Rebecca or _whoever _had paid them to stalk her for a week, to make her antsy and anxious and then planned to have some fun with her by trying to psyche her out with teaching her bird a new phrase. But unless they had broken into the house, then there was someone amongst the group that had helped them. And the door didn't look as if it had been broken into; she didn't think there were any signs of forced entry, so that was another thing that would work against her if she ever tried to tell the cops or something like that.

Yami chewed her cheek for a moment and tilted her head. If this was a prank, she could shut it down quickly by putting whoever it was back in their place, showing them that she wasn't playing this game and they couldn't psyche out like this. If it was a stalker then she highly doubted that she would be able to do that without things getting messy.

She didn't exactly know what messy entitled, however, and that made her skin crawl with anxiety. If she wasn't careful and made the wrong move in underestimating the entire situation, she was likely to get herself or someone else hurt pretty badly…

And she wasn't about to let Yugi get hurt because of her.

Because she knew without having to think about it that he would be the first one to try to put a stop to it and get himself hurt; he was stupidly selfless and undeniably sweet like that, something she both hated and loved about him at the moment.

"Not really." She pursed her lips. "I guess I was just going to hang around the house all day."

"Ooh, is your dad home?"

Yami laughed at the eager note in his voice. "Yes."

"Damn…Oh well, still coming over."

"Okay," she snorted, rolling her eyes.

"Right, see you in a few."

"Wait…huh?"

"What, did you think I was saying that to give you a chance to get rid of your pouty attitude?"

"I don't…I do not have a pouty attitude!"

"You do, aibou. I'll be there in about ten minutes."

"I—"

"Bye, love you."

Yami opened and closed her mouth, rolling her eyes. "Bye, love you too."

Yugi bolted out the door and headed straight to Chicken Palace and Pizza House, waiting in line for a few minutes and getting the original chicken sandwich, fries and a Sprite, a couple of the cookies, and some onion rings. He got the cheese pizza and a couple of candy bars and then rushed off for Yami's house.

"Nine and a…half…" she muttered as she opened the door, blinking in surprise at the bag and box he was carrying, staring as he walked past her and headed for the kitchen table. She awkwardly shut the door and Yugi flipped open the box and started to pull out the contents of the bag of fast food, laying them out and setting her drink aside.

"Ta da!"

Even after four years of them being together and Yugi having to deal with the days when she was down, he still hadn't run out of new ways to surprise her.

"I…Thank you…?"

Yugi rolled his eyes and plopped down in a seat, grabbing a slice of pizza as she sat down next to him and looked at the junk food he had bought, noticing a small bag that he had set aside and left on the chair beside him, ignoring it altogether. She supposed it could have been anything, really, and if he wasn't going to show her the contents then she had no real business asking in the first place.

He had boundaries just like she did; it was one of the things that they both respected and never encroached on.

"Gods, you need to have a bad day so I can do something fun like this," she huffed, pursing her lips; Yugi was too enthusiastic and naturally upbeat to really have something that counted as a bad day. And most of the time, even if he had something like a bad day, he always seemed happy enough just because she was nearby.

"Yeah, okay," he drawled sarcastically, scooting closer so that their hips were touching before starting to eat; Yami raised a brow but pecked him on the cheek, laughing at the way that his jaw moved under her lips and then heated with a blush.

"Y is for Yami," Nightshade suddenly crowed in Yugi's voice; Yami stiffened and Yugi turned his head to stare at her in confusion before glancing at the bird. He was used to him saying something strange every now and then, especially since he had learned to mimic his voice so completely. The corvid seemed to love saying something random and strange when he was around, once screeching "Evermore" for a full thirty minutes because he had been too close to his cage for the bird's comfort.

He glanced at his rigid girlfriend, finding that she was breathing a little fast, maybe shallowly, but the moment she realized he noticed, she made a show of relaxing and offering him a small smile.

"He learned a new phrase recently."

Yugi searched her eyes for a long minute; she wasn't lying but she was hiding something. He had to admit that it definitely stung that she was doing so, especially after all this time together, but he didn't want to dwell on that, instead wondering just what exactly had put that small spark of fear in her eyes.

"Yami…"

"I'm okay," she promised, nodding once and glancing at Nightshade slowly, seeming to really scrutinize the bird for something that wasn't right before grabbing a couple of French fries and smiling widely. "You got me the honey mustard! Thank you, koi."

"You're welcome."

He cast a glance at the bird and then the window because Nightshade seemed to have his eye focused on it even if his head was turned towards them; his feathers were ruffled and slightly spiked, puffed up almost like bristling fur, and his head was tilted slightly.

It didn't take a genius to know that something was extremely wrong at the moment—with the bird, with Yami, with even the feeling in the air around them.

"So, what did you want to do today, anyways? Movies, games?" Yami asked, cutting so completely into his thoughts that he was left dazed for a second before turning his head and staring at her for a moment.

"Either or both. Anything works for me, honestly."

She nodded a little, grabbing another French fry and dipping it into her honey mustard, watching Nightshade with a somewhat frustrated but mostly alarmed look. "Okay, both it is then."

Yugi had to admit he was kind of surprised that movies and games turned out to be the TV playing and Yami's lips against his, that beautiful strange taste of milk chocolate and mint making his head spin with delight at the feeling of her tongue tied with his. She was all but sitting in his lap, left knee pressing softly into his legs while her right rested lightly against his hip, arms around his neck and her body half-stretched across his, not really touching him much but just enough that it drove him insane. Occasionally she would shift her weight and move her hips lightly enough that she pressed softly into his skin but never pressed into hard enough that it was uncomfortable.

The way their shirts touched and shifted, rubbing against his skin and teasing at the flesh of his stomach made his heart skip a little and his breath came out in a ragged huff even as their lips continued moving together. Yugi twitched and pulled back as she lightly ran a nail along his spine teasingly.

"Your dad is upstairs," he managed to breathe out, voice rough and akin a growl as Yami stopped her movements and frowned in response; where the hell was her other…? Oh, well there it was. He purred unconsciously and blushed as her lips curled up into a massive smirk.

"What was that?"

"I said that your…d-dad is…upstairs," he huffed, shivering in delight. "Stop it!"

Yami snickered in amusement and then pulled her hand away from where she had been palming him, sitting back and studying his face. "Sundays suck," she announced with a pout, chewing her cheek as Yugi smirked in amusement and shook his head, watching her with bright eyes.

"Don't blame Sundays because that's when your dad is normally home. Blame your dad for being home most of the time on Sundays," Yugi snorted, laughing when she shot him a cold look and rolled her eyes in annoyance. "What? It's true."

"Oh shut up."

"Don't be mad because you're losing."

"I wasn't aware we were arguing," she sniped, tilting her head towards him and staring at him through her long lashes, smirking in amusement. "Are we arguing?"

"Not a serious one."

Yami huffed and fell back across the couch cushions, staring up at the ceiling for a moment; she should tell him. She couldn't even kiss him and touch him without feel so inexplicably guilty about it.

But she wanted to make sure he didn't get hurt in case this blew up in her face, so she didn't want him to know but that was of course the problem because his not knowing was getting under her skin and now she wasn't sure if trying to protect him was even the right thing.

If the situations were reversed…

She closed her eyes for a moment.

If the situations were reversed, Yugi wouldn't tell her either. He would try to get through it on his own because he wouldn't want anyone to get hurt, least of all her. And then he would explain it to her later but not before, possibly as something blew up in his face or something else happened that shouldn't have…

"What did you and Tea talk about before?"

Could she actually ask that question?

She wasn't sure she wanted to hear if the brunette had told him that she thought she was cheating on him, that she had actually said that to him and meant it. Yami opened her eyes into slits and peered at the white of the ceiling again; when it came down to it, she had to wonder if the direct assaults from Vivian and Rebecca were even comparable to the indirect ones that Tea could have been planting in the meantime.

She was his best friend—well, after herself, but that was different…

If Tea really wanted to, Yami was pretty sure that she couldn't stop her from planting ideas and making Yugi feel insecure about it all. But she also knew that Yugi wasn't one for weak rumors and suspicions to influence his thoughts, so it was impossible for Tea to break them up that way. If that was actually what she was doing…

Gods, her head hurt.

She didn't know if Tea was just looking out for her best friend or if she really was trying to break them up or not and she honestly was starting to feel like maybe she was overly obsessed with this.

Then again, she could probably list a million and one reasons why she had the right to be that way, what with her possible stalker and Vivian and Rebecca and Tea all having a crush on Yugi in the first place…

"Y is for Yami."

She turned her head and stared at the bird for a moment; she couldn't see the necklace on him anymore and she had thrown it away in the first place, so how would he have gotten it back on? Yami fought back a shiver. She may have been there this entire time, but that didn't mean he couldn't have broken in at some point. She was almost one hundred percent sure he could and she wouldn't have noticed if he was careful enough and he was nothing short of careful if he had actually managed to follow her for so long.

But if someone inside of the group was doing so, then it was no wonder that Nightshade was not worried about it, not screeching and freaking out as he had when the necklace had been placed on him. Nightshade may not have been a dog, but he got loud and sounded an alarm when there was something wrong around the house.

Maybe she should talk to her dad about getting an alarm set up…

But how did she justify that exactly?

"Why does he keep saying that?" Yugi finally asked, frowning at the corvid as Yami listened to it say the words again once more in his voice.

"I don't know. He tends to do that when he's learning, remember?"

"But you said you didn't teach it to him."

"I know. He figured out how to say it on his own."

Yugi fell silent for a moment and then shook his head. "Want to play a game?"

"Which one?"

"How about Monopoly? We haven't played that in a while."

Both of them neglected to mention that the last time they had played it, it had been with the entire group and Mai had won with so much money that Tristan accused her of cheating and they had all gotten into one massive argument. Mai's dad was a master all games card and excelled at things like blackjack and even little board games like Monopoly because he had this keen sixth sense for it, apparently. And Mai seemed to have picked that up because she could sucker money out of them during poker when Yugi and Yami weren't playing.

Of course, it wasn't to say that she hadn't challenged Yami once or twice with a hundred bucks as the price each time; aside from that, the group always whined and complained and begged them to play and win their money back when things got too rough.

"Sure, why not?"

What was the worst that could go wrong?

Twenty minutes later, she realized bankruptcy was what could go wrong.

Yugi was waiting for her to hand over the two hundred she owed for landing on his property and she as hell wasn't about give up her last two hundred. The boy was biting his lip to keep from laughing and Yami glared at him as she flipped the board over and all the pieces went flying.

"_Fuck Monopoly_!"

He laughed out loud as she glared at the scatted pieces and sighed loudly. "You're going to be a horrible tax payer when you get older," he teased, smiling widely.

Yami went to argue but realized that she probably would suck at paying taxes anyways; so what was the point of arguing with him in the first place? Why waste the energy?

She stuck her tongue out pointedly, scrunching her face up and glaring at him beneath her lashes, not the least bit surprised when he leaned forward and kissed her forehead, snickering under his breath.

"Stop laughing already. It wasn't that funny!"

"It was hilarious and if you want me to stop, then don't make that face."

Yami huffed and turned away from him, chin raised and arms folded. "I don't like you anymore. Get the hell out of my house."

"Hate to break it to you, Yami, but this is your dad's house. You just live here."

"Smartass."

"Mmhmm," he purred, moving to grab some of the toy pieces with a wide smirk; he didn't have to wait long for her to turn to him and frown, pursing her lips before sighing and helping.

"Wait here, I'll be right back."

Yami watched him go and glanced out the window and then at Nightshade, unnerved as he shifted awkwardly on his perch and cawed, "Y is for Yami" again in Yugi's voice; she rolled her eyes. The other voice must have been too strange for him to keep mimicking and when Yugi had opened his mouth and spoke to her, he had decided he would use Yugi's voice because he already knew it.

She sat back on her haunches for a moment, chewing her cheek and thinking for a long minute about what to do. She wasn't going to tell Yugi and she couldn't exactly go to someone else and say that she was being stalked. They would want proof or else she would look so incredibly stupid that t would be traumatizing.

She shook her head slightly, wondering at the idea of what to do in the meantime; she wasn't going to tell anyone and she wasn't even safe in the house. Sure, she knew where the gun was and she as hell knew how to use it thanks to her dad's overprotective nature, but she didn't think that she would get that chance or that anything of that variety would come up in the first place.

Why would it?

Surely her stalker wasn't so stupid that he would approach her like that…right?

She wasn't even sure why she was thinking about this anymore.

It could be a prank that she could put an end to immediately or it could still be an admirer that hadn't meant any harm…

She needed to relax and just clear her head a little before she started trying to think of a way to tackle the situation because, as it was, she was all but completely left in the dark about how to deal with all of what applied with any of those situations.

"Close your eyes."

She turned her head and looked at him for a moment before obediently shutting her eyes and waiting; she stretched her arms out for him to put it in her hands, surprised out of her mind when he grabbed one of her arms and started to slide something over it.

"No peeking."

"I'm not," she laughed, rolling her eyes and savoring the feel of cold material on her arm. Was it leather? She thought it might have been leather.

Yugi stepped around her and slipped her other arm into the sleeve, wandering a few steps away and snickering, "Okay, you can go ahead and open your eyes."

Yami looked at the dark blue leather jacket and tilted her head for a moment, studying it before looking at him. "How did you even know that I wanted this?"

"Joey wanted us to tail you guys that last time you went to the mall without us," he admitted, shrugging. "He was convinced it would be more fun than it was. I don't know what exactly he had in mind but apparently something along the lines of you all sucking faces together. He said the sexual tension between you and Tea is amazing."

Yami rolled her eyes. "I could do better than Tea."

Yugi laughed but she was pretty sure he was a little startled by the bitterness that had seeped into her voice.

"I could get a Mai," she said, nodding slowly and looking the jacket over for a moment. "I could get _a Mai_. That's what Joey really wanted to see, right?"

The boy laughed. "Actually he has this dream that Mai will make out with you and then Tea and Vivian," he snorted. "He also has this one where he's having this weird five-way sex with all of you. It's the weirdest thing I've ever heard so I'm just going to stop now."

Yami tried to really picture that and failed dramatically. That might have been because of the fact that they were pretty vanilla when it came to the fact that both of them were pretty freaked out by the idea of another person in their little twosome, but it also could have been because that seemed utterly disgusting to her in the first place.

"Ew."

Yugi laughed at her wrinkled nose and watched her with bright eyes as she stood up and zipped the leather up, giving him a single small wave and gesture of her wrist to tell him what she thought of it.

"You look like a biker chick," he snorted, laughing and tilting his head. "A hot biker chick but still a biker chick. If you had a tattoo on your face and large earrings and a weird occult necklace, then you could totally pass for one."

Yami blinked and looked herself over for a second before shaking her head. "Who needs those when I can smoke instead?"

Yugi stared in confusion before doubling over when she mimed inhaling smoke, eyes rolling up in the back of her head as she pretended to hack up a lung, coughing.

"Oh yeah, sexy cough. That has to be sexiest biker chick impersonation ever."

"I know, doesn't it?" she teased, glancing at the bird that was watching her with its head tilted to the side and its wide eyes on her. "Hell, I could put models on motorcycles to shame. Just get up there and mime smoking before hacking up a lung."

"And then suing them for some kind of unrealistic cause for your smoking?"

"…Well that escalated a little quickly."

Yugi grinned, laughing a little and shrugging as he tucked his hands in his pockets; dark blue was one of those colors that suited her pretty well, though not much looked bad on her aside from rainbows because they did something to her eyes that he couldn't really explain but it was not appealing and he always hated whenever he saw Mai or Tea pointing out tie-dye shirts at the mall. He liked it better when she was wearing his school jacket, of course, because the shoulders were a little large on her and the sleeves a little baggy, but the color looked perfect against her eyes and it made her hair look undeniably soft and made it almost impossible for him to resist running his fingers through it…

The jacket was close to the royal blue but had a shade darker, somewhere near indigo but lacking a bit of the purple tint that sometimes went with that. It was somewhere between the two colors and it made her eyes brighter than they normally were while making the darker specks more noticeable.

He had always loved her eyes. They weren't just red. They were almost all the shades of the color scattered in her irises and when she was open with her emotions, they came twice as strong as they would have from someone else…

He remembered he had cried in first grade when they were given an assignment to draw their best friends and he had been obsessed with getting her eyes right but the teacher only had one red crayon, the common red, and he had thrown a fit. Yami had been dragged out of her class to go see him, confused about what was going on and completely unhappy when everyone was staring at her like they were. He remembered the way she had told him "My eyes are red, stupid" in such confusion that he had started crying from laughing while she looked completely lost the entire time.

"What are you smiling about?" she demanded, raising a brow.

"'My eyes are red, stupid'."

Yami blushed. "Well they are! …Stupid."

He rolled his eyes and smiled a little wider; he wasn't really sure why but the color to her irises had always been something that made her self-conscious and unhappy. Everyone thought it was unique and most of the guys thought it was kind of hot in the weirdest of ways, one guy claiming that if she was a vampire, he'd let her suck his blood no problem. Yugi was still a little fuzzy on how that one worked but he hadn't wanted to argue and aside from that, he loved her eyes and that was…a weird, backwards kind of compliment so he had hardly thought it was worth getting ruffled over.

Yami raised an eyebrow and looked at his crotch before smirking widely at him. "You know, your peen over there seems a little too enthusiastic by kiddy memories. I'm a little worried now…"

"Oh bullshit," he muttered, rolling his eyes and smiling widely. "You're the one who has a thing for little blond boys."

"What?" She blinked and blushed again, narrowing her eyes into slits. "Shut up. He was adorable and looked a little like that ghost dude in that show…"

"Danny Phantom?"

"Yeah…that," she muttered dismissively, waving her hand and crossing her arms. "He looked like a famous ghost, okay? How can you not get excited over something like that?"

Yugi gave her a dubious look. "You hate kids!" he laughed.

"Okay, okay!" she snapped, holding her hands up. "He…he had a dinosaur shirt on, damn it. I liked the shirt. Get over it, okay?"

"I knew it! I knew you were looking at his shirt the entire time! You _lied _to me!"

Yami huffed and crossed her arms and Yugi tilted his head slightly, trying to fight off the urge to stare at how her breasts were pushed up slightly at the movement, chewing his cheek as his mind implanted it without his permission. His eyes slipped because it was more fun to see it when Yami was actually doing it than just through memory.

He purred unconsciously and the red-eyed girl rolled her eyes, laughing and shaking her head as she plopped down on the couch. The other teen watched her for a second and then sprang, laughing at her squeal of alarm and the way she jumped when he landed straddling her.

"We should get a trampoline and then you should wear some really loose top so that when your shirt come up I can watch your boobies bounce a little," he purred, nodding decisively.

Yami rolled her eyes dramatically. "You're so depraved."

"I'm a boy. That's how we are," he stated, nodding again. "We like to fondle boobies and watch them bounce around and…we just like boobies."

"You're so weird! Stop calling them that!"

"Hey, you're not all defensive when we're having sexy time."

Yami rolled her eyes and smiled, shaking her head as Yugi buried his face in her neck and let out a small exhale that made her shiver.

"No sex on the furniture!"

Yami burst out laughing as Yugi jolted and scrambled so quickly that he actually ended up going over the back of the armrest and hitting the ground with a loud thud; the red-eyed teen covered her mouth, snickering harder as the boy panted for breath and refused to raise his head to peer over the edge of the couch.

"You hear me, Motou?"

"Yes sir," Yugi said immediately, still not peeking.

"Good." Her father cast her a small look of pure amusement and winked before turning away again, shaking his head as he headed back upstairs with the leftovers he had grabbed from the fridge.

"Your dad still scares the shit out of me," her boyfriend whispered, finally poking his head up and scanning the doorway with wild eyes. "Stop laughing already! It wasn't that funny."

"Oh, koi, that has to be the funniest thing that's happened all week," she snickered, shaking her head.

"Well no shit, it's Sunday," Yugi grumbled, shaking his head and breathing in a rough breath. "And they all wonder how you walk around in 'stealth mode'. They only need to meet your dad to know."

"Stealth mode is a family secret. They're not allowed to know how it gets passed down or that we all do it," Yami scoffed, smirking. "That's what you get for saying boobies so much."

"What the hell am I supposed to call them then?"

"Breasts, maybe?"

"But boobies sounds better so I'm going to keep calling them that."

"Suit yourself."

Yugi got back on the couch and moved to pull her into a tight embrace, purring as she continued snickering softly and made a movement with her hand like him falling off the side of the couch. "I'm going to go ahead and get my ass back home now."

"Aw, is Yugi that afraid of his girlfriend's daddy?" she teased in a baby voice.

"Oh my god, Yami, if you were in my place, you know _damn _well you would be just as freaked," he hissed, blushing and rolling his eyes. "He has _people_."

The red-eyed girl burst out laughing and her boyfriend snickered as he kissed her forehead and got up. "Thanks for the early birthday present," she murmured, making him stop short as he opened his mouth to argue only to go quiet at the look in her eyes; she didn't want him to spend money on her, just like she didn't want the others to. She always argued and tried to make them take them back when they gave her something and all of them could win when it came to an argument with her because she didn't always see the point in fighting due to the way she was raised to accept gifts when they were given to her but he almost always found him folding because of how uncomfortable she seemed. He'd attempted winning several times already and she'd dragged him along to the stores to return them and she only got that way when he gave her more than two gifts and then she would pick the ones that he had originally given her and the rest went back.

The jacket wasn't a birthday gift; it was just a gift, a random little gift because he saw that she had been interested even if she hadn't bothered to try it on.

He smiled at her despite the argument lying on the tip of his tongue. "You're welcome, aibou."

She smiled in response and got up, walking with him to the door and rocking back and forth on the balls of her feet as Yugi turned around to face her again; her eyes flashed for a second and he couldn't tell if it was because she was trying not to laugh anymore or if it was another reason entirely because her walls were up suddenly and while he had practice finding his way around and breaking through them, he wasn't sure she would give him the chance then.

"When is Marik leaving?"

Yugi blinked in confusion; was that what she was thinking so hard about? Why would that of all things be such a big concern to her…? Oh.

"Next week," he stated, frowning as he shifted back and forth on his feet for a second. "I'm sorry about him…you know, grabbing you like that. I wasn't expecting to see you there and he normally doesn't do something like that, especially in public. I didn't think he would do something like that…"

Yami shook her head. "Not your fault, koi," she replied evenly, fighting off a low growl of annoyance; they were there and she could feel them, somewhere out of sight watching her and Yugi…

How long had they been watching?

Was that why Nightshade had been repeating that phrase?

"Still, I…I just…I'm sorry that I didn't stop him before he did that…"

Yami shook her head and Yugi chewed his cheek in an effort to keep from saying that she was far too beautiful for such low self-esteem, but they had had this argument before and it hadn't ended well. She had talked him into endless circles and then when he found his way back through them, she had given him the silent treatment until he finally agreed to drop it. And the silent treatment was enough to make him choke with anxiety because when she got mad, she got quiet and when she got quiet, she got dangerously mean.

She was soft-spoken most of the time, in that way that seemed timid but the moment she opened her mouth you would realize just how wrong you were; he thought that maybe she took her stories from her dad too seriously but he wouldn't change that. Besides, she liked to study people before she spoke to them and she commonly used the others to do so, because they were friendly so it was no real question of whether they would greet them or not and gave her time to just take notes.

When she got quiet during an argument, the entire group knew to leave it right then and there before she got vicious so all disagreements ended when she went silent and looked pissed. And if he pushed, that was exactly where he was going to end up, with the angry Yami that always made him flinch and feel terrible; she'd never touched him in a violent way, not even smacking his arm like Mai did with Joey, and she didn't even really snap at him when she was pissed, but the look in her eyes was enough to make him ache.

"How long as he been here, out of curiosity?"

Yugi blinked and furrowed his brows. "He just got here yesterday, actually. He's staying with his sister for the museum's opening and then they're…going somewhere else," he muttered, shaking his head. "He's an old family friend. His sister is friends with my grandpa and those times when Grandpa took me with him to Egypt in between school years, we kind of made friends."

Yami nodded but it was merely polite and Yugi grinned when he realized he was over-explaining to her; she had just wanted a straightforward answer but she would never say it out loud that she didn't want the rest. For two years he had been confused by that little smile and nod she would give because her eyes would be carefully shielded and it would look like she was genuinely interested but when she didn't ask for more information, it had always thrown him off.

"Sorry," he chuckled.

She raised an eyebrow but smiled at him anyways. "Can I ask who Kisara is?"

If it was Mai who had asked, he would have flinched and tried to make a run for it because the blonde was extremely jealous about things like her boyfriend having eyes on another girl though she knew she could make him grovel like a dog if she truly wanted to. If it was Tea, he would have hesitated and cleared his throat awkwardly and tried to think of a new topic of discussion. But Yami wasn't easily intimidated when it came to other girls being mentioned and he guessed he needed to thank his lucky stars that she was secure enough in their relationship that the mentioning of other girls did nothing to make her upset. Yugi could have said Kisara was hot and Yami wouldn't have cared unless he had thrown her into the comparison or hinted at extreme interest in her.

"She's…um…" Yugi thought about how to describe her, tipping his head to the side and pursing his lips as Yami studied him. "She's got these blue eyes and they kind of looked like ice in some of the shots but like an ocean in others, sky in one or two. And she has this pale light blue hair that looks almost silver and white in some of the shots. She looks pretty tall…maybe? And she was pretty thin and she had pale skin but she looked like she almost had a tan?"

Yami nodded. "She sounds pretty."

Tea saying that would have been a little bitter or jealous, just as it had been when he said that he liked Yami's hair one day when the group was still a little shocked by the new development in their relationship. The moment the words had passed out of his mouth, she had begrudgingly agreed while Mai had been all about playing with it and teasing her. Mai saying that would have been horrible because she would have been staring daggers and raising that eyebrow of hers while she stared at you through her lashes with her head slightly tilted and her hand on her hip, watching with a frustrated expression.

Yugi frowned a little and tried to think about the description. "I feel like I messed up in there somewhere," he admitted, smiling awkwardly as Yami rolled her eyes and shook her head, lips curved up the slightest bit.

"You always did suck with descriptions."

He huffed. "Like you're any better."

She opened her mouth but fell quiet. She had, after all, at one point, when they had hit seventh grade, said that Mai had turned into a blonde bimbo instead of bombshell and Yugi still had that on her.

"Yeah, that's right, Mrs. Mai Turned Into A Bimbo Over Summer Break."

Yami narrowed her eyes. "At least I didn't cry over my crush's eye color and make my teacher come and get her out of class."

"Hey, I wanted to make the portrait perfect!"

"They were stick figures!"

"Shut up, I put effort into that! The eyes had to be _perfect_!"

"Yugi, koi," she murmured, grabbing his shoulders and leaning forward to stare into his eyes, "look at my eyes and tell me what color they are."

"Cinnabar, crimson, blood, ruby, m—"

"Smart. Ass."

He grinned and pecked her on the nose, laughing at her startled expression. "Okay, seriously, I'm going back to the shop. I feel like your dad might come down the stairs at any moment holding a gun and threatening to shoot me."

"Oh please, he loves you."

"Oh my god, you're delusional. I need to check you into an insane asylum."

"You're a wimp."

"But you _love _it."

"Yes, yes, I do," she agreed, rolling her eyes and smiling. "I love your stupid wimpy self."

Yugi pouted for a moment. "Shut up."

"All right, I'll see you tomorrow," she announced, nodding once and eyeing his school jacket for a moment; she loved that stupid thing so much it wasn't even funny. Yami almost had a split second where she wanted to ask if they could swap jackets.

Yugi waited for a long minute and then threw his hands up. "Goddamn it, Yami."

"What?" she snickered innocently.

"You know what!" he huffed, rolling his eyes. "Fine. I will say it first. Again. For the millionth time."

"If you hate saying it so much, then stop doing it," she laughed.

Yugi shot her a glare. "Don't even start with that," he grumbled, ignoring the way that she snickered some more and shook her head. "I love you, darkness."

Yami blinked once and then smiled in amusement. "Love you too, game. Now get the hell out before I sic my dad on you."

The teen poked his head in and looked up the stairs, looking startled and unnerved. "Don't play with me."

"Ssh, if you're quiet, maybe he'll pretend not to have heard you earlier and he won't come down…"

Yugi let out a small unceremonious squeak and she burst out laughing; he really was a little too terrified of her dad. She honestly wondered what the hell he had done when he and her boyfriend had had their "talk".

"Oh my gods…" Yugi glanced up there again, looked ready to piss himself, and then bolted as if his life depended on it while Yami howled with laughter and shouted a farewell, shutting the door after he spun around with a fast wave and tore off down the road again.

Yami continued laughing, looked up the staircase at where she could officially see her father peeking around the corner, and had to use the door to keep from falling over, sides heaving as tears sprang into her eyes.

* * *

"Yami Sennen?"

She stared at the envelope with dark eyes even as she murmured, "Yes, that's me" in a soft voice; he passed over the scan gun and she stared for a moment before realizing that he wanted a signature. She scribbled her name and handed it over before taking the massive white envelope.

She looked for confirmation of her suspicions and smirked when she found them.

Bright blue cursive ink with her name but no return address.

Yami closed the door and headed for the kitchen, looking the top over for a long minute; there was something off about the writing that she couldn't really place her finger on before she realized it.

The ink was somewhat smudged, partially dragged forward into the next letter.

She recognized that from swapping notes with Mai during class.

He was left-handed.

She was about to tear it open and give the envelope to Nightshade but stopped at the last second; she might need it later at some point. It had given her a small clue, after all; he was left-handed and she needed to remember that…

Yami folded it in half and flattened it with her fingers, pushing it away as she looked at the photos; what a lovely little bunch he had given her. All of her. Some of them with the others, some of them of her alone.

She narrowed her eyes.

She'd looked straight at him once apparently. She had apparently looked straight into the camera at one point or another. And it looked recent; she could tell just by the way her eyes were narrowed and her shoulders looked stiff and straight.

The question was what day but if she estimated, it had to have been the day before or Friday, after the first little card was found in her locker.

One of those days had to be it.

She drummed her fingers against the table and chewed her cheek, pausing and staring at the one that she had touched furthest to her right, feeling her eyes widen and her spine tingle.

Nightshade had been attempting to warn her by repeating the phrase he'd been taught, using Yugi's voice because it was more familiar to him.

The picture said that much.

She was in Yugi's lap, arms around his neck.

She was on her back and Yugi was straddling her.

She was pretending to smoke.

She was kissing him.

She was looking at Nightshade.

She was not peeking and Yugi was dressing her in the leather jacket.

She was feeding Nightshade the flowers.

Yami nodded slightly.

They were all taken from near the windows, but there was no paneling that interrupted; she glanced at the windowsills and chewed her cheek. There it was. A little camera with a small red dot.

So he had taken the camera shots and printed them out.

Why he had let her know that he had installed cameras in the house was her next question.

But she figured that just had to do with him wanting her to know that he was there and he was watching.

Which was more or less confirmed when she flipped one of the pictures over.

It hadn't been facing the right way but now that it showed the picture, she wanted to laugh in amusement; so he _had _seen her throw the necklace out and yet he was still trying. Cute.

_Don't disrespect me like that again, bitch_.

Yami ground her teeth together but refused the urge to flip him off with the camera, about to toss the rest of them with that one when she suddenly realized something. There was something blue on he fingers…

She flipped one of them over and stared.

_Don't touch him, he's not me. Get _rid _of him_.

She flipped over another and then the rest.

All of them had the message written across the back in that bright blue cursive ink.

She tilted her head slightly.

And all of them had drag movements.

So he really _was _left-handed.

Why hadn't he dragged his hand when he had done the first card, however?

Was it printed?

She thought maybe it was. But the card with the cliché thorn statement wasn't.

And that hadn't had any of the letters smeared.

Yami blinked and then slowly realized exactly what it was that had made him slip up enough to do that.

Her lips curled up into a wide smirk.

Stupid boy had slipped up some.

Now all she had to do was figure out who the hell at school was left-handed, who had had a crush on her before that wrote with their left hand…

Or just who was left-handed and hung out with one of those girls because surely this was proof enough that this was their handiwork, but from the phrasing she suspected Vivian more than Rebecca. Bitch was pretty much Vivian's favorite insult when it came to her.

So she just had to figure out who was left-handed and hung around the brunette often who may or may _not _have been a mutual friend with one of the group.

And then she could end this stupid little prank they were pulling.

Because she _hated _being on the receiving end of a prank.

* * *

**And THAT is the third chapter of Umbral Oath. Just note that the story is probably going to get confusing at times but it'll be for a reason. Anyways, feel free to ask questions or tell me how I did. Because female Yami is not a common thing so it feels a little strange xD**


	4. White Roses

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything relating to Yu-Gi-Oh**

**Warning: Cursing can go from mild to mass amounts at times**

**Note: There will be blood in later chapters, mentions of sex, and possible lemons...**

**Keep in mind that Yami is a GIRL. So she worries about GIRLY things and has these things. Called INSECURITIES. They happen. She has them. Because she's human.**

**As far as the group dynamics go, by the way, things are strained and iffy and will be explained throughout the story so keep that in mind.**

Chapter IV: White Roses

_Bad move, Yami_. _Shouldn't have thrown it away_. _Surely, you of all people know just how expensive a gift that is_.

Yami glared at the note that had been placed on her books, clenching her jaw in frustration; at this rate, if this prank or whatever the hell it was, continued, Yugi would end up finding the notes and freaking out on her behalf.

She cast a glare around the hallway, bristling and glancing back at the note slowly as her stomach flipped and settled again; it was too early for this shit. School wasn't even technically starting yet.

This prank was getting annoying and pathetic. If they wanted to psyche her out, they would have to try much harder than this.

She looked the message over, staring at the bright blue of the ink, and tilted her head; well, that wasn't nice. The picture that he had taken of her dumping the necklace in the trash now that the word _Bitch _written across the front but this time it was large block letters in red ink like Sharpie.

_Rude_.

She cast another glance around, skin crawling now. Did they have cameras in her locker or a key? Had they opened it or just slipped it through the bars? She would have said that they needed to have opened it to put it on her books so neatly but when it came down to it, all they would have had to do is slip a larger piece of paper through with it on top, shaken the loose leaf, and then pulled it out again and wandered off.

Yami didn't think that it had been opened when it came down to it. But she wasn't entirely sure either. Maybe she could rig it to tell her sometime…

"Aibou?"

She blamed nerves and getting lost in her thoughts for the way that she jumped and nearly hit her head against the locker door violently. The door rattled as she spun to face him, eyes wide, fingers gripping the card and picture far too hard; she crumbled it up before she could over-think it, shakily giving him a grin.

"Don't sneak up on me like that!"

Yugi blinked in confusion, blue-violet eyes stretching wider than usual as he took her in; she already knew that her hair was a little tangled from where she had woken up late and run, but hoped her lack of sleep from that night as she had attempted mentally listing out all of the guys who wrote left-handed or had had a crush on her at some point was not.

The list…was horribly short.

So maybe it was just Vivian and Rebecca paying the guy to write these things and give them to her. Someone that she didn't quite know well enough to bother with or even _attempt _to bother with.

So many people applied to that list however.

She was normally just with the others because that was what always happened and now she was trying to think outside of the group and while she knew a scattered handful of left-handed people, that only applied to their grade. If they had decided on bribing someone outside of their group, she was utterly screwed as far as suspects went.

Her boyfriend tilted his head, furrowing his brows slightly and frowning the smallest bit before reaching out to straighten her jacket shoulder where she had banged it against the door with her startled reaction.

"You okay?"

"Yeah," she murmured, putting on a small smile and trying to make it seem more pointedly relaxed but she thought he could tell how tense her body actually was just by giving her a single glance. "I was just a little in my head for a moment there."

Yugi nodded slightly, almost dismissively, but glanced at her hand for a second, looking at her eyes and back again; was he supposed to ask about that? He didn't think she would tell him anyways. Especially with that look in her eyes practically _begging _him not to mention it.

"All right then." He tilted his head. "Are you sure? You look pretty pale."

Yami blinked when he touched her forehead and cheeks, supposing that he was checking for her skin being clammy, but looked satisfied enough when he found nothing.

"Yes, I'm sure." She nodded again and squeezed the card in her hand, her fingers stinging with the force of it for a second as the paper pressed into her palm harshly. "Tired but I'll get over that soon enough."

Yugi nodded but didn't look very happy with that explanation.

And Yami hated herself for immediately jumping to the conclusion that Tea was truly starting to get under Yugi's skin and he was officially worrying about it. The red-eyed girl didn't know if that was true or not but it was definitely starting to tear at her skin with worry and she was being to feel sick to her stomach with guilt. If she just told him what was going on, would that make it better?

Or would it make it worse?

Yugi wouldn't tell her if their situations were reversed and she didn't want to have to drag him into it either. He would become too worried and protective and she already knew that she couldn't deal with that happening. It just wasn't possible for her to keep up with her own thoughts and worry about him getting himself into trouble over her being the victim of a potential prank to make them break up or something worse than that.

* * *

"Come on, aibou," Yugi announced, taking her hand and twining their fingers together as he led the way to the staircase. Yami tilted her head and looked over her shoulder, confused to find that the others weren't anywhere around them.

Had he sought her out before they could find them?

She turned back and Yugi smiled at her for a brief second before turning away again, leading the way up the stairs until they reached the exit to the roof; Yami shivered at the touch of cold air that came when he opened the door and locked it, the door kept open by the locking mechanism being pushed out as it was.

Yami had to admit that she was more than a little excited to be up on the roof with him again; it had been a long while since the last time. Normally the group was always with them and the rooftop had always been that one place that they went without them, just sitting around and playing games around their lunches.

She cast him a curious look and vaguely took notice that he hadn't grabbed a lunch or anything, growing slightly unnerved by that fact.

"Aren't you hungry?"

Yugi turned his head with a brow raised and gave her a small grin, rolling his eyes and gesturing her further out towards the fence; Yami blinked and tilted her head before nodding slightly to herself. Of course Yugi had _brought _them both lunch from home; his mom must have been home because, despite it all, the smaller teen tended to burn water when he wasn't careful. He could cook for the most part but the moment he gave his attention to something else, the smoke alarm would end up going off. The enthusiastic blue-violet-eyed teen always ended up distracted when he cooked and when he got distracted, he normally gave his newfound entertainment all of his attention no matter what, and he got so engulfed in it that he wouldn't even _realize _that a timer had gone off or something was burning.

Yami had tried to make cookies with him one time but the teen had ended up commenting on how hot she was and spent the ten minutes just talking about that while she had laughed and pulled the cookies out. And then, of course, she had been forced to restrain him from the cookies because they were too hot and Yugi made a game of trying to get them until she eventually just told him to go for it and laughed when he ended up burning his tongue and whining pitifully.

"Your mom's home?"

Yugi puffed his cheeks out and sighed loudly. "Goddamn it. I knew I wouldn't get the chance to say I made it before you said that."

Yami raised a brow. "Did you make it?"

The blue-violet-eyed boy opened his mouth and then closed it again, turning away. "No."

His girlfriend burst out laughing. "Oh wow."

"Shut up," he whined, gesturing for her to take a seat and doing the same; she was pretty sure he was watching her skirt when she finally took a seat but rolled her eyes instead of calling him out on it. It wasn't like it was offensive or anything, though she kind of doubted that everyone else would feel that same way.

She honestly pictured Mai teasing the hell out of Joey about it and Tea being slightly ruffled but appreciative anyways because why wouldn't you like to have the attention of your boyfriend so keenly? Yami vaguely wondered how her rolling her eyes would come off to someone like Tea at the moment. Maybe the brunette would think she was frustrated with the entire idea of sitting with him? Maybe it would give more of a hint at her little suspicions of her cheating on him?

By the gods, she needed to stop obsessing over Tea and what she had said to Yugi.

He would have told her if he actually thought that her words held a point or worried him so much that he was trying to make sure that she was around him constantly or he was attempting to get closer to her or something.

Right?

She shook it off. Of course he would.

"Mom's attempting Egyptian food this week," he announced, laughing when her eyes stretched wide and her brows shot up; it wasn't much of a surprise that his mom had this strange love-hate relationship with Yami most of the time. She honestly had them with most people, but at times she was only the tiniest bit beneath vicious with the red-eyed teen. She blamed her for Yugi growing up too fast and by growing up too fast, she meant him dating her and the fact that they were sexually active. She blamed her whenever he got stressed and whenever his grades dropped even slightly. She never tried to ban her from Yugi because she made him happy so that was really the only thing that kept the _love _part of that relationship.

Plus, from what she had walked in on one morning while coming to check up on Yugi when he was sick, his mom hated her hair and her eyes. So apparently that merited passive-aggressive attacks in her book as well.

"Should I check to see if it's poisoned?" Yami asked skeptically, looking at it and narrowing her eyes; she would not be the least bit surprised if that ended up happening at some point. Honestly, she couldn't really wrap her head around the entirety of how their relationship worked, but either way, Yami hardly saw it changing and Yugi didn't want to get in between his mom and girlfriend and so very wisely sat it out.

And it wasn't as if his mom had ever threatened her because if that had actually happened, Yugi wouldn't be nearly as complacent and quiet, so it was more just a show of being unhappy with his choice in girls.

It didn't help, however, that she openly supported the idea of Tea and Yugi.

"No."

Yami narrowed her eyes further and looked at him through her lashes. "You tried it earlier, didn't you?"

He blushed slightly and ducked his head, mumbling, "I wanted to make sure it wasn't poisoned."

The girl rolled her eyes and shook her head, undoing the cloth that was wrapped around the container of food, opening the lid and looking it over. "Wow. She really put some effort into this, huh?"

Yugi would have said that she was coming around but they both knew that wasn't it. He just figured his mom was coming to realize that no matter how many the complaints or the hints at Tea that he really wasn't going to budge with their relationship.

"Yep," he said instead, nodding and watching her thoughtfully for a moment.

"You warmed it in the microwave?" Yami asked, blinking wide eyes and looking at him in shock.

"I did," he agreed, nodding enthusiastically. "It's better hot. Plus it's cold out here."

"Oh please, you're such a wimp when it comes to temperature," she scoffed playfully, laughing and moving to fold her legs to the side, resting her hip against the concrete as Yugi narrowed his eyes and glared at her. "This isn't even cold!"

"Are you serious right now, Yami? Your jacket is almost three times as thick as mine is. And plus, you _like_ the cold," he snorted.

"Props of being born in February," she snickered, rolling her eyes. "Fine, you want to change jackets? We can see who's more cold afterwards."

Her boyfriend gave her a wide grin almost like the Cheshire cat. "You just want to wear my jacket," he chuckled.

"Maybe a little," she admitted. "Besides, you look…good in pink…?"

"You sound so convincing!" he laughed.

"Shut up, I'm trying!"

Yugi rolled his eyes and grabbed his container, settling it in his lap and starting to eat while Yami followed his example, pausing to really smell the food and make sure there was nothing off about it; her boyfriend glanced at her and choked on his laughter before turning away again, shaking his head and smirking widely.

"What? You can never be too careful with mothers!"

"I feel like we would be having this exact same conversation if you were a guy."

Yami stopped short with the food in front of her mouth and stared at him while Yugi blinked a few times and then squeezed his eyes shut, trying and failing to get "Don't" out before she murmured, "I'm a little concerned about your sexuality right now. I mean, what kind of statement is that?"

"I…I just meant that…Hey, well, at least I still said it was _you _and not someone else!" he sputtered, frowning and blushing harder. "Just—gods, stop looking at me like that!"

"Well, how am I _supposed _to look at you after _that _kind of comment?"

"Word vomit, okay? It was word vomit."

His girlfriend nodded that way she always did when she was about to really get into the task of teasing him, and he could feel his cheeks heating that much more, eyes wide as he shifted awkwardly in his seat.

"You swinging the other way on me now, Yugi?"

"Goddamn it. I'm never going to live this down, am I?"

"_Hell _no. If I have to constantly wonder if you're imagining me with a penis then you have to suffer through being reminded endlessly."

Yugi groaned and rolled his eyes. "Shut up," he mumbled. "That's not even…Just shut up."

"You're too easy."

The blue-violet-eyed teen huffed and Yami snickered at the way he crossed his arms and shook his head. "You're just rude. Why the hell are we dating again?"

"I don't know…Can we swap jackets now?"

Yugi stared at her for a moment and then laughed and shook his head. "Fine. All right. If you want the jacket, you can come and get it."

She was comfortable though. And he knew that.

"You play dirty."

"Mmhmm."

"Keep your stupid jacket then. Mine's warmer anyways."

"So you admit that it's cold!"

"No, I'm calling you a wimp in a nicer way. _Ra_, Yugi, get it together."

"Shut up! I am so not a wimp…You're a wimp!"

"You fled from my house like you thought my dad was going to chase you down the street," she snickered, smirking widely as he blushed and then paled before blushing furiously again. "And that was just yesterday. Not to mention the million other times you've done it too."

Yugi opened and closed his mouth. "I…Shut up! He's intimidating, okay? Plus, if you only _knew _what he had told me the day that we told him we were going out…" He shuddered and Yami tilted her head curiously.

"What _did _he say to you anyways?"

"I'm not telling you that!" he snapped, sputtering and blushing harder. "That shit was traumatizing!"

"Or you're just a wuss."

"It was _traumatizing_, Yami. _Traumatizing_."

"Or you're just—"

"Traumatizing."

She rolled her eyes and held her hands up. "Okay, so I'll pretend to take your word for it that it was 'traumatizing'," she announced, nodding and smirking slightly. "But we'll both know that I don't believe you even though I'll make it seem that way."

"That's all I ask."

"So easily pleased."

"I am, I am," he agreed immediately, nodding and putting his container aside before falling on his back and groaning softly. "It's cold."

"You're a wimp."

Yami glanced at her food for a second; it was still relatively warm but it was getting really cold now, but either way it was pretty good and the only problem was that Yugi's mom had apparently given her too much of it. She didn't know if that was because she thought she was a stick—which she was; she admitted that without argument—or because she just wanted to overfeed her a little bit.

Because she knew from meals over at their house that she would get beyond guilty if she couldn't finish her plate. She had overeaten more than once over there and felt sick for the rest of the day and it was hard to break that habit even when she wasn't there to see it. It was just something that she was raised with.

If she was given something, she wasn't supposed to turn it away.

She didn't really know if that applied to food too or not but most of the time it did regardless of whether it was supposed to.

Yami chewed her cheek. If she ate anymore, she was going to be too full and she would end up grumpy and unhappy all day. But if she didn't eat it, she was going to feel guilty and miserable because of it.

She stared at her food for a long minute and yelped when the container was suddenly snatched from her hands and Yugi went about munching on the rest of it.

"What the hell are you…? I—I wasn't done with that!" she objected, all but gawking and flinching at the way his face darkened slightly and he rolled his eyes around another mouthful. Yami turned her attention away, staring at the sky as Yugi put the container with his and pushed them away.

"You need to stop doing that," he muttered, narrowing his eyes when she refused to look at him again. "If you get full, you're not supposed to keep eating. I hate it when you do that."

Yami rolled her eyes. "Well, you've hated it for the last four years, right? I think you can manage hating for longer," she snapped.

"Are you serious right now, Yami? Just stop doing it! It's not even healthy."

"I'm sorry, did you just try to tell me what to do?"

"You know damn well that's not what I was saying."

"Then _phrase _it better."

"Don't fucking growl at me," he spat. "You've always done that and I've always hated it. I told you that the first time you did it in front of me and I'll tell you every fucking time afterwards."

Yami opened her mouth to snarl at him and then went completely still, staring at him in shock, realization slamming into her as their eyes locked. They had had this conversation so many times and they had left it alone again until the next time that it was brought up, a constant back and forth kind of thing. But they had never gotten vicious over it, and Yugi had just helped escalate it to the point that she was about to tear him a new one.

Tea.

She curled her lip back in frustration.

Tea actually _had _talked to him about it.

And Yugi had been threatening to explode this entire time.

"Say it," she growled softly, bristling and glaring as her boyfriend froze in place and his eyes widened drastically, startled and beginning to realize just how far he had stepped. "Go ahead and _say it_."

Yugi shook his head slowly, not opening his mouth and instead looking at the concrete beneath them.

"Why not? Go ahead and put it to words," she hissed. "Go ahead and say it. I want to hear you _say it_."

"Then won't you be sadly disappointed?" Yugi snapped coldly, getting up and dusting his pants off as the bell started to chime for them to get to class; Yami ignored his hand when he went to help her up, instead straightening and dusting herself off without a glance at him.

"Yami…"

The red-eyed teen shook her head, clenching her jaw; if they really had to talk about this, she wanted to at least think about what the fuck she would say before she flew off the handle at him and they waged an all out war on each other.

But she already knew Yugi wouldn't say the words, which was exactly why she had challenged him to; the idea hurt him too much to be able to form the words and give them life. So telling him to speak them made him quiet because he couldn't handle the actual concept of her going behind his back like that if Tea was actually right.

She hated to use his insecurities against him, to dig her fingers into his flesh and tear until he was bleeding, but it was the only way to stop the fight before it could actually begin. She needed to think before she spoke to him about it because if she didn't, they would both end up at each other's throats and all but physically assaulting each other.

And she had no idea how she was supposed to tell him that she wasn't cheating when things were already starting to grow so strained that she couldn't fully wrap her head around it as it was.

"I—"

"We have to get to class," she interrupted immediately, walking around him and freezing when she realized something was wrong; it only took getting within two feet of the door for it to click in her mind. The door was locked. Someone had locked them out.

Vivian or Rebecca or whoever was in on this prank…

She ground her teeth together and bit back the urge to snarl in frustration. If this was really a stalker situation, she was going to be so unhappy it would be amazing. Yami glanced back at Yugi, finding that he was chewing his cheek and watching her, expression miserable but growing confused now as well.

"What?"

"The door's locked."

He tilted his head but didn't bother with trying the knob himself, instead sighing and grabbing his phone out of his pocket; Yami guessed he would be texting Joey or Tristan because even he wouldn't be happy to see Tea at the moment and he probably knew if they were within two feet of each other, Yami was going to lose it.

She wanted to apologize because she was starting to feel miserable at the idea of inflicting pain on Yugi but the other teen was carefully avoiding her face and she was still mad even around the guilt.

"Tristan will be here in a minute."

Yami nodded and glanced at the door again, hearing Yugi start picking up the empty containers but not bothering to glance over and watch; the brunet appeared after a long minute, popping the door open for them and letting them slip inside.

Tristan had always known that they weren't the perfect couple; they had to fight at times, even he knew that. Maybe they weren't major or they just wanted to get something off their chests, but either way, they had to disagree and argue sometimes like every other couple did. So, no, he didn't think they were the perfect couple, but he had to admit that he figured they were pretty close when it came down to it.

It was clear just by being around them just how close the two of them were, and how much they cared about each other. Even if Yami wasn't the most vocal girl in the world and Yugi commonly only got a small kiss for saying those three words, it was pretty obvious to him just how much the red-eyed girl put into that simple action. He figured it was easily overlooked, but it was impossible to miss the fact that when things got tough between them, they always worked it out.

And he knew it had gotten tough a couple of times in their relationship.

Especially where they were concerned.

The group had grown slightly strained and it was almost impossible to pinpoint the exact moment it had happened, the exact day, even the year, but it had happened. Somewhere along the lines their group of six had disconnected somewhere though the break hadn't been so enormous that it tore them apart and out of each other's lives.

It was subtle and it had grown somewhere, especially where the girls were concerned.

Yami and Tea were strained to the point that it was all but impossible to hide and Mai and Tea were turning into fire and ice now. Yami and Mai had their friendship but it looked almost as if it were being acted out most of the time, as if they were truly trying to tolerate the other and failing somewhere despite how close they had been as best friends only years ago.

He didn't know if it was Yami and Yugi together or if it was the fact that Joey had once asked Yami out and she hadn't told Mai about it and the blond had let it slip or if maybe it was the fact that Tea and Yugi's friendship was a little tighter than normal.

He and Joey were pretty unaffected by it, but Yugi was in the heart of it most of the time and the three girls were civil but there had to be breaking points and he was starting to think Yami was edging towards one.

He glanced at them awkwardly, finding that Yugi was at his side and Yami was several strides ahead of them, not bothering to say a word or so much as look back at them.

So they were fighting or at least they had gotten ruffled somewhere but he doubted that they would fall apart at any point.

Besides, he was more curious about just what had caused it.

Normally it was external and revolved around the group.

He was willing to bet it was Tea or Mai but he wasn't about to ask and he doubted Yugi would want to tell him in the first place.

* * *

Yami only bothered with the task of opening her locker when she was sure that none of the group was around. There were a few people wandering, drifting down the halls in whatever direction, but none of them were paying attention to her.

She opened it and stared, not the least bit amused and growing angry as it swayed with the pull of the door.

The damn thing was taped to the top of her door with a note of _Don't do anything stupid with it again, Yami _beneath it.

Yami studied it for a long moment and then snatched them both off the door; fine, if they really wanted her to have the damn thing, she was going to take it back to the fucking store. What was the point of keeping it in the first place?

She didn't want it, she had no need for it, and the stupid necklace was ugly as far as she was concerned.

She liked lapis-lazuli gemstones and sapphires.

This bitch got her diamonds.

Fuck them.

She slipped it into her pocket, using the tape to attach it awkwardly to the fuzzy inside of her jacket, and tossed the note into the trash, snatching her backpack and filling it with a few notebooks before slamming the door. Yami spun on the group as they started towards her, seething when Tea was the first face she saw; her boyfriend flinched backwards and Mai and Joey both froze in place while the brunette backed up a couple of steps and Tristan gave her an awkward look.

"I'm guessing she doesn't want to walk with us today," he pointed out, making the others glance at him and Yugi flinch again.

She had the impulse to snap at him that he needed to get over himself because she had something more to deal with but that would have been counterproductive and she was far from stupid enough to let that slip in the first place, instead turning and heading for the doors.

"Yami, wait!"

Was it wrong if she ignored him?

She kind of felt like it was but she didn't want to bother with him.

At this rate, she would end up chewing his head off if he stepped too close.

Yugi flinched when the door slammed behind her, clicking far too loudly as the noise echoed across the entire hall for a moment. The small teen shifted his weight awkwardly but didn't look at them and didn't speak, ignoring the shocked looks he gained and the stricken expression on Tea's face.

If only he hadn't opened his mouth, she wouldn't have run off like that.

He chewed his cheek and took his spot next to Joey again, ignoring it when Tea tried to ask him if he was okay, mouthing the words; the blue-violet-eyed teen gave her a single look and resisted the urge to snap at her in pure frustration.

* * *

"You would like to return this?"

Yami didn't care for the incredulous edge to his words, instead glancing at the necklace disdainfully. "It is from this store, isn't it?"

"Oh _yes_, it's from this store," the man stated, nodding slowly once and looking the chain and pendant over for a moment with a glance at her through his glasses before turning back. "Do you happen to have a receipt?"

The red-eyed girl blinked once, staring at the way that he was shifting the small chain through his fingers; gods, this guy was pudgy. "It was actually a gift," she stated, glancing at it and then his eyes, spine tingling with anxiety.

"A gift?" he repeated slowly, looking dubious for a moment and making Yami's skin crawl; okay, so she wasn't the hottest girl in the world, but with the way the deliveryman had made that statement and the idiot in front of her was staring at her, she was starting to think she had grown ugly overnight. "Oh, Mr. Dartz."

Yami turned her head as a tall man with greenish hair and mismatched eyes of a color akin turquoise and gold started towards them from the other side of the store; she blinked a few times and her stomach twisted just as she realized how stupid this entire situation she had just thrown herself into was.

Of course it was stolen.

Why the hell hadn't she thought of that before?

"I want you to watch this young girl while I go phone the police."

The man stared at her for a second and then looked at the shop owner. "Your daughter said it was a boy who stole it, not a girl," he commented in a voice that made Yami's skin crawl in surprise. That was almost as bad as Nightshade's when he was using his own vocals instead.

"It doesn't matter. She has it now." He leveled her a small glare. "Now follow me."

Yami scoffed and narrowed her eyes even as she walked behind him and the guard snorted a noise that sounded suspiciously like a laugh.

Twenty minutes later she was seated next to the man as he phoned the police and the guard merely watched with a small smile of amusement; Yami rocked back and forth in her seat, elbows against her knees and chin in her palms. They had actually threatened to search her bag until she had started spouting laws at them and both of them had backed off.

Now she was tempted to sort through it and do homework because if this took any longer, she was going to be pissed as all fuck.

"You got the necklace back!"

Yami looked up at the brunette that wandered into the room, eyes widening in surprise; wow, she was pretty. Must have had her mom's genes.

She nearly laughed at herself for the thought but went still when wide brown eyes fell on her before narrowing as her attention turned back to her father. "I told you it was a _boy _who stole it."

"What did he look like?" the red-eyed teen said immediately, cutting off the shop owner who had opened his mouth; the girl turned to her with wide eyes, startled by the way that she had tensed in her seat and was watching her with a gaze of dark red.

"He…" She trailed off for a moment, thinking. "He had a weird haircut, kind of…bowl-shaped? And it was kind of turquoise in color…he had these glasses with a beetle in the center and—"

"Weevil," Yami groaned, covering her face and shaking her head; that stupid little bug had stolen the necklace but he wasn't the one who was sending her the cards or flowers. That was so far out of the realm of possibilities it was honestly disgusting. "His name is Weevil Underwood. He goes to my school."

But he was willing to do anything for a certain price if you offered it to him.

And all she had to do was get hold of him and threaten to beat him senseless if he didn't tell her who the fuck her little stalker was or who had put him up to this. If it was all a prank, that was great, because Weevil being caught would mean that she could get to the source of it quickly and not have to bother with it afterwards. If it was Vivian or Rebecca, then this whole thing ended that easily.

* * *

The moment she stepped out of the store, she froze in surprise, eyes widening in shock; Vivian was right there, waiting, sitting on a bench and smirking as she got to her feet. "Trying to shoplift, Yami?" she sneered as the red-eyed teen blinked and tried to sort out a way to get past the brunette without an incident. "That's pretty pathetic. But I can't say I'm surprised. Considering how poor you are."

Yami tilted her head and leveled her a cold stare. "Do you even know what an ambassador _is_?"

The taller girl smirked cruelly. "I'm starting to think your daddy doesn't care about you," she snickered as the other girl started around the bench; she saw a few kids from their school officially looking over, some of the guys sitting up in the food court and staring with such wide eyes that it looked like they might just jump out of their seats in anticipation.

"Don't walk away when I'm talking to you," she snapped, grabbing her arm in a grip that the smaller girl was pretty sure would leave a bruise.

Yami spun and backhanded her hard enough to make her stagger, her hand instantly letting go and allowing her to turn on her heel and start walking again; some guy howled out "Catfight!" and another did a long low appreciative wolf whistle. A girl was laughing and another was filming; she swore she saw some guys out in the parking lot she was approaching jump off their skateboards and turn their phones on her. She couldn't tell if it was because someone had texted them to do so or if it was just something that had happened, that maybe they were just out there already filming, but she didn't care enough to ask either.

"You stupid bitch."

The red-eyed girl ignored her, walking further ahead and not once glancing back to look at the other; a guy whistled at them and called Vivian hot and another said that this catfight would be brutal.

Yami disregarded the statements, ignoring Vivian advancing on her from behind; she wasn't about to run and she sure as hell wasn't about to hide either. She stepped onto the sidewalk and turned sharply, moving through a small group of people with the brunette snapping at them to move behind her.

Why she hadn't grabbed her yet was beyond her at the moment but she couldn't care less; she was just lucky that Yami was sane enough that she wasn't about to accuse her of a prank in front of everyone, especially not when she didn't have enough proof to even make that kind of statement.

She got halfway back towards the school when her shoulder was wrenched backwards and she nearly got tossed off her feet, spinning around as her bag was thrown aside. Her adrenaline spiked, eyes widening before she narrowed them into slits, glaring and backing up a step.

She didn't need a fight at the moment.

She really didn't.

But that didn't mean she would back down from one either.

"Vivian, back the fuck off," Yami snapped, taking in the bright red mark on her cheek and steeling her muscles. The taller girl swung and smacked her, but the good thing about Vivian was that she overestimated her punches and they normally came off as light taps.

Just like this one.

Yami blinked once and then punched back.

"_Bitch_!" Vivian snarled, grabbing her. The smaller girl stumbled and grabbed at her shirt when she charged forward a few steps. Yami landed on her side, hip stinging. She rolled and Vivian struggled as she threw a punch at her head.

"Get off of me," the red-eyed teen spat, grabbing her around the throat. Vivian squirmed and jerked, trying to get out of her reach. The punch made her yelp and Yami used the split second to shift their position and loom over her. The brunette let out a noise like a startled cry of pain and Yami punched again.

The taller girl bucked and Yami jerked but kept hold, slapping her. Vivian rolled, grabbing her by the throat and flipping them. Yami choked when she squeezed, eyes widening drastically.

_Fuck_.

Yami braced herself and twisted. The punch made her ears ring for a moment. The second one wasn't nearly as hard. She rolled and Vivian grabbed her hair, punching her shoulder.

Fucking bitch…

The brunette pressed against her back for a second, pitching her weight forward. Yami hesitated for a second and then rolled forward. Both of them landed on their backs. The smaller teen breathed hard, twisting away to face her. Vivian caught her around the stomach and pulled her back.

Yami bit her tongue unconsciously when her head jerked from the punch. The slap made her ears ring again.

"Stupid bitch. Don't ever touch me!"

Yami took another blow to the head. Vivian paused to breathe in hard and the smaller girl lashed out. The brunette yelled in pain and Yami scrambled to get away. Her leg was caught but she managed to get up. The taller girl followed a split second later and grabbed her harder, jerking her head back. Yami caught her wrist and dug her nails into her skin violently, both of them breathing hard and restraining the other. Her other hand found its way into the brunette's bun, gripping tightly.

"_Shit_, Yami!"

The red-eyed teen didn't respond, breathing hard. Vivian jerked her hand out of her grip and Yami braced herself for the punch. For a moment neither of them moved.

And then Vivian reached for her hair.

Yami punched her hard enough to make her stagger backwards. Vivian yelped and the smaller twisted to face her.

"Shit, stop!"

Vivian stumbled again when Yami pressed into her.

"No, no, no—_Fuck_!"

Yami spun them once and then pressed all of her weight into her. Vivian hit the ground on her back, trying to punch. Yami panted and moved to straddle her side. The grip on her hair stayed and Yami punched again.

"Stupid bitch!" Vivian screamed.

"Fuck, Yami, let go!"

Vivian's grip slipped and Yami moved to stand up more, punching again. The brunette screamed again kneed at her stomach. Yami kept her grip on her hair even as Vivian managed to pull herself under her legs and crouch. Vivian made to flip them over but Yami twisted and they fell on their sides again.

"Shit, shit, let go!"

Yami rolled when Vivian bucked, but the position didn't change. Her head was caught between Yami's legs and she couldn't move much. The red-eyed teen breathed hard but kept her grip, tightening it.

"Don't swing on me!"

Vivian stilled from where she was trying to punch the smaller girl and Yami blinked wide eyes as the newcomers tried to pull them apart.

"No swinging."

Yami ground her teeth together as they pulled at her arms and tried to separate them.

"Damn, Yami, release," he laughed.

She was pretty sure that wasn't what she was supposed to do.

Nails dug into her wrist and she reflexively let go, startled when she was pulled to her feet and Vivian stumbled to hers, wiping at her nose and glaring angrily. Yami breathed harshly, eyes flickering wildly from the blond to Vivian, scattered thoughts finally connecting the fact that it was Joey and Solomon who had joined them.

Her adrenaline was still spiked and she wasn't sure she was thinking right as she shifted her weight for a moment and chewed her cheek.

But she was still fired up and still so pissed off. This had to be a prank and that was why Vivian was at the mall at the same time as she went to return it.

Right?

Yami ignored that little voice in the back of her head saying that didn't really mean anything, wanting it to be that simple and easy to fix. She was desperate for it to be that easy…

"Is that blood?" Solomon asked, eyes wide.

Yami sprang the second that Joey looked away. Vivian yelled in surprise as they hit the ground.

"You stupid bitch!"

"Fucking hell, Yami!" Joey cried, going to grab he and stopping short at her next words.

"If you set up this stupid prank, I'll fucking murder you."

"Prank?" Solomon asked in confusion, looking at the blond as he stared at his best friend's girlfriend and opened and closed his mouth. The brown-eyed boy grabbed her around the waist and jerked her off her feet, thanking the gods that she was so light in the first place.

"I'll mutilate you," Yami spat out, breathing hard.

Vivian got up, tongue swollen as blood dipped down her chin. "What the fuck?"

The smaller girl breathed out a shaky exhale and stared at the brunette; she wasn't about to attack her again and her brown eyes were wide with confusion as she snarled, "You fucking psycho! Look at what you did to my tongue!"

Yami bristled and spat at her, missing by an inch. "It isn't funny. Your stupid fucking prank isn't funny!"

"Stupid fucking bitch!"

Joey tightened his grip around her and quickly scrambled to carry her over onto the side of the street as Solomon was gesturing wildly for him to do. Yami squirmed and Joey nearly tripped just as Vivian was about to go for her face.

"Lay one hand on her and I'm calling the police," Solomon stated immediately.

The brunette froze and spun on him, glaring. "Look at what she did to my tongue!"

Joey bit back some laughter; did she know that Yami had torn her cheek open like that? He guessed not with the way that her tongue was the only thing she was whining about.

"Go home, Vivian."

"Fucking bitch," the brunette spat, wiping her mouth.

"Or you could go to the hospital…Yeah, I think the hospital might be a better choice," Joey muttered, shaking his head slightly and making sure to keep a grip on Yami who was now staring at where her backpack was laying across the street.

"You have twenty seconds to get off my property before I call them," the elder Motou snapped, glaring at her until she finally backed off and stepped backwards a few times, spitting out some blood and turning on her heel.

Joey only released her when he thought that Vivian was far away enough that she wouldn't bother, blinking in surprise when Yami headed off back to where the fight had started. The girl sniffled roughly, wiping at her nose and finding herself surprised by the blood there.

When had she gotten her in the nose?

Maybe she had been so hyped on adrenaline that she hadn't even noticed it…?

"Damn, you're a real scrapper," Joey snickered as she wandered back over; she didn't want him touching her but she didn't object to it as he tipped her chin up to examine her face. "Shit, how does that even happen? You got her hard and all you've got is a nosebleed and a couple of bruises."

"Her legs are bleeding," Solomon stated, shaking his head. "Girls fighting in skirts. What kind of craziness is this?"

Yami offered a weak smile and groaned under her breath; Vivian wasn't behind a prank and Rebecca…she _hated _Weevil. She hated him so much that the last time they spoke, she nearly put a pencil through his neck during class.

Her head spun for a second.

"Here, sit down and I'll be back with the first-aid kit."

Yami nodded absently as Solomon wandered off and Joey continued checking her over, moving some of her hair aside to look at her scalp; she could have told him that there was nothing there but she was still too far in her thoughts to care.

Weevil had stolen the necklace and unless Rebecca was really one hundred percent sure it would win her Yugi, she wouldn't go near the bug. There was always Rex if she wanted that to happen.

But she was pretty sure Rex had _something _akin a conscience. So she hardly saw that happening in the first place.

Yami wrinkled her nose at the antiseptic that Solomon used to help wipe off some of the blood on her legs.

"Here, hold this. Your temple looks like it needs it," Joey commented, holding out the bag of ice; the girl stared at it for a moment and then finally took it a minute later, pressing it against her head and closing her eyes.

"It'll be gone in a few hours," she muttered. "I heal fast."

The blond finally gave in to the urge to burst out laughing, doubling over and giving her a high-five when she stared at him in surprise. "That was the greatest shit ever. You kicked her _ass_!"

Yami blinked and decided not to comment that Vivian could have seriously killed her if she wasn't careful. And besides that, she was so tired and it was just too surreal a situation for her to truly wrap her head around.

Her head felt funny.

"Yes, congratulations," Solomon snickered, glancing up at her and shaking his head. "I always knew you were a fighter."

She let out a small laugh that she hoped wasn't too shaky.

Her eyes shot towards the stairs for a moment and then around slowly, honestly half-expecting the blue-violet-eyed boy to come bursting into the room at any moment; she honestly wasn't sure if she was happy or a little sad that he didn't do so.

"He's with Tea right now," the elderly Motou stated, getting up and dumping the bloodied paper towels in the trash. "I think they went to the mall maybe?"

Yami nodded a little, ducking her head with a small blush but feeling terribly disappointed. Her stomach twisted and flopped for a moment but she didn't bother to comment on it, instead getting up.

"That's probably a good thing anyways. I have homework to do," she muttered, blinking once against the sting that came from putting her weight on her legs again.

"Do you want me to walk you home?" Joey asked, tilting his head in genuine concern.

"No, thank you. I've got it."

The blond hesitated, glancing at Solomon uncertainly before turning back. "All right. Just…you know, call if you need anything."

She nodded absently and wandered out the door.

* * *

"Hello?"

"White roses?"

Yami froze in place from where she was about to enter the kitchen, stomach dropping and heart leaping into her throat.

"Yami."

The red-eyed girl blinked slowly; she knew she should have checked the ID before she answered the fucking phone.

"Yes."

"White roses?" Yugi repeated slowly, sounding frustrated and miserable all at once; she flinched, closing her eyes and leaning against the wall with her free hand against her temple, wincing when her fingers brushed over the massive bruise on her skin. "You don't even _like _roses!"

Yami didn't know if she should respond or not, unsure of even continuing this conversation; her head was spinning again and her balance felt off. She wouldn't have even been surprised if the wall couldn't support her anymore.

"Tea just told me that you came there two days ago asking about white roses. But you don't even like roses and I've never bought you flowers because you hate them," the other teen continued, rambling and sounding as if he was going to be sick. "Yami, _talk to me_!"

_Don't beg me_…

"I don't know what you want me to say," she finally managed, rubbing at the bruised skin and grinding her teeth together; fucking Tea. She swore she would mutilate her if she didn't back off.

"Tell me something, anything! Maybe why you were in the store asking about white roses in the first place?" Yugi muttered, growing frustrated again; she could hear something off in the background and swore under her breath. He was at the park, sitting somewhere alone and talking to her; he only went to the park when he was scared or hurting, when she drove him into wandering out of the house to think or freak out.

She opened her mouth but she had no response; what was she supposed to say to him about this? She wasn't going to tell him about what had happened. It would have been stupid and far from good. Yugi would probably end up hurt and she couldn't have that happen.

But not responding to him hurt him worse than anything else and if she couldn't force something out, what was the good of even attempting to keep him safe?

"I…I'm not." she hissed, mouth feeling awkward as she stretched the words out and tried to get rid of the bitter taste lying on her tongue. "I'm not."

"Yami, seriously? That's all you're going to say?"

She ground her teeth together. "Yugi, stop…"

"You do realize that Tea's suspected this for _years _now and you're pretty much proving her right," he muttered, voice coming out a little choked.

"Shut up," she snapped, bristling. "I'm not. I never have. Tea is just a stupid, whiny little bitch and you're her fucking lap dog right about now."

Yami swore she could hear it when he recoiled. "You can't be serious right now."

"You're accusing me. I haven't done anything wrong."

"You hardly sound like it," he snapped coldly. "Do you even hear yourself right now?"

"Do you hear _yourself_?" she spat. "Tea tells you that she thinks I'm cheating and you think just because I don't want to be around everyone every single fucking second of the day that she's right?"

"No, I didn't until she started telling me about how you were asking about roses—"

"You stupid fucking prick! I asked her a fucking question that you both are blowing _so _far out of proportion I can't even wrap my head around it," she hissed quietly, going silent for a second before breathing raggedly. "You stupid jealous little _prick_! You and Tea, you're both so fucking stupid with envy half the time."

"Yami, stop—"

"So goddamned _perfect for each other, aren't you_? Why don't you go kiss her ass a little and let her show you _why _you belong together?"

"Yami—"

"Shut up!"

"I—"

"Shut up, you stupid fucking bastard," she snapped, head spinning again before she managed to straighten herself and push away from the wall, breathing hard. "You and her are just the most pathetically jealous pieces of shit I have ever _met_! Goddamn it, Yugi, if you're always going to be this stupidly influenced and listen to her every little bitchy moan, then stop wasting my time already!"

"Yami, knock it off," Yugi spat. "You know that's not—"

"Let's think about this for a second, shall we, Yugi? You're practically accusing me of being a fucking moron in all of this too."

"What? What the fuck are you—?"

"You think if I was fucking cheating on you that I would go to _Tea_'s little family flower shop to see if someone had bought flowers for me?" Yami spat, staring at the table and feeling her spine grow cold beneath her skin; the goddamned necklace was right there, lying with a single little note and a formation of eleven roses. "You think I would really do that if I was going to be two-timing you? How stupid do you take me for?"

"Goddamn it, Yami, shut up," he snapped. "That's not what I meant and—"

She took a shaky step towards the table and stared at it, eyes catching the note of _Don't lose it again, and don't try to get rid of it_. _You belong to me and the necklace is just proof of that_. Belonged to him? Bullshit.

"—you fucking know that! I—you're acting strange! And you aren't talking to me anymore! What the hell am I supposed to think?"

"Wow, so I don't talk to you about every little thing that goes on and all of the sudden I'm cheating on you because that's what Tea thinks, right?"

"Stop it. It's not like that—"

"Oh my fucking god. _You _thought I was cheating on you before Tea told you about the flowers, didn't you?" she laughed in disbelief, waiting for him to deny it and cracking up after a long minute of silence. "You stupid fucking piece of shit."

"Yami, please—"

"Right, so how long has that been going on?"

"Yami…"

She reached out and grabbed the pendant, plucking it off the table and resisting the urge to snarl in anger. "I always wondered why you got so fucking jealous so often. Turns out you've been thinking I was cheating on you too. Way to go, Yugi."

"You don't under—"

"Don't insult me," she spat. "I understand this perfectly, you stupid prick."

"Yami, stop—"

"Shut the fuck up already. I'm going to say this once and only once. Whether you listen is your choice but it would be wise to do so."

Yugi stayed quiet.

"I have never cheated on you."

Yami pressed the end button and tossed the phone onto the table, the roses cushioning the fall and making her stare at the arrangement of her name with the flowers. Three for Y, three for A, four for M, one for I. How lovely.

She stared at the note and the necklace and clenched her jaw in frustration. A stalker and a potential breakup. How nice a Monday.

She pressed her palms into the table and felt the diamonds and metal pressing into her skin to the point that it stung and she swore she was going to break skin.

Why so many roses?

She tipped her head to the side. Eleven roses. The last two times flowers were delivered, it had been two. Two the first day, two the day after even though they were technically tied together, and now eleven.

Why the sudden increase in roses?

"Evermore, evermore," Nightshade crowed from his cage, tapping his beak against the metal for a moment; vaguely she wondered if her dad had fed him yet or if she needed to instead. "Y is for Yami. Don't lose the necklace again. Don't lose the pendant. Y is for Yami."

She glanced at him through her lashes and tilted her head slowly, grinding her teeth together. He'd taught him a new phrase yet again, huh?

How long had he been there? How long had he been in her house, talking to her raven and feeding him, teaching him phrases that made her skin crawl? How long had he been tailing her today?

She whined low in her throat and shook her head, bowing it and scraping her nails over the wood; first she nearly got arrested, then she found out that Weevil was working for him, then that Vivian wasn't pulling a prank on her with this, and now there was her possible breakup with Yugi and this bullshit.

She breathed hard, chest feeling weak and caved in, and struggled to breathe for a moment; her head was spinning and her legs felt weak and her eyes stung.

If she cried, she was going to feel like shit, but if she didn't, she felt like she was going to be sick. The cameras were still on her; she knew that. She didn't have to look, just like she knew that he had moved them at some point while he was there, because she hadn't seen it on the windowsill anymore.

No, he had swapped them around and now he was watching her.

If she broke down now…

Gods, she couldn't even _cry _now.

That was oddly more upsetting than him having even broken into the house in the first place.

What a Monday.

She shook her head, rolling her eyes, and sighed loudly.

Breathe, breathe, all she had to do was breathe…

And get rid of this crappy little display this fucker had made on her table.

She ground her teeth together, reaching forward and slapping them off the table; they hit the floor and she debated stomping on them for a long minute before shaking it off. Something in her head was still telling her that the roses meant something, anything, though she had no idea what.

She studied them; all the thorns were cut off as they had been the first time.

What was the point of making her bleed onto a flower?

What was the point of making himself bleed onto the same one?

She wondered if they could get DNA off a flower after what seemed to be two days.

Then again, she still had no idea what she would say if she were to consider it…

And what were the odds that she would be taken seriously?

Yami shook it off and grabbed them off the floor anyways, taking them upstairs and dumping them into the drawer in the nightstand again.

Screw it.

If her instincts said there was something she was missing and it was the roses that made that difference, then she wasn't about to get rid of them.

She looked the pendant over and then dropped it in as well, kicking the drawer shut and falling back on the bed.

Fucking Mondays.

"Yami?"

She hesitated, sitting up and really debating the odds of wanting to see him there, of whether or not she should just stay quiet and pretend she wasn't home or just chase him off…

"Aibou?"

Yami cringed. "Bedroom."

She swore she could hear his relief as he started up the stairs immediately and slipped into her room, eyes wide; she wondered if he had expected her to be sobbing her eyes out and then wondered why she wasn't. Shouldn't she have been?

Then again, Yugi didn't look like he had shed a tear either…

The blue-violet-eyed teen picked his way cautiously across the room, hesitating to sit on the bed and chewing his cheek as she ignored him for a moment; did she even want him there?

"I…"

He trailed off for a moment and then moved to take the seat next to her.

She fought off the urge to shake her head at him, instead gesturing for him to sit and ignoring the way that he hesitated in favor of watching her face.

"I'm sorry."

"Doesn't matter."

"What?"

"I said it doesn't matter."

"Yeah, I…What the hell does that _mean _exactly?"

Yami gave him a cold look, studying him through her lashes for a long minute before turning away again. "Figure it out, Yugi," she snapped, moving away from him when he scooted a little closer.

"I'm not sure I can but I'm going to guess that either you mean you don't want this anymore or that you're just willing to move past it…"

"You know which one it is," she snapped. "Don't bullshit me."

Yugi stayed quiet for a moment and then moved close, grabbing her into a hug and laying his head on her shoulder "I'm sorry. I just…" He shook his head. "I don't really have an excuse…"

"You could blame it on Tea if you want."

He flinched at the snide note in her voice and sighed softly, closing his eyes. "Talk to me. I can't read your mind," he muttered, voice growing desperate.

"How long?"

She felt him cringe and narrowed her eyes into slits.

"I…You started acting weird last week. I got worried and then I guess it just kind of escalated after Tea said that today—"

"Fucking hell, Yugi," she snapped, turning her head. "Don't fucking blame her for your idiocy, damn it. Now tell me how fucking long this has—"

"God, two hours, damn it," Yugi snarled, pulling away and rubbing at his temples. "Two fucking hours. Since I found out about the damn flowers, okay? I never actually fucking _considered _it until then. I got a little worried last week but not to the point that I thought you were cheating. I figured you were just a little stressed last week. I figured you would tell me what the fuck was going on before now. And then Tea told me about the fucking flowers."

"Up on the roof. You were thinking it then too."

"It wasn't…" He opened and closed his mouth a couple of times before sighing. "Tea said she was worried about me getting hurt. She mentioned it on Friday. I just…I guess it just stuck in my head."

"And here I was thinking that you actually trusted me."

"I do," Yugi snapped immediately. "I do fucking trust you. If I didn't, do you think I would be here right now?"

Yami studied him for a minute. She honestly hadn't given it much thought how much the small distance between them would get under his skin like this.

She acknowledged her own part in this little argument that they were having. And she accepted the fact that she had fucked up when she hadn't been open with him in the first place. She had set up the perfect little trap for herself and Yugi to fall into.

Regardless of Tea's help in making Yugi even more insecure, she was just as at fault and she couldn't ignore that.

She had set it up and Tea had more or less thrown Yugi straight into it. Being the concerned friend or not, she'd pushed him and he'd cracked.

Not that she hadn't given him reason just the day before with Nightshade talking about the necklace.

Yami closed her eyes for a moment.

So much of this situation was all hers to place the blame on….

Maybe if she just told him…

"Yami…please…I don't…"

"Look, just…I didn't cheat. You didn't cheat, I didn't cheat. No one cheated," she finally muttered, opening her eyes into slits and looking at the way his miserable expression turned quizzical and then hopeful, sitting a little straighter. "We're all good. Unless you get in your stupid jealous little prick mind that I'm cheating. I don't care if it's entertained for a second. I find out, I'm done."

_I can't deal with you not trusting me on top of this stalker_…

Yugi flinched and nodded immediately. "I won't."

Yami nodded slightly and fell back into the mattress, closing her eyes. "Good."

The other teen hesitated for a moment and then traced a pattern over her stomach and it took her a moment to recognize it was a heart.

* * *

**And THAT is the fourth chapter of Umbral Oath. Just note that the story is probably going to get confusing at times but it'll be for a reason. Anyways, feel free to ask questions or tell me how I did. Because female Yami is not a common thing so it feels a little strange xD**


	5. Confrontation

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything relating to Yu-Gi-Oh**

**Warning: Cursing can go from mild to mass amounts at times**

**Note: There will be blood in later chapters, mentions of sex, and possible lemons...**

**Keep in mind that Yami is a GIRL. So she worries about GIRLY things and has these things. Called INSECURITIES. They happen. She has them. Because she's human.**

**As far as the group dynamics go, by the way, things are strained and iffy and will be explained throughout the story so keep that in mind.**

Chapter V: Confrontation

"Tea."

The brunette bit her lip and sighed softly; Yami hadn't even turned her head to look at her from where she was digging through her locker contents. If she was right, she hadn't even let her eyes flicker in her direction…

She forced herself to turn around and face the red-eyed teen, biting her lip as the smaller girl put several of her books in her locker and then hooked her bag and stepped back, turning her head and staring at her with a cold expression.

"You told Yugi about the rose thing?"

"He deserved to know about that. Yugi was—"

"I didn't ask for you to justify yourself," Yami murmured softly, narrowing her eyes and tilting her head as she stared at her. "I wanted to know if you had told him. And you did. Now tell me why exactly without the whole friendship thing. I already know you seem to think it's your job to watch out for him when it comes to me. I want to know how the conversation started."

Tea stared at her for a long minute; Yami was pissed and so quiet that it was only a matter of time before she lost it on her at some point. The brunette awkwardly shifted her weight; after what Joey had told her earlier about her fight with Vivian, it was not hard to guess that she was still seething and ready to really kick her ass if she wasn't careful.

Yami was small but she hit hard. And she didn't hold back when she was really mad. It was one of those things that Tea hated about her. She was so likely to tear someone's throat out that it was honestly too scary to really wrap her head around the idea of it.

It was another reason why she didn't understand Yugi's attraction to her. The blue-violet-eyed boy was so sweet and Yami was just not. She was just as likely to stab you in the ribs with a butcher knife as she was to kiss you. It was impossible to really tell what the girl was thinking and she was pretty sure she would be horrified by most of the thoughts that circulated in the girl's mind as it was.

She was like some kind of natural predator in a human body even when she was in some kind of neutral state where she wasn't mad or even close to getting there. She was honestly so quiet and exerted that dangerous little spark in her aura that it always made Tea reluctant to speak to her most of the time now. Especially with the way they had drifted; she knew for a fact that Yami was not amused by her cold shoulder antics before and she probably had plans to put her back in her place if she didn't approach the situation carefully enough to keep her from getting even more upset with her. Upset Yami was probably the most dangerous girl in the school despite how small she was.

She honestly wondered if Yami got that temper from her mother or father; her mother had died when she was six and none of them really remembered her because she was never really home much and they were too young to really pay attention, but Tea was kind of suspecting her mom as the source.

"I just asked him if he was okay."

Yami narrowed her eyes but didn't speak; she knew that look. She had answered too vaguely and Yami was calculating just how large a lie that was while planning on what to say to make her trip up.

It was better to just say what she knew the other girl wanted to hear and get it over with rather than prolong it; if she beat around the bush, there was no way that she would manage to get away unscathed. Yami didn't take bullshit answers when she was mad and she didn't like it when people hesitated on a subject that truly meant something to her.

"I asked him how you guys were doing."

Now the red-eyed girl nodded slowly and closed her locker softly, staring at her with a cold glare. "You wanted to know how we were doing," she repeated quietly, nodding and tilting her head. "So you ask him. Not because you're still sore about the whole thing but because you're _worried_, right? No, half of that is _bullshit_."

Tea froze and swallowed hard. "Yami—"

"You have no fucking business even _asking _about us unless it's out of pure curiosity. But that right there was not curiosity. That was you snooping for an opening so you could tell him that you thought I was cheating on him."

"That's not—"

"Tea," Yami snapped, lowering her voice and narrowing her eyes, the red orbs gleaming dangerously beneath her lashes. "Do not even _entertain_ the idea of insulting my intelligence. I know damn well what you were doing."

The brunette stayed quiet for a moment and then sighed loudly once. "You're overreacting."

"Am I? Because I think I've been rather calm about this until just now."

"Yami—"

"If I had been overreacting at any point, I would have tried to make Yugi swear not to be friends with you anymore. I would have attempted to turn the group against you which wouldn't be entirely _too _hard with how fucked up we all are right now—"

"That's your fault, you know that?" Tea snapped suddenly, eyes flashing, anger building up in the pit of her stomach and making her lash out; the other girl narrowed her eyes but let her continue. "You convinced Yugi not to tell us that you were dating and you were the one who—"

"You're an idiot. I have no reason to try justifying myself to you."

"You always say that when you know you're caught. Just like you did at the shop—"

Yami bristled and barely resisted the urge to slap her. "Listen to me, Tea," she snapped, curling her lip back slightly as if in disgust but purely out of anger, reminding her of a wild animal. "You should consider this a warning. And the only one that you're going to get for a while because I am tired of this shit. If you overstep your boundaries again, I'm going to hurt you."

_Boundaries_? She thought that she could just declare boundaries and everyone would just go with that? Yami had to be delusional.

"Bullshit. You hurt me and Yugi will never forgive you."

"It'll be _worth_ it."

The brunette went still, eyes widening in shock at the statement, and swallowed hard to keep from shivering at the way that Yami's gaze had grown cold and frosty, like bright red ice.

She was serious. She wouldn't hesitate to lash out and put her in what she thought to be her place. She wouldn't once back down if she was given the chance and Tea just happened to be so unlucky as to cross paths with her when she did something to make her truly angry.

"You have no right going to Yugi and asking him how we're doing. You want to know that, why don't you ask _me_? Honestly, Tea, his best friend or not, back off. He chose _me_, not you."

Tea ground her teeth together, hissing, "Did he choose before or after you spread your legs, you little slut?"

The red-eyed teen tilted her head and stared at her for a long minute, cruel glittering shards of crimson ice. "Slut? Is that the best you've got, Tea?" she sneered. "Hit me with something harder than that."

"I love how you just avoided that question," Tea snapped. "I'm going to take a guess and say that you made him sleep with you before he got the chance to choose."

"Made him sleep with me? Are you shitting me, Tea? I wouldn't have to beg, unlike you. He liked me a long time before—"

"Bullshit. If he had liked you, why the hell would he have agreed to going behind our backs like that? No one wants to sneak around behind their friends' backs unless they're ashamed."

Yami tilted her head and stared for a long moment; she didn't want to tell her that Yugi had been the one to say that they should date like that. Not that she had argued at any point, purely because she had felt guilty with the fact that Yugi had asked her out while Tea had been head over heels. She had told her almost a month before Yugi had finally asked; Yugi wanted to keep it out of the spotlight purely because he was nervous about the others' reactions. She had agreed because she hadn't wanted to hurt Tea.

Yugi had been more concerned with the idea of the guys' reactions, how Joey and Tristan would respond to the news that they were dating because both of them had had a thing for her at different times. She figured that was purely because Yami was almost always with the guys instead of with Tea or Mai and really, when it came down to it, they had always been more girly and caught more attention for their looks. Yami had always been noticed for her eyes and the strange uniqueness of her hair. And she always spent more time with the guys than she did with the girls, which probably led to the small crushes the three of them had had on her. Not to say that Tristan didn't have a thing for Tea back then too and Joey one for Mai. Just that they had acted on the ones with her first.

Joey had asked her out and Tristan had made a valentine when they were younger while Yugi had gotten jealous and huffy the entire time that either of them had flirted even discreetly with her. She remembered Yugi had actually bought her a notebook in second grade and gave it to her claiming that she was officially her girlfriend which had caused a lot of confusion on her part. Joey and Tristan had jumped to start giving her and Mai and Tea things in an effort to make them their girlfriends and at some point Yami was pretty sure they were all dating each other because of how terribly flawed that system had been.

Yugi had never been ashamed of their relationship, however; Yami knew that even when they were going behind their backs and she was more than a little worried about that once or twice. The old insecurity stung her for a single split second but it almost made her smirk in amusement.

Tea didn't _need _to know all about what had happened between her and Yugi. In fact, Tea was stupid if she thought she would get that information out of her through an argument like this.

"He never liked you," she sated calmly, moving to press her shoulder against the locker. "He's always had a thing for me. You wonder why he was always around me when we were younger? He liked me more than you. He always has and he always will. Newsflash, Tea, if he had wanted you, he would have asked you instead of me. That's how the law of attraction works. You flirt with someone you actually like, not someone who follows you around like a puppy dog when you clearly don't give a crap about them."

"Bullshit. No one ever had a thing for you," Tea snapped. "You're too plain for anyone to actually give a fuck about you in the first place. The only reason Yugi would even wanted to be with you in the first place is because you're so fucking easy."

"You're always dick-riding Yugi, aren't you, Tea?" she snickered, shaking her head and smiling widely. "The only way that you'll ever get that close to him in the first place is to dry hump him like the little bitch that you are."

"Don't call me a bitch. At least I'm not being used as a placeholder for an _actual _girlfriend," the brunette snarled. "Fucking whore."

"Bitch please, the only way you'll get laid is if you have a train run on you," Yami sneered, rolling her eyes and straightening. "Yugi isn't going to want to _be_ with a little bitch like you, okay, Tea? You think that Yugi only stays with me because I sleep with him? I don't have to take my clothes off for him to give me the time of day. I also don't have to constantly breathe down his neck and dick-ride him all the time to make him pay attention to me. I never have and I never will. Because I'm not like you and he actually gives a shit about me—"

"Whoa, what the hell are you guys—?"

"If he ever actually got with you it would be because either he was using you or I died. Other than that, you're going to have to stick to constantly humping his leg like a dog."

Mai froze in place and stared at them in pure shock, eyes wide as she opened and closed her mouth, blinking and glancing between them and quickly moving to block their paths to the other, hands on their shoulders to keep them separated. Yami leaned back against the locker door again and Tea let out a furious huff of a noise.

"Okay, guys, just calm down."

"You should probably back off, Mai," Yami stated, crossing her arms and tilting her head at the brunette with a small smirk. "Things are probably going to end up a little nasty."

"Probably? You two look like you're about to tear each other open," Mai muttered, incredulous. "No way am I leaving you guys alone when you're like this."

"Fine, suit yourself."

"The only reason that you even managed to get with him in the first place is because you had your legs open," Tea snarled, trying to push Mai away slightly and failing when the blonde kept her back. "You dirty fucking whore."

"Speaking of open legs, Tea," Yami whispered conspiringly, leaning forward around Mai's outstretched arm and smirking cruelly. "I fucked him on your couch."

Tea narrowed her eyes and glared at the red-eyed teen before shaking her head slowly. "You stupid bitch!" she seethed, voice rising to just below a scream.

In all honesty Yami wasn't even sure she wanted to fight her, but she was still angry from her little fight from Vivian. Still, she wasn't even sure that she wanted to fight with the brunette. She was mad, she wanted to lash out at someone, but she was pretty sure it wasn't Tea that she wanted to do that to at the moment.

She had been one of her closest friends, after all, and to really get into a fight with her seemed a little stupid a choice. She honestly just wanted an outlet to fight with someone even if it didn't turn completely physical. But if Tea really attempted it, she would fight back just as she had with Vivian the day before.

"Don't be mad because he chose me."

"What the hell is wrong with you guys? What happened to make you guys go after each other like this?" Mai muttered, incredulous as she looked between them; Tea seethed and Yami narrowed her eyes but neither of them answered her question. "You're supposed to be friends. I can't believe that you're fighting like this over Yugi. You know he wouldn't want you two doing that!"

Yami bit back the response that Mai knew less about what Yugi wanted than Tea did, instead running her tongue over her teeth to keep from snapping at them. She needed to think. She really just needed to think and get some stress out.

"Yami?"

All three of them froze in place, heads snapping in the direction of where the blue-violet-eyed boy was walking towards them, looking shocked and more than a little worried. He looked at them for a moment, searching all three of their faces and chewing his cheek for a moment as he swallowed hard and stopped in front of them.

"So, how did it turn out, yesterday, Yugi?" the brunette demanded, eyes flashing angrily as Yugi slowly turned his attention from Yami to her and searched her face in confusion. "The roses? What happened with the white roses and all that crap?"

Yami tilted her head and watched him, curious about his response and just how exactly he would handle the situation; it was hardly something that she wanted to deal with.

"Tea," Yugi breathed out, eyes flashing angrily for a second, cautioning the blue-eyed girl to stay quiet. He looked towards Yami and studied her face for a moment; she hardly looked even slightly ruffled by the comment but he wasn't even surprised by that when it came down to it. She had that look that said she was amused though she was ready for a fight if it happened, but she didn't seem to be inclined to pushing it into a full out brawl like Joey had told him she had gotten into with Vivian.

He had needed Joey to realize exactly what was going on with Yami when he had called her earlier; it was not a surprise that she had gone off like she had after she had been through that fight with Vivian. The stress had made her snap and take it out on him by accident rather than it being solely focused on him in the first place.

He had called her at the wrong time, had charged up an already vicious situation that he hadn't even realized he was stepping into. He didn't even mind that anymore that he had gotten the news from Joey and he honestly couldn't even pretend to be surprised that she and Tea were now almost at each other's throats.

"Roses?" Joey asked in confusion from where he was getting to Yugi's side, eyes wide as he tilted his head and looked between them all slowly; this entire situation looked almost like something was going to explode at any moment.

"Yeah, Yami came over to the shop the other day asking about some white roses that got sent to her by her secret boyfriend—"

"I don't have a secret—"

"Those were from me."

They all froze in place, eyes wide as they looked at the newcomer.

"You sent her…?" Yugi said slowly, eyes stretching wider as he looked at the brunet in pure confusion. His eyes shot to Yami and the girl tilted her head in confusion before making a noncommittal movement that Yugi knew was her teeth digging into her cheek.

"Yeah, I felt bad about the magazine with her getting ranked at L," Tristan stated, shrugging and nodding easily. "I figured just giving her a couple of roses would make her feel better."

"Oh…"

Yugi didn't know what to say and Yami was a little too surprised by his statement to really say anything while Tea was opening and closing her mouth as she gawked at the other teen, Mai and Joey both blinking a few times as they stared at them in shock.

She almost wanted to hug him just for jumping into this entire situation like this when it was obvious that he had never once been involved with it in the first place. Stupid Tristan always had to be that sweet guy who would go out of his way for other people when things got tough, always willing to stick his neck out for a friend…

"Thank you for the flowers," Yami stated simply, nodding. "It would have been easier if you had left a card though, Tristan."

The brunet nodded, smiling widely. "I know. I lost it when I was giving them to you."

The red-eyed teen rolled her eyes. "The sentiment was sweet even if you…_kind _of did it wrong," she laughed teasingly, not bothering to straighten from her position of being leaned against the locker.

"Yeah, I know. Sorry," he chuckled, shrugging with an apologetic expression.

"Well, then that's figured out," Yugi muttered, unconsciously casting a small glance at Yami and feeling guilt settle inside him, swallowing hard as the red-eyed teen tilted her head and looked at him through her lashes in acknowledgment to his stare. He looked away, chewing his cheek.

The bell rang after a moment and the group looked at each other for a long minute before starting to work their way through the hall; Yami caught Tristan's arm before they got to their homeroom, pulling him aside for a moment.

"What the hell was that?" she muttered softly, searching his face with wide eyes and feeling sick to her stomach. "Tristan, what was that? I don't…"

He gave her a small smile and shook his head. "Look, Yami, I don't really know what's going on right now," he commented, glancing at Yugi and the others in their seats before turning back to her. "But I just wanted you to know that if you need help, then all you have to do is ask, okay?"

The girl tilted her head for a moment and studied him before reaching out to pull him into a hug. "Thank you."

"Of course. You're my friend, remember?"

She nodded once and chewed her cheek, unsure of how to respond.

* * *

Yami cast a single glance at Tristan for a moment, really looking at the brunet for the first time in a while; he glanced up but turned away again as the teacher passed out their graded tests.

The red-eyed teen turned away immediately and waited for the teacher to hand her the ninety-six that she stared at for a moment before casting a small glance back at the brunet again.

She had to admit that he wasn't the most attractive guy but what he lacked in looks he made up for with personality. His skin was lightly tanned, just a little touch of sun, several tones lighter than hers and lacking the golden-bronze shade that came with it. He was tall and lanky, with broad shoulders and a skinny frame, hazel eyes and hair that was spiked up and outwards. The hair on top of the spike of dark brown was black and only covered a small portion where it went to the back of his head.

Yami studiously stared down at her page and frowned.

Tristan's crush on her had always been simple and nothing worth real acknowledgment, more of a joke than anything else when it came down to it, but it had been there for a little while.

Yami looked at the sheet guiltily; if he was really willing to jeopardize his relationship with Yugi, then she was pretty sure that meant he wasn't over this crush of his that hadn't really ever been serious before. She was honestly confused about how that worked but she wasn't really about to question it.

Tristan would never push himself on her, especially since she was with Yugi out of respect to both of them, and Yami would never try to lead him on in any way.

She shook her head as the bell rang, sticking the paper into her binder and heading for the door; she didn't have to think about it to know that Yugi was at her side as she started down the hallway. The boy brushed arms with her, mumbling a soft "I'm sorry, aibou" that made her eyes flicker towards him for a moment before nodding slightly once.

"It's fine."

Yugi stared at her for a moment, studying her face; she looked a little distracted but not to the point that it was obvious. The red-eyed teen cast him a small look, giving him an absent smile, and wandered off to her locker.

Yugi followed her for a second and watched for a moment before moving to press their shoulders together, kissing her temple once; she cringed slightly but he couldn't see the bruise that was there and he felt a little sick with the thought of her fighting with Vivian like that. Unconsciously the blue-violet-eyed boy reached up to rub his thumb over the flesh; her lip curled but the girl gave no response otherwise, instead sorting her things out and swapping books in her hand.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, koi," she muttered, curling her lip again when Yugi continued touching her temple and examining her reactions. "She just got in a lucky punch. It still hurts a little but it's fine."

Yugi nodded but continued rubbing his fingers over her temple, pulling away after a moment and chewing her cheek; she already knew that Vivian wasn't there at the school that day so he hadn't really gotten the chance to assess the damage that either of them had done to each other. And the long knee-high socks that Yami was wearing did nothing to show the torn skin that had made up the wounds that Joey said his grandpa had pointed out before then.

"You sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure."

Yugi pressed a kiss to her temple and rubbed her arm. "I'll see you after class, okay, aibou?"

"Sure, koi," she murmured, nodding and starting to close her locker; the other teen gave her a slightly hurt expression and then turned away, starting to walk past. She paused for a second and chewed her cheek before shutting the door and sighing, running her fingers over the cold metal. "Yugi."

He turned his head, surprised and staring at her over his shoulder as she started towards him and brushed shoulders with him.

"Walk me to the library?"

It was honestly the best offer she could make to show him that she wasn't mad about the fight that had happened before; he wasn't sure if they had gotten over that completely or not because he was pretty sure that she was willing to put it behind her immediately but he felt so guilty that it made him want to be sick.

"Of course," he said eagerly, slightly surprised when she put her binders into her other arm and reached over to lace their fingers together; Yugi let out a soft purr and Yami smiled slightly in response.

"How is your project going anyways?"

"I'm mostly done. Most of it's written up. I just have to print it out later."

"Oh, okay. Good. I'm glad you're almost done with it," he murmured, nodding and smiling slightly; Yami gave a small absent nod before turning her attention to him fully, red eyes questioning and mouth opening slightly before closing again as she turned away. "What is it?"

She shook her head. "Nothing. I just…I thought I would say that I'm really not mad at you anymore."

Yugi chewed his cheek but didn't respond and the rest of the walk to the library was silent, the blue-violet-eyed teen kissing her forehead and squeezing her hand before they parted ways. Yami watched him go for a moment and then slipped through the door and inside the media center.

She headed for the tables in the back near the second set of computers, humming softly under her breath as she tried to keep herself from growing slightly frustrated; she was half-convinced that Yugi would turn around at some point and question her honesty about the entire situation.

She jolted when they collided with her shoulder, confused out of her mind by the dark black hoodie that he wore; she supposed she was just lucky that she had gotten her books on the table before then.

"Sorry," she muttered, confused by the way that he continued off without a pause; alarms went off in her head at the lack of response and she took off after him. He was standing off somewhere near the staircase and she chased him.

Yami narrowed her eyes and chewed her cheek, taking off down the stairs after him. It wasn't until she was on the bottom floor that she realized just what had been alarming her as she had run after him.

He only gave them about ten feet of distance with no gain or loss whatsoever; he was waiting for her to give chase.

Caution told her to slow and she was walking when he turned and peered over his shoulder at her.

The hoodie drawn as it was did a good job of hiding his face completely and she stepped forward twice before awkwardly shifting her weight; what was he doing exactly? They stared at each other, his eyes burning into her skin like hot coals though she couldn't see them, and the feeling of alarm made her adrenaline spike.

Was he going to do something?

If he planned to lead her outside to kill her, she had to admit that was a rather disappointing idea.

She stopped walking for a second, studying but finding nothing noteworthy; dark clothes, average shoe size, taller than her—but then who wasn't honestly?—and a slight build like almost everyone else in the school.

Yami ground her teeth in frustration and heard the door click loudly; he slipped outside and she tore off after him.

She didn't have to think about it to know that the moment she stepped out there, he would be gone. She had lost her chance to catch him as it was and she was both disappointed and a little more than excited by the idea. He was messing with her; the entire thing was a game for him.

It had to be if he hadn't taken off running before.

And she would be lying if she didn't acknowledge the feeling of exhilaration that came with that knowledge despite the fact that it sent her skin crawling and made her want to flee.

This was hardly a game as far as she was concerned. If Vivian hadn't hired Weevil to steal the necklace and this guy had, then it was obvious that he was targeting her, challenging her. She didn't really understand what the challenge was exactly, just that he didn't like her with Yugi and apparently wanted him out of the picture almost as much as Tea did.

Briefly she had a second where she entertained the thought of Tea being involved before snorting in disdain at it.

Tea wouldn't ever do something to hurt Yugi and this whole thing was obviously making him unhappy and stressed and that was something that the brunette would never willingly go along with.

She pushed the door open and breathed the cold winter air for a second before closing it again. That feeling of alarm was gone and she couldn't feel him watching her which meant he wasn't around, couldn't be around to watch her at the moment.

Yami turned and headed back for the stairs, chewing her cheek; even if she had run at him the moment that he had paused, he would have just slipped outside before she could do anything. And, if by some miracle, she had managed to catch him, she could have ended up getting herself seriously hurt in the meantime.

She didn't have a weapon and despite the way that they had been ten feet apart the entire time, she could still feel that strange sensation like prey facing up to its predator. Sharp cunning and power that she couldn't match in that kind of situation, not yet at least.

Yami glanced over her shoulder as she headed up the stairs, pausing and peering out the window but finding nothing; she hadn't really expected anything but she had figured it was worth a shot anyways.

The library was more alive than it had been; a class had slipped in to take the computers that she passed on her way to get her books and when she took a seat, she swore there were more people in the room than she had been expecting.

For fifty minutes she sat around doing homework and wondering at what exactly it was that she could do at the moment. In all honesty, she didn't really think she had many options if she was going to stay alone in this like she planned; she didn't want any of them to get hurt and it was making her skin crawl with frustration now that she was left in the dark with this entire situation.

Then again, she loved the dark.

She could make the darkness work for her if she was smart about it, careful enough with the idea of sorting her way through it all.

She had always been a planner, a strategist to the core, a quick learner and smart enough to figure out when a plan wouldn't work in her favor. She wasn't stupid. All she needed to do was stop letting it get under her skin and really focus on what she was going to do, on what her options truly were.

Yami headed into the hallway with them as the bell rang, ignoring all of them as they brushed past her on all sides, tapping her nail softly against the back of her binder and chewing her cheek. The clicking it provided was comforting for the moment though she was glad to be rid of it the moment that she got to her locker and found that the hallway was not nearly as full as it normally was.

She turned the dial and pulled the handle, opening it and staring blankly at the note on the inside of the door; at first she assumed he had done it before they had run into each other but realized that it very easily could have been just after as well.

_It's a shame that you don't wear such an expensive gift_.

Yami ignored it for a second, about to start swapping out a couple of folders in her binder before her eyes drifted and caught the bottom of the note.

_Check your pocket, little rose_.

She ground her teeth together and tore the note off; Yugi would be around in a few moments and she refused to let him see it, instead slipping it into her pocket and feeling the thin chain of the necklace against the tips of her fingers.

Of course.

No wonder he had run into her.

He had wanted to _personally _deliver the little gift.

Yami narrowed her eyes into slits and sorted through her binder, dropping off some of the folders and clenching her jaw for a moment as she grabbed her backpack. How nice.

He was watching again.

She didn't bother trying to figure out where he was; it wasn't worth the energy, instead closing her locker and smiling as Yugi wandered over, coming to her side and brushing arms with her.

"Ready to go home, aibou?"

Yami nodded once and resisted the urge to tell him that it was okay and he didn't have to worry so much, that it was fine and the nickname wasn't needed so keenly.

But doing so ran the risk of making Yugi feel that much worse and besides that, she loved the word when he said it.

She shrugged the impulse off and threw the strap of her bag on; she almost invited him back to the house but with the way that her stalker was trying to psyche her out, she found it hard to believe that he had left her room unscathed.

"Do you want to go by the shop today?" he asked, sounding so uncertain that her heart hurt for a moment.

She hadn't planned on it and she had actually been ready to go home and figure out just what he had left at her house this time, but she felt the guilt in her stomach at the realization that Yugi would feel so much worse if she rejected the offer and she didn't want that to happen either…

"Sure. But only until around six or seven," she replied, trying to keep from sighing and feeling completely hopeless with the situation that existed between the two of them now. "Then I need to get back home and do homework and stuff like that."

_Stuff like that_…

Wow. She was so quick on her feet today.

Yugi blinked at her phrasing, furrowing his brows and glancing at her with a confused look, but he didn't question it and she didn't offer an explanation so they fell silent until the group wandered over.

* * *

"Yugi?!"

"Yami? What's wrong?"

The red-eyed girl stared at the bed for a moment and then breathed in a small sigh of relief; thank the gods. Yugi was fine. "Nothing, I was just calling to see if you were okay…?"

Was that what she should have said?

There were rose petals all thrown across her bed, but they were put in the form of letters, a threat of _Beautiful how red these petals are, yes_? _Like blood. Think it's the same color if it's Yugi's being shed next_?

She had ended up panicking the moment before she remembered her phone was in her pocket and had pulled it out to call him, startled and now so terribly relieved that she couldn't think straight for a moment.

"What? Yeah, I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be…?"

"I don't know. I just thought…" She laughed awkwardly. "Never mind."

"Yami, what—?"

"Nothing, don't worry about it."

Yugi stayed quiet for a second. "Aibou…"

She cringed and shook her head, leaning against the nightstand for a moment. "I just…I guess I just had a second where I thought that something had happened. I don't…never mind, it was stupid anyways," she muttered.

"But…" He paused and she could hear a kid wandering around in the shop, talking to Solomon about something or other in an overly excited voice that made Yami grow slightly more relieved, relaxing the smallest bit though her muscles were still too bunched up to completely give ground. "You're sure, aibou? I don't…I mean, if you…"

"No, no, Yugi, I promise I'm fine," she muttered, staring at the flower petals and tapping her free hand against the top of the nightstand. "I guess I just freaked myself out for a second. It's okay. I promise I'm okay."

Yugi stayed quiet for a second and she could hear him drumming his fingers against the glass display case now, his grandpa and the kid still talking somewhere in the background. "If you say so…"

"I would tell you if I wasn't okay."

When the hell had she started lying to him?

"Okay…"

Yami bit her lip to keep from drowning in the unsure guilty tone that lingered in Yugi's voice.

"_Although,_ now that I have you on the phone," she commented, leaning back and crossing her legs, tilting her head and smirking slightly.

"Hmm?"

"I am kind of curious about something."

"Ask away, aibou."

"Was Joey the one who told you about me and Vivian fighting or was your grandpa?"

Yugi snickered. "Joey. He was so freaking excited about how you and she got into that fight that it was amazing. He said you were a _real _scrapper and kicked her ass." His voice grew slightly warm with affection and a small bit of amusement. "I guess he's never really seen you when you get really pissed, huh?"

"I'm only disappointed I didn't have a stapler to get her in the forehead again."

"That is so cruel."

"Whatever. You know it's true. I wish there was another stapler."

He laughed warmly in her ear for a moment and then trailed off for a moment. "Um…Can I ask what exactly got you and Tea into…that…this morning? I mean, I don't…"

"I confronted her," Yami admitted, slightly dismissive of the subject. "I got frustrated and I decided to confront her."

"No one got hurt?"

"No."

"Hmm…"

"You almost seem disappointed."

She swore he heard him mutter something under his breath before he murmured, "Of course not, you guys don't need to fight."

"If she doesn't stop getting into our business, I'm going to put her in her place," Yami hissed. "I'm getting tired of this passive-aggressive crap she has going on."

"Please don't," Yugi muttered. "I don't want you two fighting. She's still one of my best friends even if you guys are having…issues."

"Issues? Is that what you call it?'

"I don't have a better word for it at the moment…"

"Take it or leave it, my best offer is that is she comes after me at any point—baited into it or not—"

"Fucking hell."

"—I'm going to knock her around a little bit. Okay?"

"She's not going to do something like—"

"You weren't there this morning."

Yugi sighed softly and Yami pursed her lips.

"I'm not going to ask you to pick sides or anything. I just…I figured I would warn you. She's starting to piss me off with how much meddling she does."

"Meddling?"

"Constantly asking you how we are."

Yugi stayed quiet for a moment, voice coming out slightly surprised and completely innocent, more than a little dubious. "I thought she just did that because she was genuinely curious…Like she cared or something…"

"Oh no, don't get it confused. She does care and she is curious but it's not as innocent as you would think. Half of it is because she's one of your best friends. The other half is because she's still crushing on you."

"…Girls are too hard to understand. I need to figure out how to change my orientation."

"…You breaking up with me?"

"No, of course not! I meant that I'll pay for your surgery and—"

"Oh my god!" Yami laughed. "You little asshole. You couldn't just become a girl instead?"

"Are you shitting me, Yami? Didn't you _just _hear me? I said _girls _are too hard to understand. If I can't understand them now, I can't do it after a surgery either and…Oh my god, this woman keeps staring at me like I just killed her cat. I need to stop talking about this now."

"You're traumatizing some poor lady. Good job Yugi."

"Shut up you. Oh my god—no, no, not you, ma'am!"

"You shouldn't be on the phone when there are people in the shop," Yami laughed, rolling her eyes and glancing at the petals on the bed.

_Beautiful how red these petals are, yes_? _Like blood. Think it's the same color if it's Yugi's being shed next_?

She tried to figure out if maybe there was a connection between that statement and the rose she had accidentally painted red with her blood. The one that he too had apparently pricked his finger and smothered his blood on.

Yami chewed her cheek and closed her eyes tightly.

"Oh you're just trying to get rid of me because you don't want to become a guy."

She choked and Yugi paused for a second before groaning softly.

"Goddamn it. At this rate I'm going to end up alienating the entire female population."

"…Allow me to pull an overly attached girlfriend statement and say that's good because I'm the only girl you need."

He choked, laughing, and then hissed, "_Shit_! Oh my god, this woman is telling her husband about how she thinks I'm apparently mental because no girl would want to date me with the mouth that I have."

Yami burst out laughing. "That is great."

"No it's not!" he whined. "It is not great! Someone is going to call an asylum for me soon enough!"

"I'll write you."

"You little shit."

"I am, I am." She glanced at the rose petals and narrowed her eyes for a moment. How many roses would that have taken? She could have tried to count the petals and then compared them with the ones in her drawer, but her eyes wandered and narrowed as they settled on a bouquet of twenty-one on her windowsill, alerting her to the fact that it was partially opened. "I embrace that title wholeheartedly."

"Yeah, I bet you do," Yugi sniped, groaning as his grandpa started laughing somewhere off in the background noise of the shop; it had become pretty obvious to her now that her boyfriend was manning the register and Solomon was talking about the merchandise, giving any and all information he had about the items his customers were interested in.

"Ssh, don't alert the woman to the fact that you've escaped the asylum."

"I have not e—You sneaky little shit. I see what you tried to do there!"

"Damn. I thought that might work."

"You've got to try harder to sneak one on me!"

"Really? I don't think that's true. But I'll pretend to believe that for your sake, yeah?"

"That's all I ask."

"Good because that's all I'll offer."

"Then we're agreed."

"Yeah, I guess we are."

She tilted her head and stared at the flowers that were still in one piece. He was sending such random amounts…

She shook the idea off and turned her attention back to the phone. "If you're actually busy—"

"No!"

Yami blinked in shock and stared at the phone for a moment, eyes wide.

"I—I mean…no, don't. I…I wouldn't be able to concentrate if you hung up," he muttered in explanation. "I'd be worried."

She opened her mouth to ask what he meant and then remembered the state that she had actually called him in; she had been panting the moment that he had answered and her voice had been so breathy and panicked that she wasn't surprised he was still a little concerned.

"Stay on the phone with me, Yami…"

"Okay," she agreed immediately; anything to help alleviate the fear that she had accidentally inflicted on him. "Of course."

"Good." He paused. "Thank you."

Yami shook her head mutely though he couldn't see her, closing her eyes tightly and feeling sick to her stomach for a moment. She supposed it was honestly a stupid idea to think that he would have settled when she had. He was still worried as he always was when it came to her, always stretching momentary concern into prolonged amounts of time.

She fiddled with the idea of looking the roses over for a card but the petals on the bed were a clear enough message; he'd gotten them spread out and forming the letters and an accompanying card would have been useless and stupid.

At least he cared a little about the environment apparently.

She fought off a snort at her own thought, rolling her eyes.

"So what are you going to do all day?"

"Watch movies after I finish my homework."

"You still haven't finished…?"

She cast a small glance at the clock; Tuesdays meant later hours at the game shop. She had honestly forgotten what time it was and thought it was around four or something akin to that, not nearly eight.

"I got distracted."

"Oh yeah?"

"…I like teaching Nightshade new things, okay?"

Yugi chuckled softly in her ear and she resisted the urge to purr at the noise, instead thinking hard about what she was going to do. A list. She needed a list of all the guys who had had a crush on her at one point at their school.

She bit back a groan of dissatisfaction.

That was going to be such a small list it would be pathetic.

There were only a handful of guys out of their entire school who had ever actually had a crush on her at any point.

If she was honest with herself, she thought maybe the sum—excluding Yugi—was about four or five maybe? Six at the most.

She swallowed hard; between the three of the girls in their group, she was the least noticed. Her eyes were always complimented or commented on as being somewhat strange, but that had never been enough to warrant as much attention as Mai and Tea accumulated all the time. In elementary Tea had been the center of attention with those wide azure eyes and brown hair, a heart-shaped face and fair skin. In middle it was Mai because she had filled out over summer one year and she had gotten curves and breasts and her hair had gotten shiny and her violet eyes had become impossible to ignore when she wore mascara. Yami had always been somewhere in the background, watching as guys sometimes all but threw themselves at the other two.

She didn't know if it was because she was dating Yugi back then too or if it was simply because she was unattractive or what. Either way, the entire thing was one massive sore subject for her and made her skin crawl with frustration and unhappiness.

Yami may have hated attention, but the fact that it was so scarce for her to find in the first place was rather disheartening growing up. She was always in the shadows unless it was granted to her by Yugi or one of the group, which had escalated to everything short of pure anger from Tea while Mai had grown a little…strange around her since Joey had stupidly made that joke about how her rejecting him was probably the best thing she had ever done for him.

She could list most of the male population chasing Tea and Mai despite the fact that Tea was only interested in Yugi and Mai was happily dating Joey.

"Yeah? What did you teach him?"

"To say that he was a stupid bird."

Yugi burst out laughing. "What?"

"I never said it was _productive_, okay?"

"Wow. That is so mean."

She scoffed softly, laughing around the edges, and headed for the desk in the corner of her room, digging through and pulling out a small notepad, flipping the pages and grabbing a pen from the cup resting next to her closed laptop.

All the guys that she knew of ever having a crush on her at one point or another.

_Tristan, Duke, Critias, Timaeus, Hermos, Marik, Joey_.

She stared at the list and really tried to think of anyone else.

Nope.

That was the…seven of them.

One more than she had thought initially.

She rolled her eyes and crossed out Tristan and Joey's names immediately, following it with Marik's as well when she remembered that he was leaving on Friday as it was. Four guys.

She wanted to hang her head but she also wanted to laugh and part of her was so low that she almost gave in to the desire to burst into tears for a second.

What a lame little impulse.

She rolled her eyes and rewrote Duke, Timaeus, Hermos and Critias's names further down, listing off all the things that she knew about them, which was hardly much to actually merit her paying attention to them in the first place.

Duke was the school playboy, he was constantly flirting and teasing but he never really did much past that. He had about three steady relationships, didn't cheat aside from flirting, and commonly didn't bother with much more than messing around and somehow managing to keep his marks high. He was not left-handed.

Critias, Hermos, and Timaeus all were brothers. They were called the "Three Knights" after a Halloween party the year before where they had gone in knight costumes and had won the prize of fifty bucks for dressing up the best.

Critias was quiet, sarcastic, smart and rarely interacted with others. He liked to think more than he did talk, liked to take notes more than just making idle chitchat. He apparently had a girl somewhere from…wherever it was that they had moved from. He was left-handed.

Hermos was loud, rambunctious, playful and pretty much like Joey to a point though he took pranks way too far and had literally covered the entire lunchroom in corn syrup one day out of boredom. He flirted heavily, had random hookups every now and then but didn't really talk about it with his friends, played a sport that Yami didn't care to know about, and commonly hung out with the most popular kids in their school. He was not left-handed.

Timaeus was somewhat awkward because he was terribly shy at times, was mostly quiet, had a sweet temperament, liked to help everyone out, was smart as hell, and was sometimes easily embarrassed. He didn't really talk to girls much but it was mentioned a couple of times that he had hooked up with some girl at another school district during a party. There were rumors that went around every now and then that he was gay but he neither denied nor confirmed them. He had three classes with her and normally got the highest marks in each of them. He had that strange beautiful handwriting and he was left-handed…

"Yami?"

"Yes?"

"Are you okay? You kind of went silent for a minute there."

'I'm fine, Yugi," she murmured, sitting back in her seat and chewing her cheek; this was to a very productive list. Timaeus and Critias were both so much taller than the idiot that had bumped into her so harshly earlier. No, neither of them were her little stalker.

* * *

**And THAT is the fifth chapter of Umbral Oath. Just note that the story is probably going to get confusing at times but it'll be for a reason. Anyways, feel free to ask questions or tell me how I did. Because female Yami is not a common thing so it feels a little strange xD**


	6. Warnings

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything relating to Yu-Gi-Oh**

**Warning: Cursing can go from mild to mass amounts at times**

**Note: There will be blood in later chapters, mentions of sex, and possible lemons...**

**Keep in mind that Yami is a GIRL. So she worries about GIRLY things and has these things. Called INSECURITIES. They happen. She has them. Because she's human.**

**As far as the group dynamics go, by the way, things are strained and iffy and will be explained throughout the story so keep that in mind.**

**SO sorry for the late update *pretends it hasn't been months* Life got difficult and then the writer's block set in for this and The Distraction so I'm just getting back into writing for the moment.**

* * *

Chapter VI:Warnings

Yami didn't have to think to know that something was extremely wrong when she woke up; at first she feigned sleeping a little longer, mentally preparing herself for whatever she was about to find amiss there. She slowly peeked through her lashes, taking in first the wall she was immediately facing and then dragging her eyes along it to the door and further to the mirror, the desk…

She strained her hearing for a moment, hoping for a slight shift of weight or breathing or something, but found nothing. She listened for a minute longer and then finally sat upright, looking all around the room.

The window was slightly open, just enough for cold air to get in.

But everything else seemed to be in its rightful place.

Yami rolled her eyes; maybe she was overreacting. Maybe the stress was starting to get to her just like it had when she had started in on Yugi before. Or maybe she was just tired; she hadn't slept well, after all. She'd dreamed of feathers and blood and white rose petals painted bright red. And Nightshade's voice, screeching, "Yami, evermore, Y is for Yami" in his voice, that strained pitch that came with the awkward attempt to mimic her stalker, and her own.

Her attention was caught by a movement in the corner of her eye, head snapping towards it and staring in complete irritation. Her phone screen was now that of falling petals, all of them bright red and appearing almost abstract in shape if she wasn't focused completely, taking on the form of something like droplets when she looked away for a moment. They no longer sustained the soft curves and delicate veins of flower in favor of looking more liquid for a split second. There was a collection of thick rose stems with large, somewhat awkwardly shaped thorns, all of them forming the words _Guess again, my little rose_ in a deep green that was almost traumatizing to the eye.

For a moment she had no idea what to do about it, really staring blankly at the screen and tilting her head with a small frown. Maybe Tristan could help her out; he was a little tech geek, after all. Maybe he could figure out where the picture had come from, if it was from a website or her stalker had personally made it or what was going on exactly. She wondered vaguely if the phone was even going to be usable anymore, worried that perhaps he had damaged it in the meantime. If he had stripped it of functions, she was going to be _pissed_.

Either way, she wasn't going to touch it more than necessary in order to just put it in her pocket and get it to school. She'd ask Tristan for help when she saw him and hopefully she could work out some kind of solution from there. If she could figure out how to track his IP address, maybe hack his hard drive, she could possibly get an idea of who the hell was messing with her. Then again, that could also backfire horribly on her behalf too. What could she expect to find on that computer if she could manage it? He could have a million and one different pictures of her. What if he did? That kind of level of creepiness didn't sit right with her and she was honestly worried it would screw with her head if she saw that much.

Then again, he had sent her that envelope with the pictures…

So it was pretty clear that he had a collection of them.

But if it turned out to be more than just her walking with the group or wandering around Domino by herself or playing around with Yugi, she had to question if she could really deal with it. What if he had pictures of her and Yugi making love or of her asleep? How big a violation of her privacy could she actually handle? She could force herself to work her way through it and figure out something along the lines of all but banishing the images from her mind, but she highly doubted it would do her enough good to actually deal with it all when it came down to it. When she avoided and pushed through things without trying, that was generally when she got backlash and repercussions that were almost too much for her to really handle. And she needed to be on her toes and ready if this wasn't some kind of sick joke of a stalker that just wanted to screw up her relationship with Yugi and weasel their way into her life. If he actually meant that he would hurt Yugi then she had to keep her head on straight and pushing through it all wouldn't cut it at any rate. The backlash and emotional buildup would bite her in the ass so hard that she wouldn't be able to think straight, something that commonly happened when it came down to it.

But with that train of thought came the realization that she had already started doing that without even meaning to. It was a natural defense mechanism, something that she hardly even had control over, and now she was really starting to feel sick. She wasn't talking to anyone because when it came down to it she doubted that anyone would really care to take it seriously, especially since she honestly wouldn't either. In all actuality she would probably assume anyone telling her this kind of thing was overreacting until the last second when something happened, when she was _forced _to believe it.

But how long was she supposed to wait? She was stubborn and knew that she would push it away and suppress it and try to keep control of it all without outside help. And that would either lead to it blowing up in her face or forcing her to her knees at one point or other. If she could try to be a step ahead of her stalker, she might be able to avoid all of that in one shot, and she could maybe manage that if she could figure out how he was getting in and out of her house and what videos he was getting from his little cameras. Honestly, when it came down to it, she was both freaked and curious and more than a little frustrated with the whole situation. If she could work her way to get a step ahead, then it might just be easy enough that it would come natural to her, like it did with games in general.

But she had to doubt the sincerity of that thought now as well.

Yami shook those ideas off and glanced at her phone again. The rose petals were still falling, the deep green so vibrant that it hurt her eyes till made up the stems that were all twisted and wound around each other to make the words. The thorns still looked sharp and menacing even from behind the glass.

_Guess again_.

Guess again at what?

She stared at the screen for a long moment, mind very slowly trying to assess the comment and feeling stupid when it all but slapped her across the face with realization; the list. Her little stalker had seen it and he was telling her that he wasn't one of the boys on that sheet of paper.

Great.

So not only had she come up wrong but he also knew exactly what she had been doing in the meantime in an attempt to figure out who he was; that wasn't alarming or off-putting at all.

Vaguely she recalled that this could also be a good thing, that maybe it was a good idea to exploit this; it meant that he frequently visited. It meant that he was still interested in messing with her head, playing this game with her like this. It also meant that he was seriously attempting or at least hoping to get to meet her at one point or another. That was a good thing if she could make it seem as if she was interested despite the obvious disdain she had already showed him. If she could just make it seem like she was interested in response, then maybe she could lure him to her.

And then what?

She still had no fucking idea what she would do if she even managed that.

He could damn well kill her or kidnap her or really just do _anything _if she wasn't careful. And she didn't really know, but she was willing to bet all of the money she had that he wouldn't be happy with her little plans, especially if he got his hands on her.

Yami narrowed her eyes.

He had threatened Yugi and it wouldn't surprise her if that threat extended to her as well if she was to mess up. But then, what exactly was it that she was supposed to be doing? What was it that he wanted from her?

There wasn't anything that he could really get from her if he didn't mean something along the lines of money. If he was actually stalking her for money, then that was easy. Her dad was the ambassador and there was a lot of money that was in her trust fund and just in general around the house. Maybe he was just messing with her head to freak her out enough that she would be easy to kidnap.

If she got paranoid enough, then it was highly possible she could make a mistake and get herself screwed over by the entire thing. It was possible—as she had seen in movies and read in books, well, if those were even reliable sources when it came down to it—that he could get so far under her skin that she would try to avoid other people, leaving herself wide open to him if she wasn't careful.

That still raised the question of what he actually wanted with her. Money? Sex? A relationship? To hold her prisoner and make her his permanently?

She had no fucking idea what to do with any of those thoughts.

Yami shook it off and got up, staring at the screen for a moment before sighing loudly, a long and slow exhale that was far too much noise for her liking. She studied the room for a moment, taking in the window and chewing her cheek. If she were to attempt talking to her dad about a security system, it would require her explaining this entire situation and she couldn't do that.

What if he had bugged the place further?

If there were microphones around the house for him to listen in, and he heard, then no doubt he would also know the code when it was entered regardless. He would also have the chance to grow angry and possibly violent if she was not careful.

And who actually knew what he was capable of?

Stalkers were supposed to be unpredictable, too smart for their own good, dangerous to a fault, and liked to get their way, right?

At least that was what she knew from things she had learned from reading and television. She hadn't looked up the subject aside from helping Joey once with one small assignment two years ago but that had been famous cases in which several celebrities had been murdered by their stalkers and things had gotten out of hand and fucked up as all hell.

And she honestly didn't plan to let things get that far.

She wasn't really sure what she might have to do, but if she was forced to, she would easily hurt someone else who threatened her. It wasn't anything aside from common knowledge and instinct at this point, but either way, she would do it if she had to.

She was, of course, hoping that she wouldn't have to, but she doubted that it would be easily resolved when it came down to it.

And that meant that she had to prepare for the worst and try to get ahead by any means possible.

She wasn't about to let Yugi get hurt.

That was out of the question.

* * *

"Tristan."

The brunet stopped short of talking to Tea and Joey and turned around with wide eyes, blinking at her as she messed with the strap of her backpack and unconsciously messed with the phone in her pocket. Of course she hadn't done anything with it further than putting it away and waiting until she could find him, but now she was absently stroking the side of the little white device, suddenly nervous.

She had no idea what she was supposed to say to him about this.

How did you ask for help with this kind of thing?

"Hey, Yami, what's up?"

Joey and Tea both swapped looks but didn't move away and Yami felt her stomach twist; would she look suspicious if she asked him to follow her? It sure as hell would look suspicious if she just stood in front of them and asked the brunet for help…

"Not much." She paused and gave Joey a grin, a rather small and vain attempt at normalcy. "Hey Joey…Tea."

"Hey Yams."

"Don't call me that," she bit out immediately, glaring at him as she always did when he teased her with that nickname. Who in their right mind wanted to have a nickname that when spelled out looked like sweet potatoes? No, that was not okay. "Yami. Ya-mi. Say it with me. _Yami._ No _Yams_. Yami."

The blond started laughing as he always did when she got ruffled by his choice of nickname and she rolled her eyes at him in response, annoyed out of her mind. He really did know how to push her buttons sometimes, didn't he?

"Yami," the brunette acknowledged quietly, awkwardly, eyes lowered to the floor before they shot to her face when Yami glanced at her; a long moment passed between them, staring and unable to look away. Finally the taller girl cleared her throat awkwardly and looked at the two boys who raised their brows and glanced between them, Joey's expression slightly mischievous and excited while Tristan looked a little uneasy by the prospect of tension lingering in the air between them.

"So, what was that little catfight you guys were having yesterday?" he snickered. "Anything that me and Tristan would want to know about?"

"Tristan and _I_," Yami stressed, narrowing her eyes and staring at him; was he trying harder than normal to get a rise out of her? She knew for a fact that he was always excited when he got the idea that any of the girls would fight—Yami, Vivian, Rebecca, Tea, Mai; any girl and he was happy to watch. He didn't try to hide it and she kind of respected him for that but hated that about him all the same. "It's Tristan and _I_, not _me _and Tristan. Learn some fucking grammar already."

"Ooh, someone's not in a good mood," he cooed in a teasing voice, grinning so widely she was almost surprised that his face didn't split with the expression. "Wake up on the wrong side of the bed?"

Yami raised a brow, debating for a moment before taking the unnecessary jab at Tea just to feel a little better about the spat they had had. If she could just assert a little bit more of a claim on Yugi then that was fine. "Woke up without Yugi, so yeah, I guess I am a little cranky," she stated, voice dropping slightly in warning.

Tea cringed slightly and took up the task of letting her eyes drift over the wall behind the red-eyed girl who smirked slightly as Joey snickered and Tristan closed his eyes and shook his head, looking all the more uneasy.

"You know, if you can't get Yugi then you can always have me—"

"How about no?" Yami cut in immediately, rolling her eyes; Joey was harmless, always flirting with her but completely whipped for Mai. It was one of those things that had just become natural in the group, something that wasn't even debated and couldn't even get much of a rise out of Yugi anymore because of how used to it he had grown as well. Mai, on the other hand, often got a little annoyed by it, openly frustrated and not afraid to show Joey just how funny she didn't think it was. But when it came down to it, everyone knew that Joey only really thought of her as a little sister even if he did take liberty of teasing and flirting and annoying the crap out of her in general. "Besides, we wouldn't want _Mai _hearing about you hitting on me again, now would we?"

"Jesus, girls are so vicious," Joey muttered, glancing at Tristan who snickered and shook his head. "Always threatening to have my balls cut off."

"Sometimes you just need a little…motivation to stop flirting with others. It's okay though, we know how horny you are, Joey."

The blond snorted out a laugh. "Aren't you one to talk? I swear, every other time I speak to one of you, you're basking in after glow and shit."

Yami grinned widely and Tea shifted her weight, letting out a soft breath and glancing between the three of them as the red-eyed girl teased, "Jealous much?"

"Oh please, I could get laid just as often," he scoffed, frowning slightly as he considered his next words, brown eyes growing completely concentrated on picking the right ones. "It's just that…Mai isn't always in the mood and you're like—_always _in it."

Tristan burst out laughing and Tea covered her mouth, snickering as Yami narrowed her eyes and the blond stiffened.

"Shit. That's not what I meant."

"That's okay, Joey," she stated, nodding. "Because it's true. I normally am in the mood. Which is why, if we were together, I would break you far too easily."

Joey narrowed his eyes, laughing slightly. "Bullshit. There's no way."

"You can ask Yugi. I tend to ride him at a gallop until his knees buckle and his eyes roll up."

"Oh Jesus," Tristan muttered, eyes widening drastically as he swallowed hard and shifted awkwardly, turning away with a shake of his head.

"_Shit_," Joey hissed, stretching the word out and looking around. "I need to go find Mai."

Yami burst out laughing as he ran off and then looked at Tea who looked slightly disgusted before immediately turning away again; the red-eyed girl didn't have to think about it to know that she was about to walk off as well. Whether she went running off to Yugi or not was a question that she was actually _dying _to know the answer to. But she didn't care enough to ask as the other girl finally turned and wandered off, leaving her alone with Tristan just as she had wanted. She spun on him when he looked at the ceiling and back at her again, looking startled by the fact that she was watching him now.

"What?" he finally got out, voice strained and slightly higher in pitch, awkward to the ears and completely confused.

"I need your help with something." She huffed when he had to look away again, jaw clenched for a moment and shifting his weight again. Guys were just too freaking easy when it came to enticement. Then again, she had to admit that she was rather easily aroused when it came down to it. But only when it concerned Yugi and him teasing her relentlessly or flirting and all _but _asking. "Someone…sent me a video earlier and I can't get it off my phone. It just keeps playing and won't stop."

Tristan turned his head in confusion, staring at her as she supplied him with the device, staring at it curiously before starting to mess with the screen. "It's just a screensaver and…what the hell does that mean exactly?"

"Doesn't matter."

"Yami—"

"It's none of your business, now is it, Tristan?" she snapped coldly. "I want to know how the fuck to get rid of it. But first I want to know if I can trace it. I want to know if you have any way of figuring out who sent it to me."

"Okay, okay, calm down," the brunet muttered, shaking his head at her for a moment, not completely put off by her attitude but not dismissing it either. "Tell me how you got it first of all."

"It was in my email this morning. I opened it and this started playing."

He didn't look like he believed her in the slightest, raising a brow but not asking. "I could try tracking it but it would take a couple of days. I don't think I've ever heard of something like this happening before…"

Yami chewed her cheek; a few days without her phone? That made her beyond vulnerable. At least with it on her she was still able to call the police at any second if her stalker suddenly decided to make himself known…

Though, maybe that didn't do her much good anyways. If he got her in a secluded spot, then he obviously wouldn't let her stay on the phone long enough to allow them to track it and she doubted that he would spare the phone in meantime…

But it did give her a small bit of security, no matter how false it was.

"Never mind," she muttered, sighing softly. "It isn't that important anyways."

"…Are you sure? I mean, I said it would take a couple of days but maybe I could try to speed it up or something…?"

"Yeah, it's fine. Just tell me how to delete it and I'll be fine."

"All right…" He hesitated for a moment and then shook his head slowly. "I think you should probably get a new phone, Yami. I'm pretty sure that they probably hacked it if it's been on all this time."

Yami blinked and then scowled, frustrated; why hadn't she thought of that herself?

"Yeah, I'll do that after school."

"Okay. Just, you know, be careful about what you open in emails, okay? I mean, some of them are viruses and stuff like that," Tristan commented, frowning and really studying her. She looked far too stressed for this to have just been a simple little email but calling her out on it would make her lash out at him and he wasn't in the mood for that to happen.

"Yeah, I guess I know that now," she grumbled, a sharp edge to her words that made him cringe mentally; she watched him go about sorting through a few apps and download a new one, using it to get rid of the screensaver. "Thank you for helping me out."

"Sure, but you know, you should get some antivirus on that…and a security program or something."

She looked it over for a moment. "Can that actually prevent me getting hacked again?"

"Yeah, most of them can."

"Then I guess I'll be doing that too when I get the new one."

Tristan nodded and repeated the gesture when she mumbled a thank you and turned away to head for her locker; he was more than a little concerned about her, considering the way that she had been acting lately, but he didn't really have the right to question her. And if he had done so, it would have ended badly in the first place. Probably the only one whose head she wouldn't snap off would be Yugi's if he was to ask her about it but then again, the blue-violet-eyed boy was still pretty shaken up by the fight that they had had before so there was a high chance he would avoid confrontation with her at all costs.

He sighed and shook his head, heading off for homeroom with a glance at her over his shoulder; she was glaring at her phone, shaking her head and tapping her nails against the locker.

She was definitely lying and he wanted to ask, but he knew it wasn't his right to.

* * *

Yugi was close enough that they brushed jackets but no one was oblivious to the fact that he hadn't made a move to actually touch her, that he was carefully picking and choosing his words as if he was afraid she would smack him at any moment. Tristan found it painful just watching them interact at the moment, Joey found it more than a little amusing to see that Yugi was whipped like this, Tea felt slightly guilty and looked up at them once or twice but always turned away again, and Mai found it almost ridiculous that they were behaving this way.

"Okay, what the fuck is wrong with you two?" the blonde finally snapped, violet eyes narrowing into slits as Yugi and Yami both looked up and stared at her with expressions that told her very clearly to drop it. "Does this have to do with what Yami and Tea were fighting about yesterday?"

"Babe, I don't think—" Joey started.

"Hush." She shot them both a glare. "This is ridiculous. Yugi looks like he's afraid to even breathe the wrong way and you look like you want to stab something. So, either of you want to explain what the hell is going on?"

Yami sat up slightly. "I honestly don't see how it's any of your business, Mai," she muttered coldly. "Let's just say I'm in a bad mood and leave it at that, shall we?"

"No, how about you explain what's going on? I swear Yugi looks like he's scared you'll punch him if he touches you. And right about now, I can honestly see that happening."

The red-eyed girl narrowed her eyes and opened her mouth but her boyfriend was the one to mumble, "It's nothing. There's nothing wrong. I'm just tired and she's in a bad mood."

"Oh bull—"

"_Seriously_, Mai," the blue-violet-eyed boy snapped, voice growing sharp and angry. "I'm tired and she's in a bad mood. I had a ton of homework last night and her teacher is being a bitch. Now just leave it alone."

"That's such crap," the blonde huffed, rolling her eyes and shaking her head.

"Babe—"

She ignored him and leaned forward, studying them both closely with a small mischievous grin. "Oh my god, are you two about to break up or something?" she laughed, voice taking on a slightly cruel note, far too pleased with the possibility; Yami bristled and Yugi looked at her for a second as if she might jump over the table at any moment.

"Oh, so I guess you heard about the conversation in the hallway, huh?" Yami spat, leaning forward and narrowing her eyes while Yugi studied her face and then quickly covered her mouth before she could go any further. Joey and Tristan both stared at him as if they had just witnessed daddy smacking mommy at the dinner table and Mai and Tea both went bug-eyed. The blue-violet-eyed teen had never done something like this before, something that was apparent on Yami's face as well as she turned wide eyes on him and blinked a few times.

He gave a small, weak smile and pulled his hand away, rubbing at her back for a moment with a quiet, "Let's not get into that right now, okay? I'm really tired."

Yami stared at him and narrowed her eyes but turned away just as fast, sniping, "There, we're touching, are you happy now, Mai?"

"Very," the blonde muttered, sounding confused but a little amused.

The smaller girl rolled her eyes and leaned forward, pushing her tray away and propping her elbows on the table with her chin in her hands, chewing her cheek as Yugi's hand came to a rest at the center of her spine before moving to her side. He was hesitating, something that annoyed the shit out of her, almost enough to turn her head and snap at him, but instead she resisted huffing loudly and moved closer to him, pressing into his side.

She had already told him that she didn't care about their little fight anymore but of course he was still on edge and worried about it; he always was when they got into a spat, no matter how small it really was. Of course, she couldn't consider him accusing her of cheating as small but it still wasn't something that she was about to make a massive deal over. She had already moved on, left it behind her, and she had no intentions of digging it up again later. It wasn't worth it in the first place and she always hated it when they fought anyways.

Yami didn't snuggle into him but she had never been one for public displays of affection anyways, so it was nothing new for Yugi who instead stroked his hand up and down her side, under her school jacket. It was just gossamer enough that it didn't drag her shirt up to show off her skin, warm little taps of his fingers over the thin fabric, neither catching nor holding.

"Hey, so you guys want to go to the arcade later?" Joey asked, cutting into the silence that had settled over their small group while the rest of the table continued chattering loudly.

"I can't," Yugi said with a shrug. "I'm helping Grandpa with the shop and my dad is supposed to be coming in—"

"Aw, can't Marik help him? I'm sure your parents won't mind it if you're a little late to see them," the blond argued, dead set on this already; it didn't take much to know that he was going to keep pushing. "I mean, your parents are pretty cool, right? Your mom is pretty awesome so I mean, your dad can't be too different, right?"

Yugi gave him a frown. "I haven't seen him in a year, Joey. He's always overseas. I was actually planning to spend the day with him—he'll only be here for a week or two. I don't have that much time to be with him…"

Yami turned her head and watched him from the corner of her eye; he was lying. If his dad was coming home for a little while, she would have been the first to know, whether he felt guilty about their little fight or not. He would have told her immediately after finding out because he had a strained relationship with his dad because of all the time he was away overseas in the states; plus, his dad seemed to have a soft spot for her when it came down to it. Yugi's parents commonly argued about their relationship, not even pretending that she wasn't in the room when they did so, and Yugi liked to have her with him whenever he was around. So Yugi was obviously trying to avoid the arcade.

She watched his face for a long moment and then smiled slightly in amusement; he didn't want to go because of the last time they had been there. When she hadn't been so pleased and had first gotten one of her little notes. He didn't want to have to sit there with them and pretend that the spot didn't make him feel a little sick to his stomach after their little fight. Probably he marked that as the moment that the fight had really started up, despite the fact that the spat hadn't happened until later.

She opened her mouth to say that she was going to home after school after the blond turned to her with a pointed stare, demanding that she join them, but then she caught a movement in the corner of her eye. She tuned her head, searching for the little disturbance that had her attention, and then froze in place.

There he was.

Right across the cafeteria, with his hood drawn up, leaning against the wall and watching her; fucking hell, what was he even doing here?

She glanced around for a moment and then leaped to her feet when he started to walk off; if he thought that he could get away with watching her so closely he had another thing coming. Besides, she was still pissed about her phone as it was.

_Bastard_.

"Yami?" Yugi muttered, eyes wide as she took off after him; for a moment he was frozen in his seat and then he cursed under his breath. What was she doing?

He debated following, hesitating for a long minute before finally getting up and hurrying after her. Tea called his name but the others looked a little too surprised to do much and from what he could tell without turning around none of them were following him.

Yugi cursed again when he saw just how many people were in the hallways, wandering around; he was pretty sure some of them were stragglers and others were just free a period. Apparently one of the teachers hadn't come to class and they had just started roaming around.

He looked both ways, eyes wide and stomach churning in annoyance; why couldn't this be a week where they were free to wear whatever they wanted? At least that way he would be able to tell her apart. All he had to go on at the moment was her short stature and hair and he couldn't find any sign of her anywhere…

He chose his left randomly, running and looking around quickly. He couldn't tell where the hell she had gone but at least this way he could check the hallways around him to make sure she hadn't wandered down one of them.

It was honestly only after he had spotted her heading into the library that it suddenly occurred to him to question _why _she was running in the first place. Obviously she had to be chasing something or someone, right? After all she wasn't looking behind her to see if something was chasing her…

Yugi shook the idea off; he'd ask why when he caught up with her.

His stomach twisted, his gut instinct saying something was immediately wrong as he stepped inside; something about the entire area made his skin crawl and his heart skip a beat. What the hell was going on?

He let his eyes wander, taking in the computers and the bookshelves, tilting his head as he hurried to find her. Something was making alarms go off in his head and he wasn't about to let anything happen to her if she wasn't already aware of the situation she could have potentially just walked in on…

Yugi wandered a few steps, looking around again and chewing his cheek; so many freaking aisles to check; Domino High was actually notorious for having a massive selection of books, more than most of the surrounding schools, and there were two sets of shelves. There was the first level and the second, where the reference books were kept and in an opposing direction to the first…

He chewed his cheek as he slipped through the small doorway and into the second room, his gut twisting violently as the alarms grew twice as loud and his head started ringing for a moment. Something was so much worse here…

He pushed down the impulse to call her name, instead glancing around for a split second and moving to the right wall; he could look down the aisles this way rather than facing all of the books as he had been when he had walked in.

His footsteps were too loud for him, ears ringing with the movement and his stomach churning. The small teen quickened his pace for a moment, eyes scanning widely through the entire series of aisles, catching sight of her immediately. She didn't seem to realize he was there, searching for something, looking around herself constantly as if someone was there…

Something creaked.

Yugi's head snapped around, confused by the noise, by the thud that accompanied it.

The sound of wood colliding hit his ears, another creak, the sound of another thud that sounded more like a million weights being dropped.

The shelves were collapsing…

He shot forward without thinking it just as Yami's head snapped around, alarmed by the noise as well. Her expression turned into one of complete confusion and disbelief, startled and horrified, mouth opening slightly as her eyes widened drastically and her body going completely stiff. Yugi slammed into her hard enough to throw them both, but not fast enough to avoid the collision completely. Yami yelped in confusion as they hit the ground but in a split second movement they were rolling. Yugi clipped his shoulder against the bookshelf to his left when they settled, covering her instinctively.

The books slammed into him like a shower of rocks. The sound of pages tearing as pain sparked through his system had his teeth gritted together and his breath coming out in a long, low hiss. Yami thankfully remained completely frozen underneath him, not once struggling, and Yugi winced as a book clipped his shoulder hard enough that it almost threw his balance off.

He cringed at the noise and the impact, groaning under his breath and waiting it out until things finally seemed to settle some. There was a sound like footsteps, probably the person who had pushed the shelves to fall over like this or a random student who had just witnessed the scene, and Yugi listened until his ears felt strained. For a long minute he could hear nothing but his own frantic heartbeat, the blood pounding in his ears, Yami's slightly breathless pant and the way her heart was skipping and seemed to falter a few times…

Yugi wasn't even sure when he had closed his eyes but he was aware of how much of an effort it took for him to actually open them again. At first his vision was fuzzy and doubled, the adrenaline still coursing through his veins for a split second before it settled again slowly. His entire body throbbed with pain as he tried to gather a little bit of a bearing on the situation.

Yami was still panting softly beneath him, as if that rolling maneuver had taken everything out of her and he wouldn't have been surprised if that and the shock of the situation had done her in for the moment.

"Shit," he muttered, trying to move and finding himself completely encased by books and the fallen case. Yami watched him with wild eyes for a second and then started to slowly squeeze herself out from under him. She dragged herself a few feet back, pulling herself into a seated position against the bare wall.

"You're going to have to lower your stomach to the floor," she whispered, studying his face as he glanced at how close the entire shelf was to his skin. "And then crawl out."

That wasn't too much of a problem; he was already all but pressed against the ground as it was. Half of him was still amazed that he _wasn't _pressed completely, feeling sick to his stomach as he tried to figure out how to move again.

Shit. He was pretty sure his spine had just gone rigid on him.

He blinked; the situation was finally catching up to him, apparently. The fear was gripping him now, the adrenaline and its rush of action faded completely. He couldn't move…

Yami shuffled forward on her hands and knees, staring at him for a moment before reaching her hand out. "Come on, Yugi," she muttered, lightly grasping at his arm and tugging on the fabric gently as if she was afraid to startle him.

It took him a minute to realize why that sensation was familiar despite the way that his body was still completely frozen. Yami had grabbed him, pulled him down when they had stopped moving, so that he wouldn't get his head smashed into by the shelf…

She'd attempted to help him as much as she could, probably saved him from a massive concussion…

"Yugi, come on," she repeated, tightening her grip on the material of his jacket and lightly tugging; for a moment he couldn't understand why she wasn't pulling him out with that little movement before remembering that she had little to no upper body strength. Most of her strength was focused in her legs and she had no real chance of pulling him out like this…

He struggled to remember how to breathe for a moment, eyes flickering around and a shiver passing through him for a single split second. His muscles were completely locked…

"I can't…" he managed to get out, feeling sick to his stomach and amazed that he could even form those words let alone say them.

"You can," Yami argued, nodding once and smiling in encouragement. "Of course you can. You're just a little scared. It's fine."

Yugi stared at her expressionlessly for a second and then shook his head slowly, lowering his eyes to the floor. His muscles were starting to hurt and he could feel the bruises that were forming on his skin already, his flesh aching and feeling unnatural on his body. Oh gods, he was still so completely frozen…

"Hey, hey," the red-eyed girl soothed softly, cooing in a gentle tone that made him turn back towards her. "It's okay. We can just sit here for a few minutes, wait it out. You're okay. Just a little scared."

"Aren't you?" he muttered before he could think it through, again rather amazed by the ability to give form to the words, blinking wide eyes.

She nodded without hesitation and Yugi really searched her face, realizing that her eyes were glittering and close to tears but she was trying to keep herself together for him. "Terrified," she admitted quietly. "But, hey, we're okay. We're…we're fine…"

Yami cleared her throat when her voice cracked, blinking once and swallowing hard to keep back the lump in her throat, searching his face again. Her hand shook from where it was gripping his arm and Yugi lowered his eyes to it, staring blankly for a moment before flexing his fingers out.

Okay, okay, everything seemed to be working when he stretched himself flat against the ground; his body hurt like hell and his ears were ringing again now, alarmed by the state she was in, but he moved to crawl regardless. Yami backed up, moving with him rather than away, and Yugi dragged himself out after a long minute.

The blue-violet-eyed boy turned his head and stared over his shoulder, taking in the spot beneath the shelf that he had just crawled out of, turning back immediately when Yami got to her feet. He would have tried to comfort her but she was already clear-eyed and putting on a mask of complete calm again, refusing to need his reassurance, that independent streak coming into effect instantly.

Yugi had to admit that he both admired and hated this about her. She was too strong to need his reassurance most of the time and refused to let others comfort her. He thought that maybe the last time he had been able to comfort her was when her mother had died when she was ten…

Yami dusted herself off and offered a hand, pulling him to his feet and going about straightening his uniform out and looking him over with a sharp gleam to her eyes like an angered wolf. "You okay?" she demanded, voice taking on a tone that made him freeze in place out of shock.

"I…yeah," he managed when she locked eyes with him, silently demanding an answer and looking pissed at his hesitance. He blinked a few times when she searched his face again and then winced at the dark look that covered her eyes, expression growing troubled and angered and beyond animalistic in rage.

She ducked her head and he swore he could hear her spitting something or other under her breath, a hiss of breath and words that curdled in his ear and made him shiver in alarm. What was she saying? She sounded dangerous and he recognized the tone from right before she had punched Ushio in the face when they were younger and he had picked on Yugi.

Yugi had just been happy that even Ushio didn't have the balls to punch a girl because he had been too tired to do anything to stop him and he was pretty sure the fight wouldn't have stopped if it had actually started…

He shook the idea off and stared at her in confusion; what the hell was going on right now?

He sought through the events in his mind for a long minute; she had followed someone into the library, to the second floor, had gone down into the aisle. He had come a minute after her and she was still looking for whoever had led her there. And the bookshelves had collapsed…

Wait a second.

"Is someone targeting you?" he asked, slightly in disbelief and partially pissed off.

Yami's head snapped up, staring at him with such wide eyes that he almost wanted to flinch; she looked startled by the statement, more than a little horrified and beyond unhappy.

"What?"

"You come in here and the books all fall over," Yugi stated unhappily, glancing at them again and fighting off a shiver; he had no doubt that if Yami hadn't reacted so quickly when he had tackled her then they would both be squished and dead under all those books… "And not to mention you _chased _someone in here and then the damn things collapsed. You really think that I didn't notice?"

"It was a freak accident," Yami stated quietly, shaking her head with a pleading expression. "You know how shitty the bookshelves are in here. They aren't bolted like the others on the first floor. Someone could have just leaned against it the wrong way and they fell like that. I mean, it's not that hard to do…"

"Yami…" He shook his head in response, frowning and sighing softly. "That doesn't…I don't believe that at all."

"I don't feel well," she suddenly muttered, Yugi blinking wide eyes at the way her face was rapidly losing color. "I'm tired…I need…I need to get out of here…"

He opened and closed his mouth once before nodding slowly. "Yeah, okay, come on, we'll skip the rest of the day," he announced, nodding again to keep some kind of normalcy in the situation; he felt like if he wasn't moving or talking, he would end up a mess of limbs and fear and might just fall into some kind of temporary insanity lingering in the back of his mind. "We can go and hang out or something…Want to go get ice cream?"

Yami nodded eagerly, desperate for the distraction. "Yeah, ice cream sounds nice," she muttered, breathing in deeply once before grabbing him into a tight hug; Yugi flinched at some of the pain in his back but returned the embrace, rubbing her back gently and tilting his head slightly, almost thinking he was hearing things when he heard the muttered, "I love you" so soft he had to strain his ears to actually catch it.

* * *

Yami had to admit that she had always found it kind of funny that they could just walk out and not come back and no one would blink an eye; she swore that they even walked past the principal and he didn't care to stop them. It was never surprising that they didn't bother with students who skipped; most of the staff honestly considered it hilarious that they thought they would still pass if they weren't in class.

They hadn't skipped in a while and rarely ever did it but on those rare days where one of them got so completely stressed out that they had to leave—twice for Yugi and about four times for Yami—then they would seek the other out, possibly before or during lunch or anytime between classes and just leave.

From what she knew, Joey skipped much more often and Mai sometimes tagged along. The blonde may have been a bombshell but she was far from stupid and so didn't make it a habit. Tristan had skipped with Joey a few times and Tea had never once done it so far as she knew. She didn't know if that was because she was convinced that she had to be there everyday or if it was because she cared completely about her academics or if maybe she was actually trying to make herself seem a better choice for Yugi by doing so.

Yami had never really been sure about that but she knew that Tea always made small attempts to seem a bigger and better person than her. Something as small as tests in common between them often became something of a show of who got the higher mark, always making sure to point it out to Yugi no matter what. The blue-violet-eyed teen never seemed to actually notice it but it sure as hell managed to get under Yami's skin for the most part. Other times it was something as small as whose hair looked better and often Tea would curl hers into little ringlets to get Yugi's attention because he was always attracted to playing with curly hair, something that he commonly did with Mai's long hair because a couple of pieces ran in ringlets at times. Once Yami had forgotten to bring an umbrella because she honestly loved the rain and she was kind of looking forward to walking in it—something that Yugi refused to let her do for more than a few minutes because he didn't want her getting sick—and Tea had made a pretty big show of telling her that she should pay more attention to the weather or look it up on her phone more often. Anything small that wouldn't look completely bitchy if she was to poke at it and Tea had her name written all over it. She would probably point out her knowing the constellations better if she got the chance to do so. Yami guessed it was a good thing that the stars were almost never visible unless you were in the forest and her and Yugi's secret spot was the one place where you could see almost everything the night sky had to offer…

"Here you go, aibou," Yugi announced, passing the mint chocolate chip cone over to her while licking at his own peanut butter, Yami laughing at the way that he always flattened his tongue out and then tried to make an entire trip around the cone without getting too cold. He hadn't managed it so far because he wasn't one for the cold and so he normally withdrew at the halfway point. But it was always cute when he knew that there wasn't anything on his lips but he still ran his tongue over them out of habit, looking innocent and childish and overall just adorable.

"Thank you," she murmured, taking it and watching him as he nodded and then went about trying to make a complete trip around the cone again, stopping halfway and pouting for a split second as he always did.

Yami shook her head and licked at her own cone, smiling widely as he blinked innocently and grinned as he always did when he noticed her watching. Her amusement was fading pretty rapidly however, overshadowed by the realization that she could damn well have lost the boy in front of her just thirty minutes ago. And she was still so tempted to explain to him what had happened in the first place but it was impossible to find the words and she felt sick to her stomach even really considering it. If she hadn't been convinced that he would try to protect her before, she definitely was now.

He had literally just thrown himself under a falling bookcase for her. If she told him about what was going on…

She shook the idea off; she couldn't tell him but she could still apologize, right? For how she's been acting recently? For giving him _reason _to believe Tea's stupid suspicion?

"Yugi?"

"Hmm?" He licked his cone again and then looked at her, tilting his head in confusion at her troubled expression; normally she was all over her ice cream by now. Granted, the situation was different, but he still found himself wishing that she would just turn around and do so.

"I'm sorry…" She paused at the way he narrowed his eyes and straightened a little; he always did hate it when she apologized… "For acting so strange lately."

"Yeah, well…you've always been strange."

Yami stared at him for a moment, at the laughter in his eyes, and reached over to tip his cone up, getting his nose easily with the shot; Yugi let out a startled noise and quickly rubbed at the melted dessert on his nose.

"That's dirty."

"Don't get cheeky with me."

"Oh please, you love it when I'm cheeky," Yugi snorted, laughing at her when she scowled playfully. "It's how I get you in bed."

She opened her mouth to argue and then smirked, shrugging in agreement. "That's the only way you won me over anyways."

"Really? I thought that was my sweet personality."

"You wish. It was the cheekiness. I don't care about the rest of your personality."

"Oh yeah, _okay_." He made a loud scoffing noise and rolled his eyes, licking his cone again while Yami laughed and shook her head, pulling her phone out when it vibrated in her jacket. On an official date she would have put her phone on the table after turning it off and Yugi would have been her number one priority but she had a feeling that this was her little stalker.

_Shouldn't follow someone who isn't chasing you in the first place_.

Yep, and there he was. So Tristan was probably right; that little screensaver was to hack her phone.

She pocketed it again, muttering, "My dad" when she saw Yugi's quizzical expression. He gave her a look that clearly said he didn't believe that and Yami realized only belatedly that she wasn't laughing. Normally whenever her dad texted, he made sure the message was funny enough to at least get a grin.

But Yugi didn't say anything to demand explanation, though his eyes did give off a slightly hurt gleam that made her stomach twist. Oh gods, she really needed to explain what the hell was going on…

Yami turned that thought away immediately; she wasn't going to let him get hurt, especially by allowing him to think that she needed him to come to her aid. That wasn't about to happen. Fuck that.

Besides, now that she was considering it clearly, it was either her reaction to the necklace or the list—not getting the right answer—that had spurred him into action. He had lashed out because either he had grown tired of her disrespect towards the little Y pendant necklace or because he was punishing her for not knowing who he was immediately. Because she had been lured there first, unless the entire idea was to have her bring Yugi there, since the library had collapsed only _after _he had gotten there. If she had been the bait, then it would have been a trap to make Yugi push her out of the way and then get crushed himself.

She supposed if that was the plan, then really she would have just been collateral. If she hadn't grabbed him the moment that he had tackled her then he would have gotten himself crushed. It was only the fact that she had managed to get a grip on him and roll them over that had saved them. It was the simple fact that the noise had scared her and her own impulse to get away from it that had managed to bring herself and Yugi out of that okay.

She had the impulse to tell him she loved him again but squashed it quickly, shaking off; half the time she was worried that if she said it too often, it would become meaningless. But the other half of the time she was worried that if she didn't say it enough then Yugi would start to doubt it. Then again, Yugi had always known that she was more physical than she was verbal, that she would rather make love than just say it…

Besides that, she didn't think that she should say it just because she was scared of something; it seemed weak and stupid to do so and she didn't want to feel that way about saying that. It would make the words feel less important and far less meaningful if she went with impulse and then it would be ruined for her.

"Here, come on, I want to go for a walk," Yugi announced, jumping to his feet; Yami was half convinced that her anxiety was rubbing off on him suddenly and now he was antsy about getting the hell out of the ice cream shop for a while but part of her thought maybe he was just desperate to move around because of his immobility at the library. She didn't know which she preferred was the reason at this point.

He grabbed her hand, lacing their fingers together, an automatic thing that he never even thought about anymore, and led the way out the door. "You want to go to our spot or down to the pier? Or we could go over to the lake in the woods…" he chattered, his voice calming her frayed nerves but bringing about some much more persistent ones that made her skin crawl.

"How about the pier?" she murmured, wanting to stop him short of where he was about to lead the way towards the woods; she didn't want her stalker to know about their spot. If he found out and set foot in there, she was relatively sure she wouldn't like it nearly as much as she had before. "We haven't been down there in a while."

"Sure," he said, nodding almost enthusiastically but looking more concentrated and slightly anxious, licking at his cone as if to help keep himself a little preoccupied. "The pier sounds great. Why not?"

"Are you okay?"

Yugi turned on her suddenly, looking ready to snap for a second before turning away immediately, mumbling, "No" before pulling her along faster; she stumbled but caught her footing, never really one for falling over, and hurried along with him.

He wove them in and out of the crowd of wandering people, squeezing her hand tightly several times as if he were freaked by the amount of others around them, and then pulled her closer to his side as they came close to the wooden planks. He plopped down at the edge, looking up at her pointedly, and Yami frowned before following his example. She had honestly never been one for water and having her legs dangling over the side always made her nervous but after what she had put him through earlier, she was willing to feel a little discomfort if it made him a little more comfortable.

"Yami…?"

"Yeah?"

He opened and closed his mouth twice before finally asking, "Who texted you?"

"It was a wrong number, koi," she muttered, shaking her head. "I don't know who it was."

"…Then why did you say it was your dad?"

"I…Because I…I don't know. I guess I just figured that it would sound a little more…normal if I said that it was him. You know…because today has been so weird and I…you look really shaken up. I…I didn't want to worry you."

Yugi searched her eyes for a long minute and then nodded and turned away to stare out at the water; it only clicked while she was watching him that the text wasn't exactly _meant _for her. Her stalker had sent it at the little ice cream shop to fuck with Yugi's head with the idea that he would ask to see it. Because if he did, that meant that the message was his to play with…

Yami looked at her phone for a moment and then really stared at the screen for a second; the roses were back, the thorns and the falling petals that, when she looked away, seemed almost as if they were little drops of blood…

"That's okay though," she muttered suddenly, making Yugi look over and gawk as she stood up and chucked the phone in her hand as far as she could. He watched it land in the water a few feet away, the splash seemingly almost far too large for such a small device. "Wrong number or not, I need to get a new phone. And I need a change of contact too."

Yugi stared at where her phone had disappeared and then slowly looked at her, at the way that she was watching the water with a dark expression, that animalistic quality back to her face. "Yami, I—what…?"

She turned her head and looked at him with a sharp gaze that quickly turned easy and warm again. "Doesn't matter. I got tired of that phone anyways. It's okay…" She paused. "It was hacked anyways. Someone sent me an email that launched some stupid encryption. The loser just texted me. That's all."

_I'll kill them if they touch you, _she thought, shrugging at his shocked expression. _I don't care who the fuck they are, I'm going to fucking flay them_.

Fucking with her head was one thing but actually attempting to crush Yugi under a bookcase was another. Using her phone to set it up so that _he _would get the message was too much. Using her to get under his skin and make that text seem as if she were hiding something like a guy on the side was pushing it so far that she was going to mutilate his corpse by the time she got done with him.

She would get her hands on him and she'd tear his heart out if she got the chance; if it was the last thing she did, she was going to make him pay for this.

"Hey, do you think that the mall is still open?" she asked, blinking at his shocked expression and grinning. "Oh yeah, of course it is! I forgot we're skipping. Come on, koi, let's go get a new phone and then I'll walk you home."

Yugi opened and closed his mouth before very slowly getting to his feet, blinking a few times and then glancing at the water again, looking at his ice cream for a moment before quickly starting to dig into the soggy cone to give him some time to think before he spoke because his brain was running a little too slowly and it he was still trying to grasp what the fuck had just happened.

Yami licked at her own ice cream but didn't bother to say anything, instead reaching for his free hand and leading him along. Yugi reluctantly trailed a couple of steps behind her, glancing back over his shoulder and turning to her several times, unsure of what to think of this whole situation.

"Aibou…?"

"Yes?"

He hesitated, glancing over his shoulder and then turning back again. "Are you…um, are you okay?" he finally asked, confused and glancing back again before turning to her, chewing his cheek.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she chirped, nodding and squeezing his hand. "Perfectly fine. Like I said, I want a new phone. Whoever that loser was, they did hack it, after all. I just realized that it was better to just get rid of it while I still had the chance, you know?"

Yugi stared at her. "But you…had pictures and stuff on there…"

"All of them are backed up on my computer just in case. And on a thumbdrive. Trust me, koi, it's fine. I wouldn't have tossed it otherwise."

"But…your contacts…I mean, don't you…"

"I know everyone's numbers. Don't worry. It's fine."

"I…okay…" He blinked a few times and then glanced over his shoulder again. "Sure…"

"Koi, really, I wouldn't have done it if I wasn't completely prepared to be without it."

"…Okay," he repeated, unsure of what else to say, turning back to her. He had to admit that this behavior was kind of suspicious and he was worried as hell now. Was she actually being targeted? Or maybe someone was threatening her? Maybe someone was blackmailing her?

His stomach twisted, confusion making his head hurt. He didn't understand exactly what they could have on her however. Not something that he didn't already know of. Unless it was like…them having sex or something. He could see freaking out if that was the case…

Oh fuck, if that was what it was, he would never have sex again and—

His eyes slowly flickered downwards as he realized that he was running out of cone to eat, taking in the sight of Yami's legs for a second, gaze widening drastically as his pulse jumped for a second.

Shit.

Okay, so he would try to restrain himself from having sex with her so often.

Or not.

Fuck that.

_Damn _it, why did she have to have such nice legs?

He tilted his head, taking in her gait and resisting a long sultry purr, rolling his eyes at himself and slamming straight into the stop sign; Yami spun around with a shocked look at his yelp, eyes wide before she burst into giggles, pulling her hand away to cover her mouth.

"Ow," he groaned, rubbing his cheek and pouting as she continued laughing. "It's not funny."

"Koi, you just ran into a stop sign because you wouldn't stop looking at my legs," she snorted, around her fingers. "That is hilarious. It's like a sign from the gods that you need to stop with the fantasizing."

Yugi narrowed his eyes. "You knew I was about to walk into the stop sign," he accused.

"No, actually I tried to steer you away from it but you didn't take the hint when I pulled on your hand, you hormonal dork," she teased. "What the hell were you looking at my legs for anyways? I'm walking you home, not staying overnight."

He opened his mouth to say that she really should because it would make him so happy but then stopped short when he remembered his mom being there; she would skin them alive if she found them having sex and he had to admit that while they were quiet for the most part, there were still those moments where neither of them could help but get louder and he so wasn't looking forward to his mom walking in on that.

"Yeah…um…I…Yeah, I'm not going to tell you what I was thinking about…" he said slowly, shaking his head. "Just saying that if you ever want to do that with me, we can totally do it."

Yami stared at him as if he had grown two heads. "What are you talking about?"

"Nothing."

"I swear if you're talking about what I think you're talking about, I'm going to say hell no."

Yugi opened his mouth to argue that they probably weren't thinking the same thing and then flushed brightly as he realized what she was hinting at. "God, no, I don't want to do that! God, I already _told _you that Joey dared me to ask you about it!"

"Good, then we don't need to have this conversation again, right?"

"Hell no, trust me, the dirty look you gave me and the sneering and silent treatment afterwards were enough," he said quickly, nodding vigorously as Yami narrowed her eyes but nodded in amusement a second later, looking proud of herself. "Besides, we'll do that when we're super old."

"What the fuck, Yugi?"

"You know…like twenty or thirty."

"Hell no."

"Forty?"

"How about no?"

"Fifty?"

"No."

"Sixty?"

"_No_."

"Seventy?"

"Goddamn it, Yugi."

"Fine, eighty! But that's my final offer!"

Yami burst out laughing at his determined scowl. "It's not happening."

"It so is! Every guy is supposed to be able to experience this at least once! You can't just deprive me of that!" he objected a little loudly, drawing the attention of several nearby who immediately turned away again when Yami shot them dark looks.

"If you want to do that so badly, go find yourself a nice little bottom."

"No! I want to do it with you, my girlfriend!"

"That sounds so pathetically gross."

"Aw, come on, Yami!"

"Nope."

"Goddamn it. I will weasel it out of you one day," he announced, determination underlining his words. "And you will _enjoy _it."

"The day I let you do that is the day we get a strap on."

"Oh…shit."

"Yeah."

"I…I…Never mind…"

"Thought so."

"_Shit_."

She grabbed his hand again, lacing their fingers together once more, and started walking, unsurprised when he hurried to her side. He was calmed down now at least, not so obsessed with the fact that she had tossed her phone into the ocean and not as stressed as he had been about the library incident. Now, if she could just keep him like this for a little while longer, at least until she got him home, then that would be great.

She was pretty sure that he wouldn't do anything if she was actually with him so closely; in fact, she was almost one hundred percent sure that he had lured her there to make sure that Yugi followed, that the bookcases collapsing had been all about getting to him and not so much anything to do with her aside from alarm her, push her. She was starting to think that it was an attempt to show her that she had no chance to stop him from getting to Yugi if he wanted to, that she needed to break up with him before she really pissed him off and he got rid of him…

Two hours later she and Yugi stood in front of the game shop, Yami glancing inside to see that Marik was at the counter talking to Solomon, all cheeky grins and sarcastic remarks. Yugi glanced inside and then looked at her, about to apologize again while she quickly shook her head.

"Done, over with. Don't care about it anymore," she stated simply, stopping him immediately. "If I did, I would have punched him already."

He opened and closed his mouth and then shrugged in agreement. "All right." Yugi paused, glancing inside for a second and then turning back. "Yeah, uh, please don't do that though. I mean…he'll probably get me alone and punch me for that."

"And here I thought you cared more about your friends than that," she teased.

"Honestly, I care more about being able to suck faces with you than I do him getting punched." Yugi paused for a moment. "That sounds so mean, doesn't it?"

"Realistic," Yami argued, smirking in amusement.

He nodded and looked at her pointedly until the red-eyed girl finally rolled her eyes with an even wider smirk and leaned forward to press their lips together. Yugi purred deep his throat at the feel of her lips against his, the way that her arms moved to rest over his shoulders and she moved closer until they were almost pressed together. He shivered in delight at the feel of her body warmth introduced to his, burning at his senses and leaving his skin tingling with pure exhilaration. She snickered into his mouth and Yugi blushed slightly around his own small laugh.

Marik had better fucking rate this one high or he was going to smack that asshole.

If he didn't rate them high Yugi swore he was going to be pissed out of his mind if that happened; how could he _not _rate this one high? Then again, he was only speculating and watching from where they were kissing so he obviously didn't get the same chill down his spine or the sharp yet warm taste of milk chocolate and mint.

Sucked for him.

He would honestly kill for one of these kisses.

"Okay, okay, stop that," Yami laughed, pulling away and snickering at his pout.

"Why? I was having fun!"

"No groping, Yugi. This is exactly why we're not allowed to kiss in public."

"But…The _boobies_, Yami! They beg to be groped."

"You little hound."

Yugi cleared his throat and straightened his back to gain a little more height. "_Big _hound. I am a _big _hound."

Yami took a moment, staring at him in confusion, and then felt her cheeks burn. "Oh for fuck's sake, Yugi!"

* * *

Yami flipped the card over a couple of times, stomach dropping. She wasn't sure if she should open it or not, purely because the rest of the bouquet that sat before her didn't look nearly as nice as the rest had. Even if she had hated them, at least they hadn't come painted _black_. Her fingernail picked at the card, desperate to open it, but she had no idea if she could handle it.

Nightshade cawed low and loud in the living room in front of her and she drew in a deep breath, relieved that he wasn't speaking. If he repeated the words her stalker had taught him, she thought she would lose her mind.

She picked at the little heart sticker colored black with sharpie, her nail easily breaking it down the middle where it served as a seal. She looked over the aluminum-like silver lining of the card and chewed her cheek, unsure of what she wanted to do with it. Yami shook her head slightly and tore it completely down the middle, flipping it over and looking over the cursive print of the handwriting.

_Roses are red, violets are blue, break up with Yugi, or they'll need dental records to identify you_.

Yami burst out laughing and smirked widely, shaking her head immediately, flipping it around in her fingers. "How unoriginal," she drawled, turning her head towards the window and raising her voice drastically. "I watched _Valentine,_ you moron. I recognize the little poem, jackass."

She flipped the card around in her long fingers for a moment and then tossed it onto the table, glancing sideways at the black roses. The threat just seemed so cute, even if it shouldn't have been. Because, how pathetic and stupid could this boy be to threaten her of all people?

She wasn't the wildcard of the group without a reason for being called such.

And she had a few tricks up her sleeve for dealing with this as it was.

She didn't call her dad overprotective for nothing.

But she needed to figure out how she would go about counteracting and working with what she had at the moment. Because she sure as fuck wasn't happy with the incident at school or this little threat.

It could be read either way.

It could be a threat towards her or it could be another one towards Yugi.

Maybe if she talked to Yugi about this in the first place, told him about how things were going on? It might be easier to keep tabs on him, but then again, he was more or less almost always around him when she got the chance. So maybe if she just waited it out a little longer…?

"Yami—"

She scrambled to throw the roses and card into her backpack, just then noticing the silver ribbon that held the thorn-less bouquet. Her eyes flashed towards the drawings of teeth that made up the entire fabric and then turned around immediately.

"Daddy," she acknowledged, voice coming out slightly high but holding its normal pitch just enough that she merely sounded excited. Her father gave her a playful look but she wasn't oblivious to his glance towards her bag. She didn't bother looking down; it would have made her seem guilty.

"'_Daddy_'?" another voice snorted, laughing. Yami glanced past him towards the blond in the doorway and crossed her arms, glowering.

"Shut up, _Joseph_." _Asshole_.

"Ah. Don't you just _love _our five-year-olds?" a deep voice murmured, making her blush and duck her head.

"Oh yes. There is nothing better than watching them squabble."

"How old does that make me then?"

_And Serenity is here too, _she thought, squeezing her eyes shut tightly for a split moment.

Lovely. Now she had four people to worry about finding out about her little…admirer.

Yami feigned interest in her nails of a moment, picking at her cuticles and making sure to gauge the way that Joey played with his little sister's hair as their dad said something or other about what age that made her.

"So, did you just get home then?" her dad asked curiously, raising a brow and glancing at her bag again.

"Yeah, Yugi and I went out after school."

"…And he's still treating you well?"

"Yes, daddy," she muttered, rolling her eyes but giving him a smile and glancing at Joey when he snickered at her response. Her father cast him a sharp look and the blond immediately swallowed his laughter and stepped away, eyes wide.

"Did you eat already then?"

"Um…we got ice cream but not really anything else."

"Are you hungry?"

"Not right now but I'm getting there."

"All right. We'll eat later then."

Yami nodded and her and Joey's dad wandered off into the living room; Nightshade squawked loudly enough that he sounded almost as if he were screaming. The red-eyed girl led them up to her room, tossing her bag to the foot of the bed and taking a seat on the mattress.

"So, how was your little date?" Joey asked with a wide smirk, taking a seat in her computer chair while Serenity took a seat on the floor. "Was it worth missing school for the day?"

"You skipped?" the brunette asked with wide eyes, turning on her and blinking owlishly.

Yami chewed her cheek, biting off a retort towards the blond before turning her head and glancing at the other girl. Serenity was the single most oblivious girl she had ever met. Sweet but oblivious.

Easily manipulated.

And it was often that the rest of them played around with her naivety as a joke, though they had never done much else with it. She thought sometimes that Serenity liked Mai and Tea far more than she liked her and she was more than a little sure that it was because of some of the things that came out of the other blue-eyed girl's mouth.

"Yeah, today was one of those days. We just couldn't deal with it," she murmured, shrugging as if it were that simple—maybe it was, if she thought about it. Although that brought to mind her head spinning with the vision of the bookcase falling again, the roar of wood hitting woods and a shower of books.

She stopped short of trying to pick at all of what had happened in that moment; it had seemed so fast yet it was slowed in her head and if she just focused on it for a moment…

"There wasn't much of a reason to stay anyways," she said to cut off her own train of thought. "I didn't have any tests or anything, so I didn't miss something important."

"Oh…"

Yami was half-expecting the riot act from her now. She waited for a moment, searching her eyes, somewhat annoyed. She knew for a fact that Serenity was going to talk to Tea about it some more later, see if she could get more on what happened. Tea would most likely say she ran off chasing some other guy and Yugi ran after her, probably say that he walked in on Yami cheating or something.

"Oh."

"So…did you two get frisky then?" Joey teased, raising a brow and smirking widely at her, winking.

"What? No," she snorted, rolling her eyes but smirking slightly in amusement. She kind of wished she had though. Because she could have really used the distraction at the moment with the way the entire existence of the incident kept circling in her mind like this. "No, we did not get frisky. Ra, Joey, you're so perverted."

"What? I can't help it! I'm a boy."

"Oh please. That's not even—" She stopped short, her head snapping towards the window, swearing mentally. She had just heard something. There was the crack of a twig or someone saying something. And it wasn't something that would have naturally happened…

"Yami, what's—?"

The window shattered so loudly that Serenity screamed and Yami's eyes nearly bugged out of her head. Joey cursed and scrambled to his feet and the red-eyed girl stared at the brick that had taken residence in the center of her floor. A message was pinned against it with a rubber band and Yami merely stared at it, glancing between the two of them and shaking her head slowly.

"Son of a fucking bitch," she spat under her breath, listening to the two siblings in front of her. Both of them were swapping looks and practically exclaiming awkwardly in between gawks and Serenity's small gasps and yelps. She was practically hyperventilating and Yami was ready to crack up at her expression, disillusioned into some kind of hilarity.

The stress was driving her crazy.

She got to her feet again, frustrated with herself as she grabbed the brick and undid the band that kept the message strapped so tightly to the stone. She plucked it from the carpet, sitting back and looking the paper over.

_You've been warned, bitch._

Yami nodded slightly and chewed her cheek, looking over the sloppy red handwriting. It looked shaky in all the wrong places. She had infuriated him—either when she called him an idiot before or when she didn't immediately call Yugi up to break up with him.

She threw her head back, barking out a laugh and preparing in the back of her mind to chuck the brick back out of the window in frustration. She jumped a mile when she caught the sound of her dad and Mr. Wheeler hurrying up the stairs and quickly tossed the brick beneath the bed and angled her lamp to look as if it had gone through the glass.

She scrambled back just as the two adults entered the room, looking around with sharp expressions and taking in each of their faces.

"What the hell was that?"

"I just tripped and the lamp went through the window." She glanced at the mess of glass on the floor and then at her dad, shrugging and flashing him a small grin, winking playfully. "It got caught in the glass and I had to yank it. The glass kind of shot onto the floor. Serenity started screaming when I hit the lamp. Sorry, Dad."

The Egyptian ambassador stared at her as if she had grown a second head and then sighed and shook his head. Joey's dad grinned widely from ear to ear, snickering and shaking his head.

"Told you never to give a girl a lamp like that."

"You…you shut up," her dad grumbled, rolling his eyes and glancing at Yami again. She didn't look as if something had happened. And it was pretty clear how nonchalant she was at the moment. There was nothing in her eyes, her face, her body language, that said anything about lying. He chewed his cheek, his gut churning, and then sighed. "Well…all right. Everyone is okay?"

"No casualties to report," she replied, grinning wider.

"Where did Joey go?" Mr. Wheeler asked, stroking his daughter's hair comfortingly as if she were some kind of frightened two-year-old. "He was just here a second ago."

"He was saying something about being hungry a second ago," she lied easily, frowning and glancing at Serenity. The other girl was gaining back some kind of composure, sifting her fingers through her hair and leveling her breathing some. "Probably went to get a snack."

He was probably outside trying to see if he could find whoever had thrown it. She couldn't even bother attempting to explain that. Especially with the explanation that would have followed soon after.

"All right. I'll put in an order for the window later," her dad mumbled, rolling his eyes and wandering out of the room with Mr. Wheeler behind him, snickering as if it was hilarious. "_Girls_."

Yami had been expecting more of an explanation to be needed but she supposed she shouldn't have been that surprised. When it came down to it, they had been watching a game or doing something, drinking a few beers or taking a couple of shots of something, just enough to get buzzed but not drunk. And that was probably the only thing that had saved her from getting grilled about the window.

But she would need to come up with a _great _explanation in the morning when her father was completely one hundred percent again. He wouldn't accept something so small and vague an explanation.

"Shit, there was nothing. I couldn't find _anything_," the blond snarled, panting as he doubled over and sighed. "Fucker moves fast."

Yami shrugged dismissively. "I didn't think you would. He obviously doesn't want to be found just yet," she muttered, glancing at the glass on the floor and picking up a few larger shards to toss out the window and onto the sloping roof. She needed some proof of the lamp getting caught in the glass… "Besides, what did you plan to do if they had a weapon or something?"

"I can fight!" Joey snapped defensively before stopping short and staring at him with wide eyes. "Wait a second. You…how long has this been going on?"

She shook her head. "I don't know. A few days maybe?" She shrugged dismissively again, tossing another few shards out and looking over her fingers; a small bead of blood traced its way along the pad of her index like bright red ink. "What's today? The twenty-first? Yeah, so about five days."

"And you haven't told anyone?"

"Nope."

"Why not? Are you fucking _shitting _me? Did you just—_forget _that my dad is a fucking _cop_, Yami?" the blond snarled angrily, shutting the door so that his voice didn't carry down to their parents. "You could just tell him that someone is messing with you and—"

"And then what?" Yami snapped, bristling as she straightened her back and pulled her shoulders back, eyes flashing like fire. "_Then. What_? I didn't even really take it seriously before and I have no solid proof."

"What the fuck do you call that?" Joey spat, gesturing to her bed where the brick was hidden. "That's proof e—"

"No it's not!" she snarled, frustrated and glaring at Serenity when she reached for the brick. "It is not proof! You really think that some guy who has been following me for the last five days is _actually _going to be so stupid as to _not wear gloves _when he throws something through my window? No. Think _again_, Joey. The _only _set of fingerprints the police would find is _mine_. Because I'm the one who grabbed it after it went through the window. So yeah, tell me how much help the police would be again."

"Does Yugi—?"

"You tell Yugi and you will _wish _that Mai had the chance to castrate you," she murmured, voice dropping into a dangerous whisper. "I will cut you open and flay you _alive_, Joseph. You do not tell Yugi or I will rip you to _pieces_."

"Jesus fucking—" He shook his head, furious and puffing his cheeks out as he flared his nostrils viciously. "Why did you skip school today?"

"I already—"

"The _real _reason, not the bullshit one."

"I already told you."

"And if I ask Yugi?"

"Do _not _bring him into this." Yami trembled slightly, furious. "If you don't want to listen to what I have to say, then leave. I don't give a fuck. But if you mention it, I will deny it. I will deny it and you will _never _convince anyone, do you understand? I can't work with the stress of this and trying to babysit you big-brother-ego right now. I will knock you flat if you play with me. As I plan to do with this fucker. I'll destroy him. I will. I have it under control. I just need to know that Yugi does _not _get involved in it."

"Yami—"

"Shut up. I'm dealing with it. I have it under control. I'm working it out." She shot Serenity another annoyed look, biting back a snarl to make her drop the brick she had pulled out from under the bed to look over. The brunette looked the note over and then glanced at her and scrambled to put it back but her brother snatched it out of her hand before she could do so.

"What the hell is this?"

"Well, I would think it would be him saying that I've been warned."

"Smartass. I meant what does he_ mean_?"

Yami stayed silent.

"Yami—"

"I'm not explaining all of this to you. I don't have to." She went to stop him but then shrugged it off as he dug into her backpack, grabbing the roses and the card and looking it over before staring at her. Yami ignored him in favor of scrolling through her contacts to dial Yugi's number.

"Who the hell are you—?"

"Hello?"

"Hey, Yugi, what's up?"

"Um…nothing. Huh. I guess I forgot that you got a new number," he muttered awkwardly, sounding ready to laugh at himself uncomfortably. "Is something going on?"

"Nope. Just checking in."

"Oh." He paused for a long minute. "Um…can I ask why…?"

Yami squeezed her eyes shut and rubbed her temple, realizing belatedly just how early it still was. They hadn't even been separated for that long as it was. "Okay, you caught me," she teased. "I was just making sure that you got my new number."

"Oh. Uh…okay then." He laughed awkwardly. "Although…you did give it to me at the store. I forgot to put it in my phone though. Ha, guess you saved me the effort then."

"What are girlfriends for?"

"…Sex. And kisses. Cuddles. Hmm…oh, and good food!"

She grinned and glanced out the window, checking the darkness for a long minute and searching for anything out of the ordinary. "Yeah, that's true. Nice list."

"I thought so too." He paused again. "Um…I don't want to cut this short, but I have some customers—"

"Oh, yeah, sure. No problem. Go ahead and help them out and call back later."

"Yeah, okay." He waited for a full minute and a half and Yami snickered at the snarl he gave. "Goddamn it, fine! Goodbye! I love you."

"Yeah, I know you do," she snorted, laughing harder. "Love you too."

She hung up quickly and glanced around the yard again, going to pocket her phone before looking at the new text that came across the screen.

_That's so cute_.

She stared at the picture of herself peaking out of the window, the shattered glass giving a weird unique look to the image. Yami looked it over for a moment, not even having to question how he had gotten her number. He had followed them to the store. He must have been following since the incident in the library.

"What's that?"

"Nothing," she snapped, going to pocket it again before the text _It's hot when you're all riled up _came in a moment later. She locked her phone and pocketed it again, leaning against the wall next to the window and crossing her arms.

What did he actually _know _about her?

So far, what she knew that he did was her name, that she dated Yugi, her phone number. He knew—possibly—her place in the group as the wildcard. He knew where she went to school. He knew where Yugi lived. He knew she had a raven. He knew her house's layout. He knew what she was saying to them.

She glanced at Joey and Serenity slowly, searching their faces to find that the blond still looked furious while the brunette was still a little shell-shocked by the entire thing. He was relying on bugs and intimidation and that was something that she could tiptoe around and manipulate if she tried. Even visual cues could be mastered as far as she was concerned; when hadn't she relied more on visuals than on verbal? She had always been far keener on body language than words, just as her father was most of the time. He could normally spot a lie a mile away, always pointing out how, and she had grown up with the knowledge of how to manipulate herself into making the perfect little con artist and far more intimidating when it came to meeting new people. She played the manipulator when they attempted the act on her, a reason that she and Tea normally ended up at each other's throats. The same reason that she commonly fought with Vivian and Rebecca.

All four of them were too intuitive and held their heads too high to be put in their place beneath the other. There was a play for power consistently between her and Mai but most of the time they stepped back when they got the chance, so that they wouldn't end up making the other hate them. And Serenity, standing in front of her, was as meek and submissive as they came. She was like an omega among three alpha females who had no true allegiances and would sink their teeth into each other any chance they got.

Yami chewed her cheek and turned her head back towards the window to take in the shards of glass and the light on the grass before looking away again.

The bastard had nothing on her aside from being able to get to Yugi. But as long as she played his game at a satisfactory level, she was almost a hundred percent he wouldn't bother the small teen. She just had to keep playing and she could work to manipulate it all in her favor.

She just had to learn the rules.

She pressed her palm against some of the glass on the windowsill.

She had obviously messed up a play somewhere along the line. She had done something to anger him or broken a rule. And that had made him lash out.

And target Yugi.

The bookcases falling played as a constant in the back of her head. The boom of the wood colliding made her ears hurt. They could have easily been crushed if she or Yugi had reacted just a moment too late. It had been him lunging and tackling her that had kicked her instinct into gear. It was mostly a flight instinct to get rid of the noise, like a dog running anxiously away from thunder, but it had been enough to make them roll out of the way of the wood threatening to crush them.

He knew that she would get up and follow him because she refused to lose. He knew that she would get up and follow him because she was mad and wanted to be able to place the blame on him.

He knew small bits about her but he seemed to be lacking the most important.

If that was all he knew about her, then he had already lost.

But if he knew more, she would be struggling to gain ground soon enough.

* * *

**I'm going to try to make updates with this story as frequent as possible but a little patience is always good.**


	7. Challenge

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything relating to Yu-Gi-Oh**

**Warning: Cursing can go from mild to mass amounts at times**

**Note: There will be blood in later chapters, mentions of sex, and possible lemons...**

**Keep in mind that Yami is a GIRL. So she worries about GIRLY things and has these things. Called INSECURITIES. They happen. She has them. Because she's human.**

**As far as the group dynamics go, by the way, things are strained and iffy and will be explained throughout the story so keep that in mind.**

**Sorry for the late update but I have had writer's block for a LARGE amount of time concerning this story so yeah, here's chapter seven of _Umbral Oath_. On a side note, the window incident is mentioned but not fully explained and there's a reason for that. You'll find out later. **

Chapter VII: Challenge

Yami was not looking forward to having her attention when the brunette looked away from where she was speaking to Joey. She had no doubt that it was about her and the incident from the night before, but she was hoping that maybe she was wrong. Of course she wasn't, something she realized the moment that their eyes locked, and that annoyed her more than anything else.

After having tried to convincingly set up her room's window to make it look as if she actually _had _accidentally knocked the lamp into the glass and broke it with the force of it, she was short-tempered and far from in the mood to be around anyone else. She turned sharply on her heel, ignoring it when Tea called her name, instead heading for her locker with the hope that her silence would deter the other girl.

Yami reached for the dial, narrowing her red eyes into slits of gleaming ruby, and ground her teeth together as Tea ignored the blatant message and followed her anyways.  
"Are you okay? Joey told me what happened—"

"Did he tell Yugi too? Because I swear I'll flay him for it," she hissed, glancing at her from the corner of her eye and glaring furiously. Tea stopped mid-step to her side, concern giving way to hesitation and then nervousness that made her cheeks take on a slight pink. "He wasn't even supposed to tell you. So why did he?"

"Because Serenity mentioned it to me and I kind of cornered him into telling me when I saw him this morning," she admitted, frowning and staring at her with a slightly horrified expression. The brunette tried to push away a small bit of her blush but failed when Yami's sharp red eyes narrowed and irritation flashed through her irises like a flame. "B-but he didn't tell Yugi. Yugi has no idea."

"And how do you know that? I bet he's run off to tell him right now." She turned her back on her, facing the locker and twisting the combination before pulling the lock and throwing it open, the door vibrating violently as it collided with the one next to it. She jerked back, expecting it to be something more worthy of her fright than the stupid bouquet of flowers and the note that slipped out, but was relieved all the same to realize that it was nothing more than that. Tea stared silently at the piece of paper and the roses that littered the floor, the stems far too deep green and looking almost plastic while the petals were a disgustingly dark red that gave them the appearance of nylon. She blinked slowly, not the least bit amused with the sight in front of her, and then moved to press her foot against the card, sliding it towards her noisily on the ground. The brunette next to her cringed at the noise, frowning and swallowing hard with the half-formed thought of how it was possible Yami was making such a sound with just her uniform shoes and a slip of paper. She hoped that it was dirt scraping against the thick paper or something because the noise was unnatural and made her skin crawl in discomfort.

Yami took a moment of sardonic amusement from the way the other girl seemed to twitch, and then crouched down to sweep it up between her fingers, snatching the bouquet on the way and shoving it back into her locker. Her backpack rocked uncomfortably against her hip, a jarring pain flaring with the impact for a split moment before she focused in on the little note. The white paper was painted in dark gray this time, with a handwriting that looked elegant and rivaled Yugi's. A thought passed through her mind to ignore it altogether, to toss it aside in the trash, but she realized immediately that the last time she had messed up this game they were playing Yugi had nearly gotten hurt. She flipped the card over between her fingers, opening it and reading a simple note of "You should be wearing that necklace I gave you. It's a shame it's going to waste, don't you think?"

Tea stayed quiet for a long minute, waiting for some kind of response from the girl that would give an explanation, but Yami merely looked the card over, raising a brow before shoving it into her bag. The brunette watched, mystified, as the red-eyed girl started to pick her materials for class and moved to stuff the roses with their smaller predecessor.

"What the hell is going on?" she finally demanded, unable to keep the cold discomfort and frustration at Yami's lack of concern from her voice. The smaller girl shoved the canvas bag into the metal cubby and shut the door softly, pulling on the lock twice before letting it fall back into place.

"Don't worry about it," she stated calmly, turning away and starting for their homeroom.

"Yami, you can't just—"

"It doesn't concern you," Yami sang out without turning to her, ignoring her altogether and slipping past a few girls to make her way into her classroom.

-Twenty minutes passed while she sat in her seat, spinning her pencil between her fingers and humming softly as she tried to recall the names of the boys that she had known to have had a crush on her at one point or another. He claimed that she had missed his name altogether but could have been a ploy as well to scare her and it wasn't something she was going to take to kindly in any way.

Seven names was hardly a large number and didn't require much thought to put to paper once more. All seven names were clearly marked in a small box in the corner of her notebook sheet, glaringly obvious where she was meant to be taking notes.

_Tristan, Duke, Critias, Timaeus, Hermos, Marik, Joey_.

Her stalker had seen her at the school, the phone shop, the ice cream parlor, walking home, and the arcade. It wasn't too large a list of places but it was generally where she spent her time and the thought made her bristle with anxiety. Aside from her obvious haunt of the Kame Game Shop, the school, and the arcade, it was not something she thought most people knew. She almost always took two different paths home, occasionally with a back way from the Kame Game Shop or to the local library for studying or homework. Now she had to figure out what path he had seen her take as well as who had been where to see if maybe her little stalker had lied about his name being on her list.

Then again, why lie if it was meant to be something of a prize if she could figure it out? Unless he wanted to prolong meeting her, and that was something she could not understand for the life of her. Why delay the inevitable if there was meant to be something of a prize if she could figure out who he was?

She tapped her pencil absently against the desk, pursing her lips as the teacher droned on about the various definitions they had been given to research the day before.

"Yami."

For a moment she almost didn't hear her before blinking as the name registered in her head. Turning to the other girl, Tea gave her an awkward smile and lowered her voice further, whispering as if they were discussing some kind of conspiracy.

"What are you doing? Anything I can help with?"

She blinked slowly and glanced at the paper again, frowning in deliberation before giving her a small nod. "I'm trying to figure out if he's been lying or not. He told me before that I had missed his name when he saw the list before, but there are only seven people besides Yugi who have _ever _had a crush on me as far as I know. And I have a feeling that he's right under my nose and I'm looking too hard." She showed off the list, watching as the brunette pursed her lips, reading it over and seemingly coming to the same conclusion, that they were in fact the only seven that either of them knew of. "Whoever he is has seen me on my way home from school, Yugi's house, the arcade, the phone shop and the ice cream parlor when I went to with Yugi yesterday. So obviously I just need to figure out who would have seen me at all five places."

Tea bit her lip for a moment, nodding to tell her she understood but giving her a sideways glance that said she was unsure of what she might say to that. Yami shrugged, giving her room to think it over, and quickly glanced up to write down a term; since she had skipped that period yesterday, she was making sure to get the definitions as they went along.

"Well, I'm not entirely sure, but I _think _Timaeus works at the mall, so he would have seen you. Hmm—oh yeah, he does! I remember because I had some questions on getting a new laptop and he helped me pick one," she stated, nodding slowly and smiling a bit at the memory; he was just so awkward at times. He listened well but when the attention was on him he tried to deflect and rarely made eye contact which was a shame because his eyes were some of the most beautiful she had ever seen. Especially on a boy. They rivaled Yugi's blue-violet and Joey's cinnamon-specked honey brown. "And your mobile service is part of his so he could have been there whenever you were there but you might not have seen him. He's shy, after all, so he tends to try not to do much more than help someone pay their phone bill or help with stock. I don't think I've ever actually seen him greet someone at the door and ask them if they needed help."

Yami raised a brow, staring at her curiously for a moment. "Wow, someone seems to be paying a lot of attention to him," she snorted, snickering when Tea's cheeks dusted with red and she gave her an eye roll.

"Not really, I just paid attention last time I was there." She shook her head, frowning. "_Anyone _could have seen you at the arcade. Everyone is there after school, remember? Duke likes picking up girls at the ice cream parlor, actually. I think he just pretends to hang around there until someone notices and then he talks someone out of their pants. Critias and Hermos are _always _at the mall too, actually. They have jobs over at some of the clothing shops. Marik met you at the game shop, remember? Tristan and Joey have been in all of those places. So, I don't know if this list is going to actually help any…"

"_Shit_," Yami mumbled, rolling her eyes and tapping her pencil once more. "Well this sucks."

She honestly wasn't even sure what she was expecting now that she considered it. When she really thought about it, she should have known that nothing would come of it that easily. He was toying with her, so what chance did she truly have of actually figuring out so quickly? None.

She had absolutely _none_.

Because he was not about to just slip up for her to figure out when clearly he was leading the game. There was nothing he was going to give as a clue for her to figure him out, especially this early into it all. And she wasn't sure that biding her time would work to give her answers at this point. Ignoring him would probably make him mad and she had no desire to deal with him if he was angry, not after that bookshelf incident.

The reminder only served to make her feel smaller than she actually was, and that was not something she was going to allow. She had to keep her head up and have her wits about her or she was going to find herself screwed later. And getting so neurotic about all of it so early meant she was going to lose ground if she didn't try to catch up as quickly as possible.

How had he even been able to push the shelves like that? She knew they had never been bolted down but the thought that someone could send the heavy structures toppling like that made her feel ready to vomit in distress. No one she knew would even waste the time to do that. Maybe if they had hit it hard enough with their shoulder, bracing themselves to do it, or had used the spacious gap between them and the wall, they might have toppled over easily. But if they had leaped with it, then how had no one found them as well? Obviously, they would have gone toppling over with it and she doubted they would have regained their balance or gotten rid of the pain in the time it took for the books to settle.

She bit her lip until it bled, narrowing her red eyes into slits and shaking her head faintly. The only thing thinking about the moment the shelves had collapsed did for her was make her feel sick and small, twisting her stomach violently and leaving her worried about what would happen if she overstepped somehow.

Yami rolled her eyes as she looked the bouquet over where it sat on the doorstep, raising a brow in disapproval and shaking her head faintly. It was hardly worth much consideration aside from reading what the card had to say, though she was still somewhat convinced that the number of roses had something to do with it all. She shrugged the thought off after a moment, realizing she probably would not be able to find anything anytime soon with the seemingly random offers she had been given each day since her stalker had started sending them.

Eyes narrowed slightly in annoyance and boredom, she flipped the flowers around in her palms, looking them over. They were still such deep a red, as if her admirer had taken it upon himself to soak them in buckets of his own blood. The petals looked soft and for a split second he had the desire to touch them, but the very thought made her snort in disbelief and disgust. She was not about to touch the stupid plants.

_You're a curious one, aren't you, little rose_? _You should set your sights closer rather than farther, dear little rose. But whether or not you listen, you still will not find me_.

She scoffed at the laughter that started up in her head, dramatic noise that made her for a moment think it was truly her admirer before she realized immediately. _What a stupid thought_, she chastised herself, rolling her eyes and shaking her head faintly once more. She was truly growing too paranoid to function at this rate. Having this much power over her and her thoughts was honestly more pathetic than anything she could think of. How had he gotten so far under her skin like this in the first place? She had never been known as weak-minded or willed before in any way. The very fact that it was happening now made her feel sick to her stomach with distress and loathing.

How had she ever allowed him to throw her off so simply? She had not even seen his face or actually heard his voice and yet he had thrown her off balance without much effort on his behalf. The sight of red roses would probably be enough to make her sick later. Or maybe she was just giving him far too much credit after all of the stress of the situation had settled in.

She shook her head, rolling her eyes again, and cast a small glance around with a lazy flicker of her eyes before unlocking the door and heading inside. She wondered vaguely if all stalker situations went somewhere along the lines of this, if they were just as terribly strange. Did others get this high strung this quickly or were they able to handle the situation easier than she was?

The roses were tossed unceremoniously onto the table and she ignored the way that her head rang with the crinkle of the plastic that held them together. Nightshade cawed loudly from his cage but Yami thanked the gods that he kept his vocals silent beyond animalistic noise. It was so much simpler when he did not actively speak to tell her such stupid but admittedly haunting phrases.

She was still trying not to dwell on "Y is for Yami" or the way Nightshade had twisted his own vocals to take on something akin her stalker's. How long had he been back there with her bird? How long had it taken him to start mimicking him like that, no matter how small the similarities?

Yami bit her lip, sighing loudly and shaking her head as she wondered if perhaps it was true that to catch a psychopath you had to think like one. That might be a difficult task—or, actually, with how neurotic her mind was starting to grow, perhaps it would be entirely too easy.

She had always been rather good at getting into others' mindsets, but at the same time, she doubted that the psychopath mentality was as easy as one of her friend's. But then, had he not said that she should be looking closer rather than farther?

Immediately her mind sprang towards Yugi and she snickered, a tiny bit of delight creeping through her. She had to admit it would be hilarious if Yugi had somehow decided to make this elaborate prank. But that wasn't in his nature and Yugi was too sweet to ever even consider doing such a thing aside from small jokes. He could definitely plot up such an idea but they all knew that he would break before long. He wasn't one to be able to hurt someone, especially a friend, and he was often the one to cut off a joke when someone got offended in any way.

Yami herself liked to drag it out a little longer, especially if it offended someone, because when they sputtered and grew angry, it was oddly hilarious. But even she had limitations, no matter how much longer her thread of humor was than Yugi's as far as that was concerned. Yugi never wanted to hurt anyone's feelings while Yami always found it kind of funny when it happened and she wasn't actually trying to do so.

She swatted the bouquet aside to begin working on her homework, digging into her bag to pull out a couple of notebooks and worksheets. Boredom immediately flared up five minutes later when she was still looking at the stupid science papers. Her mind was immediately circling away from it and back towards her possible stalker, names in her head but nothing truly connecting. There wasn't much to say about the entire matter. There were no things that she could actively draw upon to really root him out.

And unless he was one of her friends—which made absolutely no sense seeing as none of them were psychotic in any way—then she had no idea what was going on.

She rolled her eyes up towards the ceiling, glancing at the roses from the corner of her gaze and running her tongue over her teeth in annoyance. How stupid. She hated roses and this stalker of hers was either ignorant to that fact or altogether daft.

Her phone vibrated where she had it resting nearby on the table and her boredom lifted immediately, eyes widening with surprise and momentary delight. She really hoped it was Yugi so she could text him for a little while. He had always been a great distraction for the times that she was stressed out and needed something to take her mind off of things. And if it wasn't him, then maybe she could convince him to ramble on about the shop or something as she normally would. He could usually tell how stressed out she was when she merely opened her mouth and it seemed easy enough for him to fall back into habit.

_Now that I actually have your full attention, I want you to play a game_.

Yami blinked stupidly and then sighed and rolled her eyes, throwing her head back with a loud groan. As high strung as she was and had been the last week, she was not looking forward to anymore from her stupid stalker at any rate.

But of course he would be the one to text when she was doing homework. Because Yugi was probably doing his own and the others didn't have her new number. Only Yugi actually had it because she had been too lazy to hand it over when they were all together at lunch and no one had mentioned it.

She pursed her lips for a moment and then shrugged it off easily, reading the rest.

_You're good at those, aren't you? I know you are. That's one of the reasons why I picked you. If you can figure out who I am before your birthday, I will leave you alone. After that, if you have not broken up with Yugi, I will dispose of him._

She blinked, frowning, and tilted her head a fraction. She was good at games, yes, and usually excelled with mental challenges, but this seemed to be getting out of hand altogether. The very idea that they were speaking of that fact made her skin crawl; how long had they been trailing her? How had she not noticed before now that something strange was going on like this? How had she not realized that someone was watching her like this? She should have known just by the fact that they knew that she liked games like this.

She was the one in the group to play mind games with others, though they were not malicious and she always knew when to draw the line and step back. The fact that they even knew that she liked games was alarming. Unless Vivian or Rebecca were truly messing with her, then no one outside of their group really knew how much she liked them.

She didn't play with others and it was rare that she did anything at the arcade. Yugi usually played while she waited to kick his ass at video games at one of their houses. It was more a self-conscious thing, as being the center of attention with something like that always left her feeling nervous and unhappy. Everyone would have their eyes on her and they would ask her how she had gotten so good at games. They would challenge her to play some more and she was not one to do such a thing. It made her far more uncomfortable than it did competitive, although she could do it if she was egged on for a few minutes on end. It was harder to concentrate when everyone was watching and laughing and placing bets. And that was why she was so keen on only ever truly playing a video game with her boyfriend at one of their houses. It was easier, the others normally weren't around, and if they were they would simply play against Yugi.

Yami blinked at the screen for a moment, wondering at the idea of it all. Who knew that she liked games? Who knew her new number? Who was honestly willing to play this kind of game with her like this?

What was the date anyways? The twenty-second? She cringed. January twenty-second was only fifteen—sixteen, if you counted it too—days from her birthday. The sixth wasn't long enough for her to get any headway. Her stalker probably already realized that, especially with the fact that he was watching her constantly and apparently even knew of her list.

It…couldn't have been someone like Tea, right? She knew a lot of things about their relationship simply because she was such close friends with Yugi. Being his best friend after her had its perks, she knew. So…was it possible that it was a scam for her to get under her skin?

No. Tea wasn't like that.

She was selfish at times, she liked to pick fights with Yami over Yugi, but she wasn't vindictive. And definitely not a psychopath—or was it sociopath?—so she didn't fit the bill. Besides, why would Tea of all people wish to pretend to be something short of in love with her just so that she could psyche her out?

When she actually considered it, that kind of personality fit more with her cousin, Seto. Which was an ironic and almost sickening thought. She really hoped he never wound up doing something this stupid with a girl he liked—although, she could _definitely _see him doing something idiotic in an effort to get her to notice him. It was more likely going to be materialistic and utterly stupid in retrospect—all of them would agree on that—but nothing like this.

She looked her phone over again, pursing her lips. If she truly thought about it, maybe she could push and dig around until she figured it out. She doubted it at the same time as she was hopeful, but it was an idea. And maybe it was the only thing that would keep her head on straight long enough for it to make a difference.

What were the odds of him actually keeping his word, however? Was it even a possibility? Or would he simply twist it all around to save face and make it far from a win on her end if she managed it? Did psychopaths keep their word or did they just kill at their own whim? And what happened if she won and he tried to kidnap her or something along those lines?

She honestly had nothing to lose from playing, however. She doubted that even if she failed to agree, the game would be forced on her regardless. And she was rather sure that the threat to dispose of Yugi was going to be one that he would push on her endlessly, whether she tried to play or not.

_Call this number in twenty minutes with your answer. I want to hear your voice, but you should know that the phone will be disposed of so it would be a damn waste if you went to your friend's cop of a father_.

She stared at this new text for a long minute and a half, swallowing hard and blinking slowly before getting to her feet. Nightshade squawked loudly in his cage, flexing his wings as far as they would go and then moving along his perch with a sudden vigor. The sleek black bird turned its head and watched her with a beady eye, as if studying and judging, and she nearly hissed at it in annoyance.

Even the damn bird had an idea of just how upset she was and how pathetic this game truly was. She rolled her eyes at herself, glancing at the phone again, and crossed her arms, narrowing her gaze into slits. He wanted to hear her voice, huh? Did the cameras not give him enough of an idea of what she sounded like?

Or was it the thrill of actually having her speak _to_ him as if they were actually having a conversation that made him demand such a thing?

She smirked dryly at the thought, drumming her fingers against her arm. Sixteen days to figure it all out? She would have to start thinking harder and working it out a lot more than she was already trying. But how was she supposed to balance that with her schoolwork and relationship with Yugi?

She chewed her lip doubtfully. Yugi deserved a lot better. She should have been trying to break up with him by now, attempting her hardest to push him away. She should have been putting in effort to throw their relationship aside for his safety. Of course she had always been a selfish person when it came down to it and never once would she have guessed or even hinted at a breakup between them willingly. She would—and _could_—string him along by his heart if they ever actually did fight and teetered towards that territory. She had imagined it far too many times lately due to this faceless bastard.

She would feel bad only after it had first happened. But she would eventually forget. And she would eventually push it away completely and ignore it altogether. When they were calm again and as in love as they always seemed to be, she would care nothing for her guilt again. It was cruel and maybe even sadistic, but that was how it went. She was selfish in that way.

She spent the next fifteen minutes thinking it over and wondering about it all. And then she snatched the phone and dialed. It rang all of twice and then a dead silence came on. She tilted her head, listening for even a breath of air being exhaled, and then finally mumbled a quiet, "Yes."

There was a low, sharp chuckle in her ear and then the phone disconnected. She merely looked at the screen for a moment and then slipped it into her pocket. There was no reason for her to hope for a distraction brought on by it. Yugi would call later, probably before she went to bed, or when he was tired and possibly decided to go to sleep early.

She would wait until then because she didn't want to have to worry about alarming him by calling him too early like she was so dying to do. She was terrified that he might be harmed despite this game now. Was it possible that he might go ahead and hurt him even if she won? The fact that he had just given her a deadline to potentially save Yugi was driving her insane now.

She would never let Yugi get hurt but she was no longer sure that she could even keep him safe.

What was it that was in common between all of the situations?

She shook her head and reached up to pull on a bang in frustration. This made no sense…

Why was anyone even so fascinated with her in the first place?

There was no reason for it.

She was picking at Nightshade's feathers, plucking one that was falling out already, and running her fingers over the glossy sheen of it, when she felt something dawn on her. It clicked into place without much thought on her behalf as her mind raced with possibilities. None of the names were her stalker's and so if that was truly the case, then she needed to think harder about the situation. But all of those places she had thought of, she had seen all of them in those places because of how public they were.

Every single place that her stalker seemed to have found her was a public facility where anyone could have seen her. He was covering his tracks easily, without effort, because all he had to do was be in those places without looking conspicuous. And she and Yugi had never even truly paid attention to the people that had been around them. They had assumed—or rather she had, considering Yugi had no reason to think of anything as suspicious—that they were just random, normal customers.

That had been one massive mistake on her behalf. She should have been looking around for them. She should have been watching for a face that would have frequented the areas she was in. Failing to do so had put her at a far worse disadvantage than she had considered. She was probably three steps behind him at this rate, especially with how quickly her mind seemed to be lost as far as figuring it all out.

She smirked wryly at herself, running her hand over the raven's head and narrowing her eyes into slits of annoyance. Yugi would have been a lot better at this than she. He probably would have figured it all out at this point with minimal stress or frustration.

Nightshade clicked his beak at her, stretching his neck out for her to run her hand over it once more. He had been unusually quiet the entire time, not even bothering for his usual greeting of "Evermore" or "Yami" like he sometimes did. He hadn't bothered with repeating her stalker's phrases either and the idea was somehow more alarming than anything else at the moment.

But Nightshade didn't look like he was stressed. He wasn't plucking feathers and he wasn't antsy. He wasn't huddled in one corner of his cage. There was no discharge anywhere.

She let him climb onto her shoulder but ignored the way that his talons sank in a little harder than usual. He seemed eager for attention, which wasn't very uncommon as far as she was concerned. He tended to do that often, and even liked to click his beak and snap at Yugi sometimes when he was there. The bird was jealous when it came to sharing her attention but he liked Yugi even if he kept fluffing his feathers out and glaring at him. Yugi found him entertaining at least, always playfully reaching over to touch Yami when the bird was watching. At one point she remembered the bird pooping on Yugi's arm when he wouldn't stop doing that and nearly snickered when she thought of his horrified face.

"Do you have anything to say to me today?" she finally murmured, looking at him curiously as the bird clicked his beak again. Beady black eyes were staring at her with something almost akin fixation and he kept tilting his head back and forth whichever way. "Anything at all?"

His talons sank in more forcefully and he barked out a hoarse, "Evermore" but fell silent again immediately after. Yami gave him a semi-disappointed look before shrugging. The black bird shot off her shoulder, flapping its wings before landing on the table and fluffing its feathers out again.

She got up when her phone rang, ignoring the way that Nightshade watched her intently, eyes seeming to look straight through her for a moment. The raven perched on the edge of the furniture, angling his head to watch her as she grabbed the small device and accepted the call.

"Hey."

She snorted. "You sound almost breathless."

"Yeah…some crazy lady just chased me around with a cane. You two wouldn't happen to be related, would you?"

"We could be. What'd she look like?"

"She was short, had a bandana on, spiky gray hair, and I'm not completely sure, but she might have had a mustache…possibly a beard. Very low to the ground, though, probably only an inch taller than me."

"That…sounds like your grandpa."

"Okay, so maybe the crazy old lady was my grandpa. And maybe the cane was a broom, but you know, whatever. Semantics and all that."

"Wait, what was he chasing you around with a broom for?"

"I…might have pretended to sweep earlier when I was actually playing a game on my phone," he admitted in a small, awkward voice. He cleared his throat immediately after, trying to make his voice level again. "He chased me for the last hour and a half between customers."

She twirled the feather around in her fingers, laughing. "You devious child you," she teased with a glance towards the bird again. "Well you don't sound _too _winded, so I guess you had to have been busy, huh?"

"Yeah, and that's exactly what made it all worse for Grandpa. He's still sweeping furiously down there." He paused for a moment and then snickered softly. "He's cursing me under his breath. Oh my gods."

"Oh, I bet he is," she laughed, shaking her head with a roll of her eyes. Yugi's grandpa always tended to curse him when he was lazy—thankfully that didn't happen often, because she thought for sure if it did he might start cursing their relationship at some point too. And she needed that blessing at this point with the fighting that they seemed to be going through and the lying she would have to do soon enough. Which, again, begged the question of why she didn't try to end their relationship in order to just figure it all out on her own. It might have made things a lot easier if she were to do that. "I'd be cursing you too."

Yugi made a small indignant noise, scoffing at her when he hissed, "You better stop that. You're not supposed to agree with him about this! You're my girlfriend, you're supposed to take my side."

"I…make no promises," she said after a moment, lips pulling immediately into a frown as her mind started racing again. Why didn't she break up with him? It was more than just loving him at this point, though that was the main reason. Beneath the surface, she realized in disgust, she just didn't want this kid to win. Her pride was too ruffled and it refused to take such a blow that she couldn't recover from. Breaking up with Yugi seemed like letting him win. She cringed at her own thoughts. He would be so much safer though. Or…maybe he wouldn't. If she broke up with him and there was a chance of them getting back together before she dealt with this stalker, what was to keep him from going after Yugi?

"Yami?"

She stayed quiet for a moment and then glanced at the feather again. It was glinting coldly in the light and she narrowed her eyes at the sight of it. "Sorry, I was thinking about something," she admitted, not bothering to give further details. "I just got a little caught up in my head."

"Oh." He hesitated. "If—"

"No, it's not that serious, Yugi. It was a math problem."  
"Oh." There was a snicker and she felt her cheeks heat in mortification as he continued. "And we all know how badly you _suck _at math. You remember in fifth grade how you told the teacher to eat a dick when she tried to tutor you and you still didn't get it?"

"Oh my god, shut up!" she snapped, blushing harder. "I also remember getting two weeks' worth of after school detention and having to write an essay on how that wasn't the proper answer to the equation. God, who needs imaginary numbers anyways?"

"You're so lucky she wasn't like Chono. She would have had you expelled before you could even blink."

"What can I say? My teachers _love _me when I'm not sassy."

She thought he was about to say something—probably that _everyone _loved her when she wasn't sassy with them—but instead they both heard his grandpa yelling again. Yugi burst into snickers and then quickly said, "Oh shit, I think he found the pile of dirt I put under the register earlier! I have to go. I'll talk to you later. Love you."

"You better hope you can run faster than he can," she snorted. "Love you too."

"_Yugi_!"

"Oh gods."

She was still laughing when he hung up. Nightshade was still perched on the table, watching her with some kind of expression that she couldn't read. The next pet she had it would be a dog. At least they went and _attacked _people who broke into someone's house. Maybe she'd get a cat…but they didn't have as much weight as a dog did or the bite force from what she knew.

If she ever got stalked again, she was definitely getting a dog.

She rolled her eyes at herself. A guard dog, one that was already trained and would just attack someone who set foot in the house. If they weren't her or Yugi or her dad, she wanted them torn to pieces.

She watched the bird for a few more minutes and then went about putting him back inside his cage. There wasn't much else to do at the moment though she hesitated at the bottom step with a backwards glance. It was early but she had nothing better to do than sleep and she didn't want to have to think anymore about what was going on in the first place.

She woke up in the middle of the night, at first expecting it to be because of her dad coming home late or something of that manner. She sat up, blinking tiredly, and glanced towards the door only to find it still shut. Her dad wasn't poking his head through to see her, he wasn't telling her to go back to sleep and that he was just checking on her.

A small chill crept through the air and she paused, eyes widening. She couldn't hear the hum of the air conditioning as it rattled awake downstairs. She didn't hear the vents that it traveled through. Her head snapped towards the window, her mouth growing dry at the sight of it.

It was wide open, something that she never let happen at night. Unless Yugi decided to come over late at night and sneak in out of boredom while his grandpa was away—and he only ever did it while he was away—then it was never open. Her eyes narrowed into slits of frustration. Falling asleep early had obviously not been one of her better ideas when it came down to it. Her stalker must have snuck in at some point and undid the locks—because she knew that it was impossible to open from the outside when it was shut like that—so that he could get away through there when her dad got home. Which meant that her dad had to have just gotten home recently and they had been standing there in her room, watching her as she slept.

How creepy.

And unattractive as fuck.

She curled her lip back, shaking her head as disgust swept through her. Who the hell just stood around watching people when they slept? And while she was at it, who the hell thought that it was romantic and put it in romance novels? That was just plain gross.

She had, admittedly, looked at Yugi while he was sleeping and thought he was adorable. But she hadn't just been laying there watching him. It had always been a small glance and her messing with his bangs before settling for sleep again. Beyond that she didn't want to see him sleeping. Watching someone sleep had to be one of the most _boring _and _creepy _things someone could do.

And violating.

She shook her head, rolling her eyes, and headed for the window.

* * *

**So remember that I don't have the internet and am leeching off other people's wi-fi right now so I have NO way of updating more frequently considering. Thank you for your patience.**


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