Helloo! I haven't done a one shot in a while so we'll see how this goes...

Oh, this is set before Yugi meets Yami. So like Season 0..

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! It belongs to Kazuki Takahashi

Enjoy!

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Drops of Crimson

His back was pressed wall, his breath coming fast and hard but he keep his mouth shut his pursuers were nearby and the last thing he needed was them to find him again. Taking a glance around the corner, Yugi was quick to make himself as small as possible. Ushio and his gang of thugs were only a matter of steps away. Pressing himself further into the wall, he struggled to hold back his tears. They rolled down his face as he hard Ushio coming closer and closer. The scratch on his cheek stung as salty tears rolled over it. He held his breath, Ushio was feet away he could hear every word that he was saying.

"Where is that little brat? He can't of gone far, with those short legs I'd be surprised if he had gone far."

The footsteps came closer, closer and closer until;

"There you are."

A large hand grabbed hold of his jacket and Yugi was lifted into the air. His small hands grabbed the large hand holding him. He tried to wriggle free but it was no use, Ushio was much stronger with him.

"Where did you think you were going? You still owe me and you know me I never let anyone get away with no giving me what I am owed."

"P-please! I-I gave you all I have!" Yugi stammered, tears rolling down his cut face, "

"Oh but Yugi, it is not enough. I'm owed much more." Ushio sneered, "Now, give me the rest and we will take this no further."

"I d-don't have any more, y-you took it all."

With that he was dropped unceremoniously to the ground. Knowing exactly what was going to happen next Yugi hide his face and placed his arms protective around his head. He felt the punches and kicks rain down upon his body. He tried to curl up on himself but two of Ushio's thrugs grabbed his arms pulling them away from his head. Yugi's watery amethyst eyes blinked up at Ushio.

"This could all have been avoided, you should have just given me my money."

A hard punch meet his nose, Yugi felt the blood flow from his nose. Hands released him and he heard the footsteps move further away from him. Slowly, Yugi got to his feet putting a hand to his nose feeling the flow of blood. How was he going to explain this the Grandpa? Grandpa knew nothing about what Ushio was doing to him, if he did then he'd report it to the school and then who knew what Ushio would do to him. Perhaps he could try to hide this from his grandfather he would just have to get in the house and up to his room without being spotted.

As he walked home his mind turned to how the hell he was going face Ushio tomorrow. He had no money on his own anymore, Ushio had taken it all, then there was the money that Grandpa gave him in the mornings which, again, Ushio would take from him as soon as he saw him. The Kame Game Shop came into view, he drew a shaky breath before slowly pushing the door open.

"Grandpa!" He called, "I'm home!"

Yugi was quick to move upstairs. He was halfway up the second set of stairs leading up to the bedrooms when;

"Yugi? How was school?"

Yugi didn't turn around. "It was fine.. I-I'm just going to get changed."

Without waiting for a reply Yugi continued up the stairs. Before heading into his bedroom, he went into the bathroom filled a spare jug with water and grabbed some tissue. Moving into his bedroom he sat on the floor with a mirror, water and tissue. His face was a mess, the bleeding scratches on his cheek and the bleeding nose. Rolling up some of the tissue he began to dap at his nose, putting a stop to the bleeding. As he tended to his wounds his mind wondered back to words that Ushio and those thugs said. As each words cut into him, each word was like part of him was being destroyed. But there was no way to stop it, Ushio had too much of a control on him. It had been going to too long, there was no way to stop it. Nothing would stop it.

"You're very quiet this evening, Yugi?"

Yugi was pushing his food around his plate, a hood placed on his head hiding his face.

"I..I've just got a lot on my mind."

"Like, what?"

Yugi looked up slightly, "I..I've just got a lot of work to do."

"Oh.. do you need help at all?"

"No.. I.. I got it."

The rest of dinner was lead in silence. Yugi was trying to not to look at Grandpa, afraid that he was see the cuts on his face. Grandpa was trying to figure out a way to get Yugi to talk. Something was obviously wrong but Yugi wasn't going to tell him anything. This made Grandpa worry, Yugi was changing. He used to tell him everything that went on at school, be very happy go lucky. But now.. now he wouldn't say a word about school or anything in fact. He was always wearing hoods, hiding his face from him.

"Yugi, why wouldn't you talk to me?"

"I do talk to you." But Yugi still did not look up.

"But not as much as you did,"

Yugi bit his lip, struggling to fight the urge to look up at his grandfather. He couldn't to look up would mean more questions.

"Come on Yugi, please. Please, just talk to me."

On the verge of crying, Yugi left the room in a hurry. Once safely in his room the tears fell and he slid down the door to the floor. As much as he wanted to tell Grandpa he couldn't to tell what make things even worse for himself. He couldn't. He just.. couldn't.

"Oh hey there Yugi." An all too familiar voice sneered down at him, "I think you owe me something."

Yugi lip trembled slightly as he put his hand into his pocket and dug out the money Grandpa had given him for lunch. Ushio grabbed it from his hand, counting it.

"Where's the rest of it?"

"This is all I-I've got, I-I promise."

Ushio pushed him against the wall, "You know this isn't enough. I told you yesterday that I wanted everything that I'm owed."

"I-I haven't g-got anymore!" He tried to pull Ushio's arms away from him but to no use.

Ushio let go of him, "You need a lesson about not obeying my instructions. Meet us out front, four o'clock."

He walked away leaving Yugi staring after him shaking. He couldn't go through it again. There had to be some way to avoid them tonight. He didn't want to go through it. No more punches. No more kicks. No more hiding from Grandpa. No.. no more blood.

The corridor was empty which is what he needed. Yugi darted up the corridor and out of the back door, being careful to not let the door slam. Outside, he looked around, there was no one around. All he had to do now was the run and get home without being seen. But a yell of; "There he is!" and a hand grabbing the back of his jacket crushed his hope of getting home. Yugi struggled but these guys were just too strong. He was thrown to the floor in front of Ushio who stood threateningly over him.

"You think that you can get away. You should know by know you never get away with not giving me what I want."

Not a split second later, the torment began. The yells of abuse, the punches and kicks. He felt his nose start to bleed and his healed wounds to bleed, as long with new cuts. The blood clotted on his clothes and dripped on the ground. After however long, to Yugi it felt like hours, Ushio gave once least kick aimed at his arm before leaving. The same as all the other times he lay there for a while before starting to walk home. Again when he arrived home he went straight to his room the treat his wounds. He could also feel a sort of pressure in his stomach. It felt strange, he had this strange feeling that he had to relieve the apparent 'pressure' that was building up. All he could think about was finding some way to make that pressure go away.

An idea crossed his mind, it seemed like the only way to make it go away. Carefully, he moved downstairs and into the kitchen, Grandpa was down in the shop. He took a small sharp knife from the draw and darted quietly upstairs. In the safety of his room, he pushed a chair in front of his door prevent Grandpa from bursting in. Sitting in the middle of his room he examined the knife in his hand. He was.. scared and was anxious. Would this help? Well.. there was only one way to find out. Raising his right wrist and held the knife his left hand. As the knife hovered mere centimetres from his wrist a rush of anxiety or perhaps adrenaline entered his body. But he stubbornly pushed that aside. The blade touched the skin, it was cold but Yugi pushed that aside once more. He moved the blade across his wrist. He pushed down enough to break the skin and cause drops of crimson rolled down his wrist. As he took the blade away and observed his work, a rush of emotion hit him. It was like the pressure in his stomach had been pieced with a pin and everything that was been stored there was free. It rushed around his body giving off perhaps a feeling of satisfaction. This worked! It actually worked, it made him feel better. He would do this again, but not know. One cut was enough for tonight.

Cleaning the knife with a spare piece of tissue, that was laying around, Yugi stored it in a cabinet by his bed. Then Yugi lay down on his bed and watched at the drops of crimson slid gently down his wrist. This.. was .. relief. He was relaxed for the first time in who knew when. He was truly relaxed.

Days past and as Ushio beatings continued so did the cutting. When he was hit during the day he woud cut at night and this became a cycle. Both his wrists now carried various scars, some criss-crossed into others but they were mostly one under the other. Although he know this why wrong and a bad way to deal with things he couldn't stop. Grandpa still had no idea what was going on, Yugi always took caution to make sure that Grandpa did not find out about anything. Not about the beatings from Ushio or the cuts on his wrists. But all the hiding would abruptly come to an end.

Yugi sat in the middle of his room adding yet another cut to his right wrist. He had cuts all over his face from yet another beating he'd received to day. The knife was half way across his wrist when his door opened. Grandpa was standing there, he paled when he saw Yugi.

"Yugi!" He cried, rushing forwards and taking the knife from him, "What are you doing? What's happened to you?"

Yugi just stared at Grandpa his mouth ajar and his eyes wide. He said nothing as Grandpa took in his appearance and then took hold of both Yugi's wrists, slowly piecing together what was going on and why.

"Oh Yugi, why didn't you tell me about all of this?"

Yugi was crying, "B-beacause it w-would have made everything worse."

Grandpa pulled Yugi into a hug, "Oh my boy I wish you'd told me, I could have helped but I will now. OK? We are going to get through this. But first you have to promise never do this again, ok?"

Yugi nodded and tightened his hold of Grandpa.

He shouldn't have hidden this from Grandpa, it wasn't right. He should have told him instead of keeping him in the dark. But you can't change the past all he could do now was look to the future and find away to stop Ushio and his thugs without cutting. Cutting wasn't the answer, those drops of crimson wouldn't stop anything. Cutting and the drops of crimson were never the answer.

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Well I hope that worked ok! I did try my hardest on this.

Please review guys they are much appreciated.

Well, I'm going to get back to work on Dark Souls.. I can't sure when the next chapter will be up, I do hope soon though.

Until then thanks for reading guys and peace out!

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