Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! or any of the characters within it. That pleasure belongs to Kazuki Takahashi and his army of talented artists. Too bad because it breaks my heart that Atemu isn't a real person...

This is my first story on this site and everything so if you submit a review please make sure that it isn't totally demoralising. The story is told in the third person at the moment, but it mainly comes from the point of view of Yuugi so some of the negative things he thinks about himself come through in the text. Most are not true. Anyway I never really read authors' notes so I'll just let you read the story... It will get better, I promise!

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Meeting Yami.

Yuugi had been working on the Sennen Puzzle for near on eight long years of his life. He had still to complete it, but giving up was not an option. This was because of several reasons. No. 1, his grandfather had pretty much dared him to complete it. It was a challenge, and Yuugi never backed down from a challenge if it came in the form of a game. No. 2, Yuugi had started it now and he was damn well going to finish it; for similar reasons to no. 1: Yuugi resented being faced with a game he could not complete, and he wasn't going to let the fact that no one had managed to solve the puzzle for whatever the 3000 years or so were that it had been in existence, stop him. As if. No. 3, and possibly the most important reason, was the promise written in hieroglyphics on the side of the gold box to the one who managed to complete the puzzle. The completer of the puzzle would be granted knowledge and power over the shadows and also one wish. It was the wish that interested Yuugi. His life could not be more rubbish, or so he thought, so he needed this wish to change it.

Oh, at home it was fine, his grandfather loved him and treated him with respect. It was school that seemed to be designed as a specific sort of torture just for Yuugi. He was always beaten up, stolen from, left alone at break with no one to talk to… Yuugi had no friends, which was something he just couldn't understand because Yuugi was always kind to people and never failed to try and help them if they were in trouble.

In short, Yuugi was a doormat, something he just failed to see, but something of which everyone else just took advantage. It was this same naivety about the true nature of the rest of the world that made Yuugi believe with his entire soul that he was going to be granted that same one wish promised on the side of the puzzle box, just as soon as he completed it. This was why he was going to complete it, if it took him another ninety years.

With an uncharacteristic scowl, the petite boy bent lower over the gold pieces as he tried to slot them into place, eyes intensely focused. He seemed to be doing so much better now. Now that he was upset and angry. Today had been a particularly bad day because Ushio, his most prevalent bully had told him, 'You owe me 200,000 ¥ tomorrow, for bodyguard services.' Yuugi was terrified. He hadn't asked Ushio to 'protect' him. His form of protection was merely another sort of bullying. Yuugi just wanted to be left alone!

Yuugi knew that if he didn't get the money he wasn't going to live much longer, but, there was no way round it. He simply did not have that kind of income, so he was working on the puzzle. The weird thing was, with all the panic and misery at the forefront of his mind, he was actually making really great progress with it. It looked like… an upside down pyramid. The more pieces Yuugi managed to slot into place successfully, the easier the task became, until -

'Only one piece left!' Yuugi groped around in the bottom of the box, his fingers seeking the last piece. The centre of the eye of Horus, the final gold trinket that was going to grant him his wish. Then he could hopefully use his wish to avoid the perennial beatings to which he was subjected. He may even manage to survive Ushio's attack. That wasn't what Yuugi truly wanted to wish for, though. Yuugi wanted a friend. A proper friend that he could rely on, and one that could rely on him back, no matter what. Maybe I could even have someone who was more than a friend,Yuugi thought wistfully. It was too much to hope.

Yuugi knew what his wish was going to be. He wasn't going to let the bullies dictate his wish too. This was rebellion. As his fingers closed on the last piece of the puzzle, the one that had gone missing, but had been anonymously returned the other evening, Yuugi murmured, 'Give me friends, true friends, ones that I can depend on, no matter what.' In his heart he was envisaging something more - a friend who became more than a friend the moment they started to kiss him, moving down his neck towards his breastbone, unbuttoning his shirt… Flushing furiously Yuugi slammed the final piece into the puzzle, his heart racing a mile a minute. Bad thoughts! Bad thoughts! Bad thoughts!What a time for his hormones to kick in! Right when he was making his wish.

Still, nothing had happened. The puzzle simply lay on his desk glinting in all its completed glory. Sighing, Yuugi picked it up and turned it over, running his fingers along the crevices in its surface. What had he expected? A genie to pop out and say, 'State your wish, your wish is my command.' Laughable.

Yuugi put it down and turned his swivel chair round, crossing his arms in front of himself, his back to the puzzle. Tears were starting to collect in the corners of his eyes, so Yuugi bent over himself further, as if by being physically small he could keep the depression that was invading his heart from taking over his entire being. He always had to be a crybaby.

The clock read 11:39 pm, the green digits glowing in the dimly lit room. Yuugi did not want to go to bed. That would mean he would have to go to school tomorrow. The same school he always went to, with no friends and now a debt to pay that was going to have to be paid in blood, because there was no way on Earth that Yuugi was going to get 200,000 ¥ by the time Ushio caught up with him. Yuugi did not want to go out ever again, especially not to school. Eight years of his life wasted on a hope that didn't exist. And now that hope was gone. It felt how Yuugi imagined a romantic breakup would feel. The end of all that mattered. An escaped tear trickled down his cheek, and Yuugi wiped it away angrily. Why did he always have to cry? He was so weak. It was pathetic. He was pathetic. It was the same things the bullies always said, but he couldn't help being who he was. He couldn't help being gay. Why should it matter?

'You're so pathetic Yuugi,' He muttered fiercely to himself. He would have shouted but for fear of waking his Grandfather, 'You really think that magic exists? You really think that something was going to happen when you finished that puzzle? You're a fool.' He hissed the last words, before finally dissolving into tears.

That was when a totally unfamiliar voice cut in on Yuugi's self-loathing.

'I really can't imagine why you should think that.'

Yuugi nearly passed out then and there, sucking in a great gasp of air in what could only be described as a type of death-rattle, and spinning around in his seat so fast that he fell off it in a painful wreckage of limbs and metal legs.

There was a man standing over him who looked… Exactly like him. Well, if you took into account the fact that he was wearing black boots, black PVC trousers, a black tank top, and a dog collar rather than Yuugi's rather scrappy (well in his opinion) uniform, then yes, exactly like him. Yuugi wasn't sure what freaked him out more; whether it was the way the man looked or whether it was the fact that he was in his bedroom in the middle of the night. His first panicked impression was that he was a burglar or a murderer. Yuugi simply cowered in his painful position on the floor, shivering, amethyst eyes wide in fear. To his surprise this reaction was greeted with a deep chuckle and a slender hand was extended downwards to help him up.

'I'm not a burglar or a murderer, Yuugi,' he stated dryly, 'I'm your other half.'

Yuugi let the other pull him up, then watched as the commanding presence made his way over to Yuugi's bed and sat on it, gesturing for the boy to come and sit with him, which Yuugi did not do. This man was acting like he owned the place. Yuugi felt the invasion of his personal space sharply. And although, thinking about it, the man looked about the same age as Yuugi, so he was probably a teenager, that description didn't seem to fit with the way he was behaving. He seemed to be a million years older than Yuugi, a million times more confident, and if Yuugi had but known it, that assumption was not all that far from the truth.

Yuugi continued to stare blankly at whoever was sitting on his bed. His backside still hurt from where he had landed awkwardly on the chair, and his mind was not processing the information it was recieving too well. Did that mean that he had come out of the puzzle? How does he know what I'm thinking? Should I call Jiichan?

'W-W-Wait… no… you're, mou hitori no boku?' Yuugi stuttered. His doppelganger nodded slowly, his dark eyes glinting crimson.

'That is correct,' he stated, with a slight incline of his head. Despite the fact that his bedroom was quite dark in the light of his small desk lamp, Yuugi still gave himself over to a proper examination of the apparition before him. He was not overly big, but somehow he still managed to be taller than Yuugi, although, thinking about it, that wasn't hard. Yuugi was a midget. It wasn't only that, though. His presence was somehow overpowering. Everything about this… person?… dominated the situation. He seemed to possess an aura of authority that made the naturally timid Yuugi quiver beneath his school jacket. Glancing up again shyly at the pointed face, Yuugi saw that the cruel yet somehow sensual lips were curved into an arrogant smirk.

'I am interested in what you might think to be the way forward for us, little Yuugi.' A flush crept its way hotly onto his alabaster cheeks. Something about that tone, and the way he was being stared at made Yuugi feel… like he was being undressed.

'I-I-I don't know!' Yuugi stuttered. 'What do I even call you? What's your name? I can't very well call you mou hitori no boku all the time.'

'My name -' the man paused, a slight frown on his face - 'Call me Yami. Yami no Yuugi.'

'Um… ok.' Yuugi looked down and drew circles in the carpet with his decrepit trainers. First one foot, then the other. He was quite certain that a being that wanted to be called 'Dark' was not something he should feel good about. He also did not feel capable of discussing 'the way forward' at this time. Or any other time for that matter.

'I did come out of the puzzle Yuugi.' Yuugi's head shot up, his mouth wide.

'Y-you did?' he questioned uncertainly.

'Yes, and I know what's in your heart Yuugi. I know what's in your mind.'

Yuugi could feel his cheeks catching fire, did that mean? Shit!.. But that was too unfair…

Yami was just smirking broadly, his eyes glinting with ill-concealed amusement. Yuugi didn't know what to do all of a sudden. He just wanted to go to bed. Get away from those eyes.

'Well, uh, Y-Yami, I'm kinda tired. I mean, I was working on the puzzle for quite a long time and - and well. It's 12 O'clock and I gotta get to school tomorrow and-'

'Say no more, little Yuugi, I will allow you to retire and I shall endeavour to continue extending our acquaintance tomorrow.'

Yuugi blinked slowly, allowing the complicated language to process into his tired synapses. It seemed so far that Yami alternated between being extremely courteous, in an old-fashioned sense at the one moment, and then would switch in the next to being as provocative as possible. The trouble was that in his tired state Yuugi was having terrible difficulty deciphering exactly what it was Yami was saying. Complex and split-personalityfloated briefly through Yuugi's jumbled thoughts. He failed to notice the slight scowl that marred Yami's features at those junctures. He was too busy feeling conflicted.

Eventually Yuugi concluded that dear 'Yami' was going to bother him again tomorrow. The nervous energy crushing his chest failed to lift, and seemed instead to twist into a tight knot somewhere beneath his heart. However, he was just too tired to care; the lethargy that had settled onto him meant that sleep was not going to be an issue. He could worry about this tomorrow. Along with everything else.

Shrugging with his best attempt at nonchalance, Yuugi turned his back on the spirit and headed towards the bathroom. Yami watched him go, as amused as ever, before disappearing back into the puzzle. Yuugi thought that he was a dream. This meant that later encounters should turn out to be quite interesting. Yami never backed down from a challenge.

Yuugi meanwhile, was brushing his teeth, and thanking the Gods that his grandfather had long before retreated to bed, meaning that Yuugi was for once not obliged to explain his latest nightmare to him. It seemed quite surreal really. Who could have imagined that solving a puzzle would give you… a Yami. Whatever Yami was. No one at school would believe Yuugi. Yuugi the runt. Yuugi the unpopular one. The one who always played games by himself. Ushio would just beat him up for inventing stories. No. Not even his grandfather was likely to believe this one. Yuugi wasn't even sure that he himself believed it. Nah, this was all a dream…Yuugi was having one of those very realistic dreams, almost a hallucination. Yes… that was it. There wasn't going to be a strange more enigmatic double of Yuugi bothering him the next day. He hoped.

Having cleaned his teeth and put his purple dark magician pyjamas on, almost in a trance Yuugi made his way back towards his room. Opening the door a crack, he peered in. It was now empty. Letting out the breath he hadn't known he was holding, Yuugi shuffled over to his bed and slumped onto the pillows, reaching across to switch out his desk lamp. The light went out with a small snap, and Yuugi breathed out again more slowly. The nightlight was still working in the corner, bathing the room in a dim, comforting glow. No Yamis were hiding in the corner. Yuugi could relax. He had probably imagined the entire thing - his mind was getting waaay too imaginative.

Yuugi's eyes were already too firmly shut and his mind too far towards dreamland to notice the soft glow of the gold puzzle on his desk, as Yami kept watch, his dark eyes glinting. Until Tomorrow Yuugi… then I find out everything about you… The spirit's thoughts were as cryptic as his demeanour, but one thing was for sure: Yuugi couldn't be more wrong in his assumption that he was going to be left alone.