Author's Note: I've been sitting on a lot of stories for a long time, and have found that the hardest part about writing them is simply finishing. Finally wrapped one up though. Enjoy...

"It is by chance that we met, by choice that we became friends" - Henri Nouwen

"You shouldn't allow him to treat you the way he does, Ryou" He said to me. "It isn't right."

I laugh a short, half-hearted sound that seems forced even to me. But what am I supposed to say to that? Actually, I enjoy having a sadistic spirit that I have no control over ordering me around and taking command of my body on a whim.

I mull it over though. I wonder if I should even answer. He wouldn't push the issue if I didn't…

He's good that way.

It's fortunate, at least, that the question didn't catch me off-guard, as it had in the past. I'd come to realize that this particular subject—my limited freedom under the circumstances— is a topic of concern for Yami no Yuugi. He brings it up often. And I can't help but wonder why. He says he's worried. I tell him he shouldn't be. After all, I've been dealing with my dark for the majority of my life… But I think that the truth might be that he feels guilty.

My current condition is, after all, technically his fault.

Whatever the reason though, in a way it's comforting to have him care. He's the first one who ever really has. And he's the only one who has never been afraid to bring it up around me. Even Yuugi treats me like I'm made of glass, as though he's afraid acknowledging my unique situation will shatter me into a thousand broken shards.

For that reason, I am grateful to Yami.

And, I suppose, I recognize his curiosity. It's not as though he knows what it's like to be the victim…or the oppressor for that matter.

He knows leadership.

He knows coexistence.

He knows patience, tolerance, justice…

He doesn't understand.

I guess that's why I don't mind talking to him about it.

"I don't exactly have much of a choice in the matter," I say, shaking my head slowly.

I can feel him looking at me, his eyes solemn. I can't meet his gaze though because I don't know what I'll see there. So I rest my folded arms on the top of the wall bordering the roof of Domino High and watch the sun sink slowly into the horizon, its light bleeding over the city in brilliant fingers of gold and orange, traces of red reaching into the fading sky. I sigh, breathing in the warmth and peace of the moment, the cool dark of night held momentarily at bay by the last kisses of the sun.

I'm glad he is here, I realize, sharing the calm and peace of the sunset with me. I wonder how it would be if I hadn't come here a few months ago, trying to find this peace, looking for a quiet place to think. But he'd beaten me to it. When I came out on the roof, there he was, just as I am now, watching the setting sun, lost in thought. I'd considered turning around and leaving that first time. But he'd seen me, invited me to join him. For the first time, we'd really talked. And though we had both come here seeking solace in solitude, instead we found it in each other. I'll be the first to admit that he is the last person on this earth from who I would've expected to find that sort of kinship, but the how's and why's don't really matter, I guess. It is what it is.

Although, sometimes, I admit that I find it strange to be speaking to Yami, knowing that Yuugi is resting just beneath the surface. Asleep, Yami says… But I can't help but wonder if Yami gently suppresses Yuugi's consciousness as my dark does to me when he wants peace and quiet in my body.

I wouldn't blame him if he did. After all, it must be hard to never have a single moment of privacy.

My dark gives me time to be alone. He doesn't want my mind to snap, he says. What good would I be then? But he's right. And for once I'm grateful for it. I can't imagine if he didn't allow me these few hours of peace each day.

It might be enough to drive me over the edge.

…It occurs to me that if he knew that I were meeting with Yami no Yuugi during those few hours, he would probably remove that courtesy. That is why this is one of my most closely guarded secrets.

"You have more of a choice than you think you do," Yami interrupts my thoughts, his voice carrying that tone of profound wisdom that he has. I wonder what he would sound like without it. It's hard to picture him talking the way that Yuugi talks, or Honda, or Jou. And it strikes me that that sort of wisdom doesn't belong here.

He really doesn't belong here.

He's out of place…

That wisdom, the voice of someone who has seen too much, it belongs in another time.

I've heard it before.

My dark has that tone too…just…darker.

I don't think he actually believes what he just said though. Not really. I think he's just doing what he does best: trying to fix things.

I'm curious though.

"What makes you think so?"

He breathes deeply, and the silence is heavy. I get the idea he is really thinking about what he wants to say.

"Your resilience… It gives you a rare strength." His voice is slow, and it seems as though what he said doesn't really do justice to what he is trying to say. Or at least I hope that's what it is, because I don't understand.

"Your light is brighter than most." He continues. And he lays a hand on my shoulder, "Brighter even than—"

And there he stops. He looks down, almost guiltily, because we both know what he was about to say.

"Thank you." I say, reassuring him, letting him know that he wasn't out of line, that it was okay. In some ways, it's true… Yuugi would never survive under Bakura's influence.

He nods, and breathes deeply. "I think that…deep down…Bakura is afraid of you." He says, and then he chuckles. "He does not fear death. Nor does he fear the Shadows. He certainly does not fear me. But you, I believe, he fears."

I can't help it. I laugh. "That's ridiculous." I murmur, glancing at him. He folds his arms and looks at me pointedly.

"Is it?" He asks.

"Like you said, he isn't frightened by anything… So what could he possibly have to fear from me?" I ask. I pull out the Millennium Ring from my bag, holding it in my hands, watching the red sunlight glint off its surface. "As long as I have this, he wins."

Yami doesn't speak for a long time, watching me thoughtfully. Then he sighs, turning back towards the city, resting his arms on the wall beside me. The sun makes the red and gold of his hair gleam like flame against black smoke. When he speaks, I'm surprised to hear the hesitation in his voice.

"Did Yuugi ever tell you about when he first completed the Millennium Puzzle?" He asks me warily.

I look at him in surprise. His face is dark with memory, his eyes distant. "No," I say, curious. When I met Yuugi, he and Yami had already established their partnership. Yuugi didn't talk about how they came into contact very often.

And never around me.

I never understood why before now.

"I was not always…this way." Yami says softly. He looks at me, and his eyes suddenly remind me of my dark's: Ancient and full of shadows.

"It was a very dark soul who emerged from this Item, Ryou." He said, holding up his Puzzle, tracing its edges with his fingers. "Thinking back on it, it's like trying to remember a dream…" His voice drops to a broken whisper, full of memory and pain, "I wasn't myself."

"What are you talking about," I ask softly, unable to envision as anyone besides this prestigious ruler of an ancient kingdom.

He bows his head. "I played Shadow Games, Ryou. Very dark shadow games… Anyone who so much as breathed a threat against my partner…" He looks up, out at the city.

"You sent people to the Shadow Realm?" I ask him, my eyes wide.

He shifts, and I can see how hard it is for him to say this. But I need to know. "My games were more…permanent…in their consequences." He murmurs.

I go very still. It's all at once very clear what he means. And I suddenly remember Duelist Kingdom. Back when none of Yuugi's friends even realized that it was someone else playing the game. Of course I always knew. I could tell…. It was that look he got. The look that said nothing was going to stop him from winning. But, when he won—and he always won—that wasn't enough. He allowed the flames to consume Panik—a vile duelist working as a part of Pegasus' tournament whose job it was to eliminate the weak competition—and the man's body was engulfed and incinerated in the heat of his own tools of torture.

Apparently that wasn't an isolated event.

"Why are you telling me this…?" I ask, trying to keep the horror of this realization to myself. I don't want to imagine Yami as anything other than he is. I don't want to imagine him with eyes dark and full of wrath, blood lust in his heart, and cruelty at his fingertips.

I don't want to imagine him like my dark.

"Why?" I ask again, my voice sharper than before.

"Because you need to hear it," He says, and his eyes turn on me. "Yuugi changed me, Ryou. His light is what brought my soul out of the dark." His eyes searching mine, "If Yuugi is capable of that, why not you?"

I press my lips together, and lace my fingers. He waits. But when I still don't say anything he puts his hands on my shoulders, turning me to face him.

"Bakura fears you…because you have the power to change him." He says, pressing his fingers into my shoulders.

My stomach twists. Me? Change my dark? For just a moment, I allow myself to consider the possibility. And when I do, I don't know whether to laugh at the ridiculousness of it, or throw my arms around Yami. Hope and disbelief war in me. I want to believe him. I want to storm away and forget he ever said anything. I want to ask him how, ask him to help me. I want to tell him that he's crazy, that it's impossible, that such an idea is pointless and nothing more than vain imagination.

I can't deal with this.

I can't.

"No," I disagree vehemently, detaching myself from my internal war after what feels like a lifetime. I pull away from him and walk to the other side of the roof. Gripping the chain link fence, I press my forehead to the metal wires.

"Ryou—" Yami says from behind me, but I cut him off.

"Stop," I say flatly. My voice drops. "Please don't."

He does, his voice falling into a heavy quiet. His silence is patient though. I can feel him standing behind me, waiting.

He doesn't push me. He has no idea how much I appreciate that. It lets me think. It lets me feel.

Yes, I admit to myself. I want to believe him. I want it so much that it hurts. But I can't. I can't. Because I come here to escape my dark, not to ponder the painful If's and Maybe's, and if I let myself believe that I could change Bakura… and then I failed…it would crush me.

"Ryou," He says to me after a long time, breaking me out of my reverie.

I cringe at my name, and he steps closer. "You were a just ruler, weren't you?" I hiss between clenched teeth, "You fought for light. Three thousand years in the dark made you forget that, but it was always there, under the surface. Yuugi didn't change you. He made you remember. You said it yourself. He brought back your light." I look over my shoulder at him. My voice is constricted, but I force myself to continue, "Bakura never wanted anything more than revenge and destruction and death. And that's all that is left in him now. You can't bring back something that was never there to begin with."

"Bakura thinks you can," Yami retorts. "Why else would he monitor your thoughts and watch your every move? Why expend so much effort keeping you compliant and afraid of him?"

"To make sure I don't help you! Because you are the only one who can defeat him,"

"In a battle that can only take place in my memories, with no help from my partner, let alone from you." Yami argues strongly, "No, Ryou, he's trying to smother you, destroy your hope and your happiness, to drown you in his darkness and make you forget that your soul is pure and filled with light."

"Even if that were true, what would you suggest I do about it!" I cry, turning on him and throwing my hands up in frustration.

Yami, already starting into his next argument, falls silent, eyebrows drawn together. After a long hesitation, I nod. His silence only confirms what I already knew all along. No matter what the possibilities are, there's not a single thing that I can do. Bakura will never change.

"Exactly," I say quietly, just to emphasize the point, and then turn towards the door leading down the stairwell. I can only take so much of this conversation. If I get too emotionally worked up, my dark will sense it. He'll emerge, realize the treachery that I've participated in behind his back. And then he'll ensure I never come here, and never see Yami, ever again.

I don't want that.

"Ryou, wait," Yami said, grabbing my arm. I stop, my whole body rigid. And slowly I turn to look at him. His eyes are concerned, deep magenta irises locked on my face. Has anyone ever been so concerned about my safety? About my happiness? Yami steps closer to me, not releasing my arm. "Give it time, Ryou." He murmurs softly, pleadingly, "It'll take time."

I sigh. Does it never exhaust him, to be so hopeful? I nod, though. He won't let me go until I at least pretend to believe in his ideals, his hope. And…I'd be fooling myself if I said I didn't want to believe. Because I do. So…it's not really a lie then, for me to promise to try. Even if I know I never can, and never will. Yami releases me, but he doesn't move away. "Will you come tomorrow?" He asks, as though I would do anything else.

I smile, just barely, and agree, "Tomorrow,"

He smiles slightly, as though in relief. We stand there for a moment, just stand there, the silence between us comfortable. Then I nod my farewell. I cross the roof, all the while feeling Yami's gaze, as warm as the last rays of sun dipping below the horizon, on my back. I pause at the open door, and look over my shoulder. Yami stands back at the wall, gazing up at the darkening sky where the first stars are beginning to emerge. And despite the darkness dwelling in my mind, despite my captivity, despite that I know deep down that things aren't about to change, and maybe never will, as I disappear into the darkness of the stairwell...

I find myself smiling.

Author's Note: Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it. Please leave a review! Regardless of length (it could be two words and I'll appreciate it just as much!) it's good to have some confirmation that anyone is reading these things :)

Ciao!