Warnings: Yaoi, swearing but later. For now only detailed description of tongue piercing. Angst.

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Yu-Gi-Oh! Or the title for the story.

Notes: It's in Ryou's point of view.

Fear of the unknown, change and death

Chapter1

I'm very rare. I'm like snow in the desert. I'm like a flawless diamond. Just not a precious. I'm an albino, except I don't have the pink eyes. I did watch a TV programme about weird people on it. There was this albino who had pink eyes and everything. He was kind of old now I think about it. So, maybe that's why his hair was white and his eyes were pink. Hmmmmm…

Anyway, on this show it had all sorts of weird people on it, whether it was natural or they had done it to themselves. There was this one guy who had had whiskers implanted in to his cheeks, his face reshaped and tattoos of leopard markings all over his body because he wanted to look like a leopard. And there was this other man that had the world record for the number of piercings. He was cool. And he made me think, why don't I get something pierced? I've always been good; I don't drink of smoke or do drugs. I have friends who are good. I have never been in trouble at school or with the police.

I didn't want to move away from the 'good boy' image just to add something that showed that I wasn't good all the time. I didn't want something to pretentious, something that would offend. I didn't want something normal either, but that doesn't mean I wanted something completely off the wall. I'm not a 'bad boy' but I'm just not as good as everyone thinks I am and not nearly as innocent. Well I am but my mind isn't innocent, it's a cesspool. I'm also not as nice as I make out.

Oops, I just realised that I rambled on and you don't even know anything about me. My name is Ryou Bakura and I live in Domino City, Japan. I'm not originally from here; I used to live in England but moved here with my father when I was about six. The reason that I only came here with my father was because shortly before we moved my mother and sister died in a car accident.

My father is an archaeologist and is usually never home but he has just come back from a dig in Egypt and says that he is going to be here for a year, maybe more. I'm seventeen and go to school with my friends Yugi, Tea, Honda, Jou and Malik. They are ok but I sometimes feel like an outcast. They reject me because I have white hair. I don't see why, Yugi's hair is very strange. It defies gravity (or maybe its just a lot of gel?) and its three colours! But he is the leader of the group even if he is short.

I don't know why he's the leader. Anyone of us could give him a swift kick to the back his head and take him down. You wouldn't even need to kick very high he's that short. (You see what I mean about not being nice, even if I'm the only one that hears these things.) I don't understand why Honda and Jou don't take him down. From what I was told they were in this pretty tough gang before and now they follow a short guy with crazy hair that they used to beat up.

I did have a point to this small ramble. Now what was it? Ahhhhhh, yes, I remember. I want a piercing and was trying to decide where. I think I'll get my tongue pierced. It's not offensive; it's not easily seen and its not overly common. And, if I do say so myself, a lot of men will want me. Wink wink.

I think I'll get it done now. I have the money and I'm standing outside the shop. I didn't even realise that I had walked so far. I'm on the other side Domino, right on the outskirts of town. The shop is called TattooLand. Yeah a tattoo shop but they do piercing as well and I have heard very good things about this place, from listening in on people's conversations that have had something done here. What? You think I'd ask someone myself? Ha!

I go in and walk up to the desk and say that I want to get my tongue pierced. A woman, who apparently will do the piercing, asks my age and gives me a form to fill in. My hand is shaking so much that I can barely write my own name. Wait. What is my name? God I'm so nervous.

She takes me into a small room with a curtain for a door and gets me to sit on this chair. It's like a dentist chair but is laid out flat so you can lie on it. I suppose that's for when people faint. I hope I don't. She asks me to stick out my tongue and starts to dry it with some paper kitchen towel and draws a cross on my tongue in purple die. She hands me a mirror and asks if that's where I want it pierced. I was thinking a bit further back, so I say this and she draws another line. Perfect. All through this she is explaining everything that she is doing as she is doing it. I put my tongue back in my mouth as she moves around the room getting the things she will need. There is the needle in its sterilised packaging, a pair of things that look like tongs but with the middle missing (also sterilised), an elastic band and something else. She asked me to stick out my tongue again and used the thing to measure how thick my tongue is. Then she goes to this chest thing with lots of draws, each with something different written on the front. Opening one of the draws she pulls out a barbell stud.

Coming back to stand in front of me again she asks me to stick out my tongue and again she dries it. Wrapping the elastic band around the tong like things (which I found out were called claps) so they held tighter, she put the clamp on to my tongue where the centre of the cross would be in the centre of the clamp. Next she checked under my tongue to make sure that there were no veins running through where she would be piercing. That done she opened the needle and placed it underneath my tongue and told me to take a deep breath in and pushed the needle through. There was no pain, just the weird feeling that something was going through my tongue.

When the needle was fully through she placed the barbell stud through the hollow needle and told me to take exhale the deep breath I took earlier. As I exhaled she pulled the needle out and screwed the bottom ball of the barbell to the end of the stud on the underside of my tongue.

She told me that it was ok that I dribbled because everyone does. Until she said something I didn't even realise I had. I could taste the metallic taste of blood but there was still no pain. I always thought that blood equated to physical pain. She told me to rinse my mouth out to get rid of the blood and that it should stop bleeding soon. And it did.

She went through how to look after it until it was healed and gave me a sheet of paper with everything written down on. She made my lay down after she explained everything, saying that I looked like I was about to pass out. I felt ok apart from my legs feeling a bit weak. She got me some water and told me to drink it, and then she let me get up.

I paid and left. I don't think I'll tell anyone about it just yet. Maybe not until the swelling goes down and it looks better.

End Notes: There is actually a tattoo shop called TattooLand. It's in Woking, England. It is actually where I got my tongue pierced. This is based on my own experience of getting my tongue pierced almost two weeks ago now!

Review! Please!