Title: Why I Care

Author: Britani Gael

Show: Yu-Gi-Oh!

Rating: G

Summary: Just a little Yami Yugi POV, on how he feels about his friends.

I don't know when I actually started caring about people again.

Hell, I don't even know when I stopped caring about people.

It seems cold, I know.  It didn't make me a bad person.  I had morals, I cared about ideological things; right and wrong, justice, truth.  Those were what mattered to me, and I fought to uphold them.

But I didn't care about people.  My people.

It all seems so horrible to me, now.  I decided the fate of so many people, whether they lived or died, and I didn't give a damn.

Frightening.

Yugi's mind was completely alien to me.  He didn't care about philosophy.  He just didn't want to see people hurt.  Good people, bad people.  It didn't matter to him, he wouldn't hurt anyone if he could help it.

Not even to protect himself.

In my mind, I always came first.  In Yugi's mind, he always came last.  That would have to change.

I didn't know what to do with him.  I was supposed to use him, yes, but for what?  So I watched him, I protected him, until I knew what his purpose was.

I had no life.  I lived through his eyes.  And I was amazed at what I saw.

I saw Yugi's attempts, I saw his failures.  I saw him make friends, I saw him piss people off, just by being him.  I jumped in to do this things he wouldn't do, like defend himself, but it was his show.

It was fascinating.  Yugi cared, and so did I.

I felt elated at his successes.  I felt outraged at those who hurt him.  I felt.

I met all of his friends through him.  I knew their faults, I knew their virtues.  I knew that Joey was one of the bravest, and the stupidest, people I have every met.  Tristan was loyal to the end.  Téa glowed with understanding.

They would all do anything for each other.

And so would I.

Those four are important.  Important in the fate of the Shadow Games, and important to me.  People have died fighting for they causes they're fighting for.  They deserve better than that.

I won't let them down.  I will protect them.

Maybe I don't know why I care, but I do.  To me, that's all that matters.

* * *