Title: Of Blood & Spirit
Pairing: Peachshipping (Yugi/Téa), Dragonshipping (Yami/Joey), Chaseshipping (Duke/Tristan), Silentshipping (Seto/Serenity)
Rating: T
Words (Chapter 1): 930
Author's Notes:
Warning: This is going to deal with ghosts, references to death and suicide, violence, and language. I don't think I'll be going into graphic violence but be warned.
Disclaimer: this is not an original idea. If you look up Sisters of Blood and Spirit, you'll find the book that inspired this. I found it by chance at my local library, finished it within a couple of hours, and after I finished it, realized it would be a good premise for Yu-Gi-Oh!
Yugi:
Red. That's all I could see – red. The sweet feeling of release, of getting away from all the pain. The red turned to black, turned to blue, back to black again and I was floating on air. I couldn't breathe physically but emotionally I felt like I was finally taking my first breath. A breath I knew I never deserved to have and I should have never been breathing.
Freedom.
The feeling was short lived. The vast blue ended when a blur of silver came at me, opening wide jaws to reveal sharp white teeth.
When I woke up, I was covered in a cold sweat. I panted, swallowing hard and clutching my chest.
"You were dreaming about it again."
I turned to glare at the deep voice that had spoken. On the window sill, not even looking at me, sat my brother. His head was leaning against the window pane but I knew it actually wasn't. In order to lean against something, you'd have to be solid.
Yami wasn't. Yami wasn't even alive.
"I know. You don't have to tell me every time. And would you stop sending sharks after me, for Pete's sake?"
I threw the covers off my body and swung my legs over the edge of the bed. I hadn't stopped glaring at my brother and he hadn't turned to me yet.
Yami and I were complicated, to say the least. We were twins, or at least, we were supposed to be twins. There were complications when my mom was giving birth to us, and she needed an emergency C-section. The doctors got me out fine, but Yami…
Yami had been stillborn. I don't think my mother ever got over the fact that she only got one of the sons she was supposed to. Her and my dad never tried again, from what I could tell.
When I was growing up, I never understood the big deal. It took me a little while to realize not everyone could see him the way I could, not everyone heard his voice. For a while, everyone thought I just had an imaginary friend, and I can only imagine my surprise when my older cousin told me I was getting too old to have one. Imaginary. Mom always used to give me a weird look every time I mentioned Yami, and once or twice I overheard a breakdown about why he never came to talk to her. She didn't know he tried.
It never made sense to me why I'd been the one born breathing and he hadn't. He was the funny one, the confident one, the leader-type. He just seemed more alive. Yet I was the one with a pulse. Even his hair was more lively, so much like mine but with more golden blond shooting up.
"You still blame me."
Sharing a mind with someone was tricky. We couldn't hear everything the other thought, but we could feel the other's moods often, and we shared a lot more than we probably would if we were both alive. My resentment over him not getting to live must have seeped out.
"For what?" Though I had a feeling I knew where this was going, seeing as the nature of my dream.
"Saving you." Of course.
"You didn't save me."
"No, I couldn't do that. But I had someone else do it."
Over the summer, I'd made the mistake of letting people convince me Yami wasn't real. That he was all in my head. I tried to drown him out, feel normal, but it didn't work. Ignoring Yami made me feel as crazy as everyone thought I was.
So since I couldn't drown anything out, I tried to drown myself. I don't think he knows I was trying to join him. He'd probably blame himself if he did.
What he had done was somehow reach out to a medium, who'd reached out to someone else. Next thing I knew, someone was giving me mouth to mouth and then I'd been locked up in a psych ward. Not a pleasant experience.
Honestly, death would have been much preferred. In addition to that, my parents decided they couldn't deal with me anymore, and now I'm staying with my Grandpa in Domino City.
Yami turned to me, red eyes boring into my violet ones. That was one of the main differences between us, other than height, bangs, and eyes, the two of us were identical. But in the spirit realm, Yami could change his appearance as he wished, so I wasn't even sure if those were how he really would have looked or how he chose to look.
I realized after a little too long stretch of silence that I hadn't responded to him. "I'm fine. I haven't dreamt of it in a while. I'm probably just nervous for school."
Yami didn't push it, and I got myself up and ready for a shower. When I got back to the bedroom, he'd moved off the window and was laying on the bed, shuffling through my Duel Monsters cards. I got myself dressed, unfortunately in a uniform, which at my old school I didn't have to wear.
Yami must have noticed my grimace at the ugly shade of blue because he chuckled and morphed his own clothes to match. Somehow, they looked a lot better on him. "Are you going to be okay, Yugi?"
I sighed, giving myself one last look in the mirror before grabbing my school bag. "As okay as I'll ever be," I answered, throwing it over my bag and leaving.
Author's Notes: Okay, I know I said I'd get the next chapter of Legally Blond up but then this happened. If I finished five minutes sooner, I'd be uploading it the same day as my first Dragonshipping oneshot. Interesting. Anyway, I know I named some ships up there so let me tell you, there's going to be a little attention given to each pairing but the main focus is probably going to be the supernatural, the friendships, and the Yami/Yugi brotherhood. I hope you enjoy.
