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Best Left Forgotten	By : Ykarzel Category: Yu-Gi-Oh > Yaoi - Male/Male Views: 3872 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own YuGiOh!, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

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Best Left Forgotten

Chapter Three

"You hold the
answers deep within your own mind. Consciously, you've forgotten it. That's the
way the human mind works. Whenever something is too unpleasant, to shameful for us too entertain, we reject it. We erase it from
our memories.

But the imprint is always there� Nothing is ever really forgotten."
- Original Author Unknown

Yugi was fussing around him, something that Jou had already
grown used to and eventually found sort of endearing when it had become too
normal to be annoying. After the flowers
were arranged to Yugi�s liking, the man finally sat down. He sighed into the chair as if he were twice
again his age, and had been running a mile long sprint. Jou mused that hospitals had a way of sucking
the life out of people like that. Still,
Yugi�s head whipped from side to side as if he was looking for something else
to do.

The cry of �Brother!� brought the first smile Jou�s face had
seen all day. She was so fast that by
the time the following Ryou reached the doorway behind her she was already
beside his bed.

He was glad she had been able to get away. Sure there was Honda, whose face he knew as
well as his own. But the brunette
constantly forgot that Jou could not recall any of the jokes they�d shared in
the past five years, and in trying to explain them, would talk about places,
events, and people Jou did not know.
Yugi took good care of him, and Jou knew he would trust his life to the
other, but that didn�t ease the discomfort of not knowing his face, except for
in the past five painful days. Her
face was comfortingly familiar, even if it did seem older.

Ryou walked over, asking him how he felt. Jou answered easily while
studying the other�s face and attempting to recall it. There were no memories attached. Still, like with Yugi, there was a sense of
knowing � a feeling in his gut, like d�j� vu, that he knew Ryou, even if he did not recognize him.

Jou was trying to figure out how to hug Shizuka without
hurting himself or messing the tangle of tubes, but while he was still
thinking, Shizuka was climbing up onto the bed.
There were gasps from around the room, and Jou braced himself against
the expected burst of lancing hot pain up his side, but it never came. With a female grace that Jou couldn�t
comprehend, she settled herself down in the small space next to him. She didn�t touch him, and she didn�t disturb
a single wire.

�Hey,� she said softly, her eyes staring pleadingly into
his. �Do you remember me?�

No, he wanted to snap.
Stop asking. But he held it back. It was a lie � he did remember her, just not
from the past five years. Still, he was
tired of hearing Do you remember? Every other sentence from Yugi and Honda was Do you remember? He didn�t. But it wasn�t her fault. He owed it to her to at least try. He closed his eyes and reached � tried � to
remember, but it was like climbing a vertical wall covered in slime. He knew there was a top, but there was
nowhere for his fingers to catch hold.

Still, he wanted to reassure her. He opened his eyes, locking them with hers,
and let his voice fall to a whisper.
�I�ve forgotten five years, Sis, but not you. I could never forget you. My heart would remember.�

The statement had been made softly, but it seemed to carry
through the room. A new shuffle dragged
Jou�s attention upward. Two more people were
in the room now. One was the young boy
that Jou had seen the first night, the one that had proven to him he had lost
five years. His long, dark hair was
messy, and his eyes a soft gray. Jou
wondered if maybe this could be the �Mokuba� whom Honda had mentioned once or
twice.

The other was their age, at least. He was tall, and darkly colored, except for
blue eyes that seemed to catch and increase any light in the room. Looking at him, Jou felt that he knew him,
the same way he�d known Ryou, but stronger.
The stranger that was not a stranger stared at Jou, those blue eyes
catching his. Somehow, Jou knew that
this other had heard what he�d just said to his sister. Abruptly, the dark man turned and was gone.

�Hey Mokuba!� Yugi said
brightly. Jou thought it was almost too
brightly, as if Yugi was covering something up, but he didn�t know the other
well enough to tell for sure.

�Hey, how are you feeling Jou?�

I feel like I don�t
know anybody around me, or even myself, and so I need to rely on the people I
don�t know to help me know myself.
The thought drifted across his mind but ignored his lips, as it had when
Ryou had asked the same question. He
answered with the same �better� as before and let it go.

�Who was that?� he asked, looking toward the door.

�That was just my brother, Jou,� Mokuba said, sitting on the
arm of the chair Yugi was still in. �He
was just dropping me off.�

�Do I know him?� Jou asked, knowing already that he did.

�In passing,� Mokuba answered. �He was in your grade when you were in
school.�

Somehow, Jou thought that didn�t feel right. With that thought came
frustration. Because
even if it didn�t feel right, he didn�t have any choice but to accept what they
said. They knew more than he did.

�Speaking of school, Jou, do you think you�ll come back to
mine? Everybody there misses you and
they don�t know what�s happened yet cause the teachers
won�t tell them.�

That brought Jou away from his thoughts with an impatient
eye roll. �When will teachers learn that
not telling students something
doesn�t protect them from shit in the end?�
He blinked at his own statement.
For a heartbeat, he had thought, he had�

He shook his head, and regretted it instantly. The gash in his head rarely bothered him, but
movements like that brought it back into reality, and made the drugs still in
his system flare. He closed his eyes
before he spoke, to wait out the dizziness.

�You tell them what happened, Mokuba. And tell them I�ll try to come back when I
can.�

Beside him, Shizuka reached up and stroked his hair, as if
petting him. The gesture was soft and
soothing, like she had sensed that brief moment of near remembrance that only
stung more once it faded.

To his right, Yugi stood up.
Jou heard it even if he didn�t see it.
�Now is a good time,� Yugi said.
�I promised I would wait until we were all here, but I�m sure Honda will
forgive me.�

Jou knew, but only because Yugi had told him this morning,
that Honda was at work. When he did show,
he would be caked in mud, but he always insisted on coming to see Jou right
after he got off.

Shizuka slid easily off the bed, and swung Jou�s little
table around. She obviously knew what
was going on. The way they all leaned
forward, they all knew. Jou tensed
nervously. He had a feeling they were
about to test him, to try to pull out his memories. They�d done it several times already.

They tried to be discreet about it of course, but Jou
noticed the way Yugi�s eyes would turn slightly pleading as he described
something in finite detail, or the way Honda�s voice would drop to a false
casualness.

Yugi was pulling a deck of cards out of his pocket. He sat it on Jou�s table face down. The backs were covered in a brown swirl that
was darkest in the center. Jou reached
for the top one and picked it up, looking at the face.

They weren�t playing cards, but he�d expected as much; there
were too many there for a regular deck.
The card had a picture in the center, of a little round headed man with
wings popping out of a pink top hat, carrying a large blue die.

It meant nothing to him.
The name across the top read Graceful Dice. They all stared at him, eyes hopeful and
expectant. He felt guilty, and angry
that he felt guilty. They were his memories after all. Still, he tried. Again he reached, attempting to climb up that
high wall of slime.

�This is a magic card.�
The information shot out of nowhere.
It was like he�d been born with it.
He didn�t remember learning it, he didn�t remember knowing it, but now
he did. The green border told him it
was.

He could sense the tension increase around the room. Yugi stepped forward. He took the deck again, shifting through
until he found the right card. He handed
it to Jou.

This one had a picture of an angry looking dragon. It was black, almost as if made of metal, and
had sharp points all over its body. The only color on it was the dull pink of
its roaring mouth and a bright red eye.
Red Eyes Black Dragon was the name, but all that meant nothing to
him. The yellow-brown border did though.

�A monster card.�

Shoulders sagged.
He�d said the wrong thing. Yet,
it was a monster card. He didn�t remember knowing, but he did. It was
just, there, inside his head as soon as he thought of it.

�A good monster
card,� he added, glancing at the stats written across the card. He suddenly knew what they meant.

�The doctor said,� Yugi started, with disappointment lacing
his voice, �that you might retain Duel Monsters. He said we shouldn�t get our hopes up. He warned us that you might remember how to
play, but you would never remember a game you�ve played previously. We should have known not to hope that you�d
remember�� he trailed away.

�Remember what?� Jou snapped. It was so very annoying, being talked about
that way.

�What Red Eyes meant to you.�

It�s just a card, Jou wanted to say. But obviously it wasn�t. According to them, this card was important to
him. According to
them.

And though he didn�t feel it now, he would have to act like
it was. Because they said that was how
he felt, he must feel that way. He
wanted to chuck the cards across the room, but instead he sat the Red Eyes back
on top of the table.

�I�m tired,� he lied.
He pushed the button that made the bed go back down. It hurt, all movement did, but he wanted them
to leave; wanted them to leave him alone.
He didn�t want to try to be the Jou they wanted right now, he was sick
of it.

Nobody questioned it when he closed his eyes and pulled the
blanket back up. Sometimes the drugs did
affect him that way. If he pretended to
sleep long enough, he eventually would.
And maybe when he woke up, most or all of them would be gone.

Then he would be alone.
And he wouldn�t know who he had been, but damn it, he knew who he was
now. He was Jou, five years missing or
not; he was tired of being told who he was.
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Best Left Forgotten