Umbrae: I know that this is the title to a movie or something, but I haven't been able to get it out of my head in FOREVER, and I finally managed to get a plot idea for it, so I'm using it. It's such a catchy title, anyway. ^^ Anyways, I hope ya'll like it and will grace me with your lovely reviews! Thanks so much!
I don't own YuGiOh!, and I mourn my loss. If I owned YuGiOh!, there would be no doubt that they loved each other.
Kiss Me, Kill Me
He wouldn't be here forever.
It was a painful truth that burned within Yugi's soul. No matter how fast he tried to run from it, the understanding found him and scorching him in utter, unrelenting agony.
Yami wouldn't be here forever. He was only a spirit. Someday, he would leave him, and Yugi would be alone.
Again.
Yugi closed his eyes and felt tears slip silently down his cheeks – as silent as the truth, and just as painful. He wondered if Yami knew that he was aware of the truth. He wondered if Yami actually understood what his leaving would mean.
The realization had come a long time ago, and it would never leave him. Yugi knew that. If Yami left… when Yami left, it would reveal to him his fears that the Puzzle – the beautiful golden puzzle that he had spent eight years of his life working on – had lied to him.
Am I nothing but a tool to you? Yugi wondered, staring down at the golden pyramid hanging from his neck. Eight years, he whispered mentally. Eight years of my life spent… no, wasted… if Yami leaves me, it will be eight years wasted on finishing you. You promised me a wish, and I wished for friends. I wished for friends that would never betray me.
He felt more tears come to his eyes. But Yami will betray me, he sobbed in his mind. He will leave, and you will have lied to me, Puzzle. He bowed his head, tears slipping from his eyes and striking the golden ornament. "Why must you hurt me so?"
Yami was wandering through his Soul Room when he felt it: an abrupt, heart-wrenching pain. Crying out, he grasped at his chest and collapsed to his knees on the floor. He was a spirit, so he knew that he couldn't rightly die, but it certainly felt like he was dying. What on Earth could cause such an agony?
"I wished for friends that would never betray me."
Yami blinked in surprise, looking up. "Yugi?" he asked aloud, knowing that the boy would not hear him. He felt the pain shoot through his chest again, digging into him, trying desperately to rip out his heart. He could hear the pain tearing like knives in Yugi's voice. What was causing his Light so much pain?
Closing his eyes, Yami left his Soul Room and materialized as a spirit in Yugi's bedroom. He was facing the bed, but he found that it was empty. Hearing a soft sound, he turned to see Yugi sitting in the corner of the room, shoved as far back into that tight space as he could fit without physically become part of the wall. The boy had his knees pulled up to his chest, his face buried into his arms. His shoulders were shaking heavily and Yami could hear the sobs.
Ra, he could feel the sobs. It was like something was being wrenched out of him; a part of him was being stolen away.
"Yugi?" he whispered, taking a step toward the boy.
He heard Yugi gasp – an almost inaudible sound. The boy seemed to quiver in fear, his limbs shaking, his movements hesitant. Slowly, he raised his head. The violet eyes that met Yami's were clouded with sorrow and spewing rivers of tears. The Nile would have been humbled before this small boy.
Yami knelt down, reaching out a hand softly and brushing it gently down Yugi's cheek. The boy shivered at the touch and Yami felt conflicting emotions through the link – want and fear.
"Aibou," he whispered softly, "why do you cry?"
A look of absolute pain flashed so fast across Yugi's face that Yami would have missed it, if not for the echoing depths of such agony. The emotion lingered hauntingly in those beautiful violet eyes, and Yami could not stand to see his aibou in pain.
"Yugi?" he asked quietly.
"You will leave me."
Yami blinked, pulling his hand back in surprise at the words and the sure tone that they were spoken in. "Sorry?" he asked, wondering if he had, perhaps, heard wrong.
"You will leave me, Yami," Yugi repeated, assuring Yami that his hearing was quite accurate. "You will go away someday and leave me alone."
Yami frowned and pondered over this for a moment. Deciding that it might be a long discussion, he settled to the floor before Yugi, crossing his legs. When he was situated, he met his aibou's clouded purple gaze.
"No one lives forever, Yugi," he commented softly.
Tears welled up in Yugi's eyes. "I don't want you to live forever, I just-" He broke off, unable or unwilling to finish the sentence.
"Just what?" Yami asked patiently.
Yugi appeared reluctant to answer, almost fearful. After a moment, however, he mumbled softly, "I just want you to… stay with me."
Yami closed his eyes. A few minutes of silence passed, before he opened his crimson eyes. "I am here with you now, Aibou."
"What about tomorrow?" Yugi whispered fearfully.
Yami frowned. "Yugi, I cannot promise you what I do not know," he told the boy. His words were soft but sincere. Who knew what the future would bring. "I can only promise you the now."
"But…" Yugi sighed slowly, wearily. It was a habit that made him seem far older than he was. It frightened Yami, in a way. "Would you leave me, if you could?"
The question was spoken with both obvious reluctance and necessity. Yami pondered it for a long time, striking it deeply with his thoughts. He wanted to give Yugi a sincere answer, but how sincere could he be when he knew nothing of what was to come?
"I suppose it would depend on the circumstances, Yugi," he admitted, trying to avoid the question.
He should have known Yugi was to smart to fall for such a maneuver.
"It's not a hard question, Yami," Yugi whispered, his voice almost too soft to be heard. "If you could go… go away and be with… your family…" He bit his lip. "Would you?" he whispered finally.
Yami stared at his aibou, studying the young boy that looked so much like him. Silence enveloped the room for minutes that passed like hours, days, centuries, millennia. Yami knew the feeling. He had spent three millennia trapped in that golden puzzle, and he could not lie to his aibou.
"Yes," he whispered softly.
Yugi had lowered his head when he asked the question, so that Yami could not see his eyes. His face was still hidden, but the boy merely nodded softly in response to Yami's answer; he spoke not a word.
"Yugi?" Yami asked, after sitting in complete silence for over ten minutes.
Yugi gave a shrug in silent acknowledgment.
"Why would you… want me to stay?" he asked curiously.
Yugi went rigid, surprising Yami. The spirit blinked in shock at his aibou's tense muscles, the nearly-imperceptible quivering of his small form. "Yugi?" he whispered softly.
"I can't… answer that," Yugi whispered after a long silence.
Yami frowned. "Why not?"
"Because… you're going to leave."
His frown deepened. Was Yugi angry with him? Yami didn't sense any anger. In fact, he couldn't sense anything from the link. Even the sadness that had been there moments before had faded away, leaving… nothing.
Nothing.
A sudden feeling of dread pulsing within his gut, Yami reached forward and grabbed Yugi's chin gently, forcing the boy's head to tilt back. Yami met those beautiful violet eyes and felt his own heart shatter.
The eyes were blank – emotionless. The fires that had previously burned within them were gone. The light had been smothered by a force too strong for it to stand against.
Despair, Yami realized with guilt cutting into him. Loneliness. Oh, Yugi… Yugi…
"Yugi," he whispered softly.
The boy made no move to acknowledge that he had even heard Yami speak. His eyes remained staring straight ahead, his gaze focused on nothing in particular. Those beautiful eyes didn't even look toward the future as they once had.
Because there's nothing left there for him, a voice taunted him in the back of his mind. Congratulations, Pharaoh – you did what no one else could and broke the boy.
Yami felt tears come to his eyes, slipping down his cheeks softly. Had he? Had he? Yes… yes, of course. How could he have been so foolish?
"Yugi," he whispered. "Yugi."
The boy did not react to his name. Tears falling down from his eyes like crystals coalesced from sorrow, Yami leaned forward and gently brushed his lips over Yugi's. It was something he had longed to do but never dared, because he knew that one day he would have to leave Yugi.
You knew, too, didn't you, Aibou? Yami's heart tore as he pulled away, to find that Yugi hadn't reacted at all to the gentle kiss. How strange. Yami had never considered that Yugi would leave him first. He had never thought that one single answer could shatter such a kind-hearted boy.
But then, he had never thought that such a boy had ever existed.
But Yami will betray me.
The words echoed through his memory – heard minutes ago through the link but not comprehended. Yami took them in now, and realized his mistake.
It hadn't been his choice, had it?
No. Well, maybe, but he would have made the wrong one.
I wished for friends that would never betray me.
Tears welled up in Yami's eyes and slipped mercilessly down his cheeks. He was a fool – The Pharaoh of Fools.
You're too pure, Aibou, Yami thought sadly, gazing into his Light's vacant, soulless eyes. Closing his own crimson eyes, he reached out and took the puzzle from around Yugi's neck. He did not need to see where it was – he could feel its power.
Holding it gently in his hands, both as he would hold something dear to him, and as he would hold a ticking grenade, Yami leaned forward and placed his lips against Yugi's again in a tender kiss.
"I love you, Aibou," he whispered gently through the link.
And then he slammed the puzzle against the ground and grinned as its shattering form shredded his soul in an instant.
Umbrae: Wow, that did not turn out like I had planned. ((long pause)) Oh well! Very angsty! Poor Yugi… if only Yami had realized the truth sooner. Well, I hope you all liked it! Please review and, as always…
Live long. Live well. Write. Read. Dream.