Title: The Book
Summary: Yugi is a shy 11-year-old that has no friends and gets bullied daily. But one day, as a birthday present, Yugi is given a book containing the spirit of a 5,000-year-old pharaoh who communicates to him through the blank pages. Yugi is overjoyed to finally have a real friend, but will a friendship formed between a lonely boy and an ancient spirit turn out to be dangerous?
Warning: Rated T for some violence, some language, and some death
Pairings: none
Timeline: AU present

Taku: What? A story with Yami/Yugi friendship and no Yaoi? Call Guinness.
KT: Shut up.
Juni: Anyway, welcome back to Maru-chan's west side stories.
Taku: Was that supposed to be a catch phrase?
KT: Shut up.
Juni:This is space filler between now and when Maru-chan posts the sequel to The Forbidden Forest. So bear with her.Maru-chan does not own Yu-Gi-Oh or any of its characters.
Taku: This disclaimer stuff is rather needless, isn't it? I mean, why would Kazuki Takahashi be bothering with this website?
KT: Shut up.
Yugi thinking

Yugi writing

Atemu writing

1: Birthday Present

11-year-old Yugi Moto sat in class and tried not to think about the eyes on his back. I wish I wasn't here, he thought to himself. I wish I was in sixth grade, like every normal eleven-year-old. Then maybe there wouldn't be all these teenagers staring at me. It was true: Yugi had the gift of being unusually bright for his age, though he considered it more like a curse. He had just turned eleven, and he was already in the highschool freshman class. When he had first started school, he had been put in the first grade at four, almost five. Then, he had skipped fourth grade at eight. His parents were so proud of his achievements. But he wished that he were dumber.

Yugi couldn't remember the last grade he had been in where he had been beaten up and/or blackmailed by bullies in exchange for doing other people's homework. He didn't have any real friends, or even acquaintances. He just kind of floated through class each day, quietly getting nearly perfect scores on every quiz and test and trying to be invisible besides that. Sometimes he even tried to answer things incorrectly, just so his name wouldn't be at the top of the class grades list. But it never worked. He couldn't help but get the answers right. He liked getting answers right.

Yugi's first week of school at Domino High was very frightening. It was bad enough that any average 11-year-old would be the shortest person in school, but Yugi had the misfortune of being short for his age, so he felt like a dwarf. The next shortest person he could find was still a whole head and a half taller than him. Yugi knew that when he became established as a smart person, the bullies would be after him, and because of his small size, he would be easy prey. He had only been able to identify three people on the freshman level who fit the "bully" description: this really tall guy whose name he hadn't been able to find out (since no one ever talked to him) and two guys named Joey and Tristan who seemed to hang out with each other. The Joey and Tristan guys didn't beat up people as much as simply picking on them, but the nameless bully guy--he did the whole deal.

Anyway, back to the class, Yugi knew that several people were looking at him. A few were looking out of pure curiosity, a common thing when there was anyone new. Some out of annoyance, like he shouldn't be there because he was so little, in more ways than one. And Yugi was pretty sure that Joey and Tristan were watching him and deciding when would be a good time to strike. One thing he had in his favor when it came to size was that he could get easily lost in a crowd. That, and the fact that he was a fast runner often got him out of sticky situations.

Yugi tried to tune out everyone but the teacher. It was kind of hard because he knew they were looking. Eventually he noticed out of the corner of his eye that some of the curious starers stopped looking after a while and went on about their business. And fortunately, so did some of the annoyed starers. But Joey and Tristan kept looking. He thought he heard them whispering between each other but couldn't tell what they were saying.

Finally the bell rang. Yugi gathered his stuff and was one of the first out the door. He glanced briefly behind him and saw Joey and Tristan watching him. He turned back around and disappeared in the crowd, hoping they weren't planning on following him or something. Just one more period, he thought, and then I can go home.

"Next time try growing up before you come to highschool."

Yugi rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand. He listened to the sound of the bully walking away. He had been attacked for no good reason, just because he was short and quiet. The bully had thought that maybe beating him up would get him to say something.

Slowly, painfully, Yugi rose to his feet. He had several sore places where he was pretty sure bruises would form. He touched his face gingerly where it hurt the most, and grimaced. That bruise would be hard to hide. He would have to think up a plausible excuse for how it got there. He ran ideas through his mind as he collected up his books and put them back in his backpack. Zipping it closed, didn't dare put it on his back but instead carried it in his hand.

Yugi started walking, and hissed when he felt a sharp pain stab at his ankle when he put weight on it. Great. Now he'd have to hide a limp too. The bullies in highschool seemed a lot more violent than the ones in middle school.

It was a ten-minute walk back to his house from the school yard, and Yugi took twenty trying to find a way to walk and hide his limp. Finally he made it home and opened the front door. He heard the sound of the TV on in the living room, and tried to pass by without being noticed.

He wasn't so lucky.

"Yugi?" His mom's head appeared up over the couch. He had gotten his short stature from her side of the family. She smiled. "Welcome home! Did you have a good day?"

Yugi shrugged, keeping the left side of his face turned away from her. "It was usual," he answered.

"That means no trouble, right?" his father asked from behind the newspaper.

"Yes sir," Yugi said.

"Well, go on upstairs and change. Your grandfather's coming over to visit for your birthday, and he has a present for you."

"Okay," Yugi said, and he turned and climbed the stairs. His birthday had actually been three days ago, but his grandfather owned a game shop and was a busy man. This was the first day he had been able to get free to come see Yugi.

Yugi made it up to his room and threw his backpack on his bed. He walked to his bathroom, which was connected to his room, to take a shower. Then he would bandage his injuries, change his clothes, and take some painkillers. That was his routine. He always hid his injuries from his parents because he didn't want them to know. He was ashamed at how much of a weakling he felt like.

After a shower, a clothing change, a bandaging session, and taking a few painkillers, Yugi made his way downstairs to find that his grandfather was just arriving. He stood quietly on the stairs as his parents opened the door and greeted Solomon Moto.

"So," Solomon said after he had gotten in the door, "have you been treating my son well, Karen?"

Karen laughed. "Well, at least I think so," she said.

"Yeah, she does," Yugi's dad said with a grin. "Honey, you're poking me in the back with that gun."

They all laughed. Yugi felt out of place, just standing outside the circle of familiarity and warmth. It was just like at school. He felt like he didn't belong.

"That's a pretty big box, Dad," Yugi's mom said. "What's in it?"

"Oh, just a present for my grandson," Solomon answered. "Say, where is Yugi, anyway?"

Yugi's parents turned to look for him and saw him on the stairs, wearing a long sleeved blue shirt and jeans to hide his bandages. "Yugi, come say hello to your grandfather!"

Slowly, carefully hiding his limp, Yugi went the rest of the way down the stairs and joined the others in the living room. "Hi, Grandpa," he said, trying and failing to dredge up a smile.

"Well, hello, my boy," Solomon said. "How have you been?"

"Well," Yugi answered.

"Yugi! Where did you get that bruise?" Yugi's mom asked, suddenly noticing it.

"I hit myself in the face with my locker door," Yugi replied.

After the family expressed their concerns for his health, Yugi was able to discreetly steer the conversation to what Solomon had brought him.

Solomon put the box in his arms down on the coffee table. "I heard you like to write, is that so?"

Yugi shrugged, as if it didn't matter. It did though; he kept a journal and was currently working on three different stories, all about oppressed kids. Writing, he felt, was what kept him together. "I guess so," he said.

"Well," Solomon said, pushing the box across the table towards him, "I got this from one of my expeditions to Egypt last year. I thought you might like it."

Yugi reached for the box, actually curious. He lifted the top off and looked in. Resting in a giant pile of packing peanuts was what looked like a black book. He reached into the pile of packing peanuts and pulled it out.

"Oh, Dad, that's beautiful," Yugi's mom said.

"Where in the world did you get it?" Yugi's dad asked.

Yugi looked down at the book in his hands. It was about the size of an average hardcover book. The front and back cover were solid black. There was an eye embossed on the front in gold, and gold triangles decorated the four corners of the front. Thin gold veins led from the eye and spread all over the front. Yugi opened the book and flipped through its pages. They were all blank, and only slightly yellow. "Wow," Yugi found himself saying. He was impressed. The book was beautiful, like his mom had said.

"This was found in the tomb of a pharaoh who lived 5,000 years ago," Solomon said. "Somehow the book was kept in almost new condition, as you can see. Since it was blank, they let me have it. Now I'm letting you have it to write in."

"Really?" Yugi said, still flipping pages. He looked up at Solomon, a genuine smile on his face. "Thanks, Grandpa."

"It's nothing at all, my boy," Solomon answered easily.

After that, Solomon and Yugi's parents fell to talking about the boring things that adults find interesting for some reason. Yugi went upstairs and sat crosslegged on his bed, looking down at the book in his lap. This is a really pretty book, he thought. I'll have to save it for something special.

After a moment's thought, Yugi reached underneath his pillow to find one of the sixty-four pens floating around in his room. He needed to see what kind and color of ink would look best on the pages of his new book.

Locating about three or four pens underneath his pillow, Yugi picked one at random and pulled it out. It was a blue pen. Blue ink should work. Yugi opened the book to the first page and considered what to write as a test. Finally he bent over the book and wrote on the top of the first page.

My name is Yugi Moto.

Yugi inspected the ink. It looked pretty good on the paper. Yugi obsessed about things like that. He wondered briefly how one of his other pens' ink might look, but then decided to keep this one. He grabbed the side of the page and was about to tear it out and start fresh, when, all of a sudden, words appeared under his.

"What the...?" Yugi exclaimed, staring. When he read the words, his eyes got even bigger.

Hello, Yugi Moto. My name is Atemu.

KT: And that's the first chapter.
Juni: You ended the first chapter on a cliffhangle?
KT: Cliffhanger, Jun-kun.
Taku: I still can't believe there's no Yaoi.
KT: Shut up.