No More Yielding But a Dream

~Chapter 1~

Yuugi struggled vainly with a mirror and brush, trying to tease his hair into not being as flat as it had become in the past few months he was in a coma.  He could barely recognize his reflection without the reddish ends that had been cut off or the spikes he had trained into his hair.  He had been trying for almost an hour, fearing that he looked too feminine with his hair down the way it was.

"Leave it, you look sweet like that.  Doesn't he?" a high pitched voice asked from the doorway.

Yuugi blushed darkly, looking over to see two female forms in the door.  One was the nurse who made the evening rounds of the children's wing.  The other was a girl about his age with long cinnamon coloured hair.

"Is he really awake?" the girl asked, sitting forward in her wheelchair.

"I told you he was yesterday, didn't I?" the nurse asked, squeezing the girl's shoulder and wheeling her into the room.

"You're the boy who was dropped off the roof, right?" the girl asked intensely.

"U--un...."  Yuugi admitted softly.  "But it was an accident!  I slipped on the railing when Jounouchi-kun was putting me down!" he added quickly.

"Sou desu ka?" the girl asked.  He hands twisted in her lap.  "Mutou-san...  If I left you a letter for Jounouchi-san would you be sure he gets it?"

Yuugi blinked.  "Ee," he agreed with a confused nod.  "You know him?"

The girl didn't answer, thrusting the envelope at Yuugi.  He took it, looking down at the sloppy handwriting addressing it.  When he looked up, the nurse was wheeling the girl back to the door.

"Wait!  Who should I say it's from?"

There was a pause and then the girl answered, "Kawai Shizuka."


Yuugi read through the textbook, determined to have finished reading the chapter by the time Jounouchi and Honda got to the hospital.  While school was just getting started again after a week, the boys had promised that they'd come over afterwards to help him get caught up.  Before he could get more than halfway through, however, Jounouchi came in.

"Got afternoon suspension," the blond explained.  "Figured I'd actually do something with the time."  He sat next to Yuugi's bed.  "How're you doing?"

"Pretty good," Yuugi said, smiling at Jounouchi shyly.  He still found it hard to believe that he had friends now.  "There's just so much of it.  Why did you get suspended?"

"The usual," Jounouchi said with a shrug.  "Don't think about it.  Have you been reading the letters for history?"

"No, I've been.....  Letter!"  The small boy surprised his visiter with the outburst.  He rummaged through the papers surrounding himself until he found the envelope sloppily addressed to Jounouchi.  "A girl left this for you."

"A girl?" Jounouchi asked, reaching for the envelope.

"Un," Yuugi said with a nod.  "She said her name was Kawai Shizuka."

The blond's hand began to tremble as he pulled out the letter.  He read it silently and then stuffed the whole thing in a pocket, ignoring Yuugi's obvious curiosity.  "So you've been working on the literature?" he asked, voice having a slightly hoarse edge.

Trying to hide his disappointment, Yuugi nodded and showed off the book.  They worked on literature for almost an hour.  As Jounouchi got up to leave, the small boy gathered up his courage.

"Jounouchi-kun...."

"She's my sister," the blond answered flatly.  "And don't mention this to anyone."

Yuugi's eyes widened and he shook his head.  "I'm sorry...."

Jounouchi shrugged and walked out of the room.

After a few minutes a nurse came in to check on Yuugi's moniters.  He watched her, debating, and then asked her what room Jounouchi's cinnamon haired sister was in.


~Chapter 2~

"Anzu!" Yuugi called happily as the girl entered the room.  "I've been waiting to see you."

Anzu smiled.  "I had to wait for school to get out and we were busy all weekend.  I wanted to come see you before this."  She sat and looked at the things around him.  "How did you get your books?"

"Jii-chan brought them," the boy said with a small smile.

Anzu laughed.  "I should have thought of that."  She looked at the stack again.  "Your assignments too?"

"Bakura-kun brought those," Yuugi said with a happy smile.  "And Jounouchi-kun was by earlier and he helped me with them."  He noted her sudden frown.  "Jounouchi-kun is my friend.  Isn't that great?"

"You can't tell me that you're letting that jerk near you!" Anzu exclaimed.  "Not after what he did to you!"

Yuugi wriggled slightly, uncomfortable.  "He didn't mean to...."

"Yuugi!" Anzu said, rising.  "You can't be friends with him!  And that Bakura isn't much better."

"But Anzu, they're my friends," Yuugi pleaded.

"Then I'm not," the girl said strongly and turned to leave the room, sure that he would call her back.  When he didn't, she stalked out of the hospital.

Yuugi watched after her, eyes wide in incomprehension.  How could she just walk out on him?  Couldn't she understand what it meant to him to have friends?  His shoulders slumped as he realized that she obviously couldn't.  She had always been too protective, and now it was pushing her away from him.

His eyes watered slightly at the thought, and he decided to go talk to Shizuka, since he'd learned where her room was.

He snuck out of his room and down the hall to the room he had learned was hers.  Seeing a nurse walking down the hall, he ducked into the room quickly, closing the door behind him.

"Who's there?"

"It's me, Kawai-san.  Yuugi.  Is it ok if I come in?"

"Mutou-san?  Come sit down."  She groped next to her bed until she found the chair.  "Sit, please."

Yuugi sat and tried to think of how to start.  "Your letter--"

"Did he get it?" the girl broke in.

"Yes," Yuugi said with a nod.  He paused a moment and when she didn't volunteer anything he continued.  "What did it say?  He was very upset."

"Mama... after what happened, she doesn't want me to see him again.  I told him that I still love him but I can't defy Mama."  She waited briefly.  "Did he give you an answer for me?" she asked hopefully.

Yuugi was roused from his shock enough to lie.  "He wanted you to know that he loves you too."

The girl smiled.  "I'm glad I could get him that."  She sighed.  "It's getting late, Mutou-san...."

"Please," he said.  "Call me Yuugi."

"Yuugi-san.  And you can call me Shizuka.  But it's late and they'll be doing rounds soon.  You should go back to your room."

"You're right."  He started to go, then turned to face her again.  "If you want to give me another letter, I can give it to him."

Slowly the girl shook her head.  "I'm going to leave in a few days."

"Me too," Yuugi admitted.  "I guess it was a silly idea anyway...."

"No, it was very thoughtful.  Thank you, Yuugi-san."

Blushing slightly at the praise, Yuugi hurried back to his own room.


~Chapter 3~

Yuugi continued to play with his hair.  It was the one thing about him that he could easily change, so he often did.  Now that all the dye was finally done growing out, he wondered if he should try again.  After looking at himself in a mirror for a long time he decided not to.  The nurse had said that he looked cute the way he was.

The thought brought a blush to his face.  Even if she was almost twenty years older than he, no one had ever said he was cute before.  The boy wondered if anyone else would ever think he was cute.

There was a knock and the door opened, letting in his trio of friends.

"Hello, Mutou-kun," Bakura said with a smile.

Yuugi smiled in return.  "Please, call me Yuugi.  I like it when my friends call me Yuugi."

"Hello, Yuugi-kun, then," the pale haired boy said with a soft laugh.  "And you can call me Ryou."

Yuugi was delighted and turned to the other two.  "You can call me Yuugi too."

Jounouchi and Honda shifted uncomfortably, neither used to using their personal names.  Finally, Jounouchi said, "Katsuya."  Honda followed with "Hiroto."

"You've all come to help me with my make up work?" Yuugi asked, beaming at them and making them feel even worse about not liking to use their personal names.  "I'll be back up to the rest of the class by the time I get back to school at this rate."

"Actually," Bakura replied, "I brought a deck of cards.  I thought you might be bored of all this work and I heard that you liked games.  We'll play something with you."

Yuugi's eyes glowed and he eagerly pushed his books aside to make room for the others.  His obvious happiness made them all glad they'd come.

"What do you want to play?" Honda asked.

Yuugi shrugged.  "Anything.  I like all games equally."

"No favorites?" Bakura asked.  "I mean, I like most games too, but Monster World is still my favorite."

Yuugi shook his head.  "There's nothing really special.  They're all just games.  We can play anything you guys want to."

After about an hour of watching Yuugi cheerfully win game after game, the others decided it was time to stop.  

"I'll leave the cards with you," Bakura said with a laugh.  "I have to go to work now."

Honda offered to walk with him part of the way and the pair left.

Yuugi looked at Jounouchi hopefully and the blond sighed.  "What do you want to play?"

With a happy bounce, Yuugi dealt the cards out again.  As they played, Yuugi hesitantly got Jounouchi's attention.

Jounouchi made a noise that showed he had heard, more attention on his cards than on the other boy.

"Why-- why doesn't your mother like you?"

The cards fell to the floor.  Yuugi shrank back from the force of Jounouchi's glare.  "It's just that Shizuka-san said--"

"You talked to her?"

Yuugi nodded, hoping that he hadn't just blown everything.

"She thinks I'll be like my dad," Jounouchi said abruptly.  He shrugged.  "Probably thinks this was all a sign telling her that she was right."  He pursed his lips and picked up the cards.  "I should go now.  Visiting hours are almost over."

Yuugi's expression crumpled.

"I'll be back tomorrow," Jounouchi promised, face softening.

Yuugi watched him go, still only partially reassured.  After a few moments an idea formed in the back of his head, of a way to keep the other boy's friendship and make him happy too.  He snuck out of his room and down the hall again.

"Shizuka-san," he said softly, bouncing onto her bed and taking her hands in his own.  "I have an idea."