You know that disclaimer in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn where Mark Twain's all "Persons attempting to find a plot in this narrative will be shot"? Yeah. That.

Yugi sensed the reassuring presence of the Spirit of the Puzzle behind him, something he had grown accustomed to. It was comforting.

Yami leaned into his sweet little hikari's back, warmly wrapping his lean, muscular arms around the slender waist. He buried his face in the soft hair, humming to himself.

"Yami . . ."

Yugi had turned his face, finding himself nose to nose with his Darkness. The Darkness smiled, just barely showing a line of teeth. It was a soft, sensual smile, the kind that made Yugi's thought process disintegrate like sugar in warm water. Eyes, intoxicating as the wine they shared a deep crimson with, met his.

"Hello."

The deep voice reverberated through his ribcage. A trailing hand snuck under the hemline of his dark shirt, lightly playing along his midriff. Yugi was finding it very hard to concentrate on much. Hadn't he gone up to his room with the intention of doing homework?

"You know, I do have things to accomplish this evening."

The eyes didn't leave his. Yugi thought he saw something almost sinister flicker through them.

"Mmm hmm . . ."

Yami's hand ghosted up his chest, fingers lightly dancing on his neck before coming to a rest on his jaw. Yugi found his face forced upwards without warning, barely giving him time to blush before hungry, thirsty, wanting lips found his. He attempted to appease them with a chaste kiss, but the Darkness wasn't having it; his resistance earned him a playful bite. Through half-lidded eyes, Yugi briefly caught a wicked smile lighting up Yami's face.

"Oh, you're not going to make me use force, are you?" the spirit crooned softly. The fingers exerted slightly more pressure on his jaw. He opened his mouth obediently, unwilling to test exactly what Yami meant. The other smiled and began eagerly exploring the new landscape.

Somewhere between trying not to let a noise of pleasure escape while Yami ran his tongue along the roof of his mouth and the fingers leaving his jaw to wind themselves in his hair, Yugi became aware that the other hand had come to a rest on his belt, uncomfortably close to the buckle. He found the wayward hand and laced his fingers through Yami's. A dark chuckle emanated from behind him. A tingle of excitement and fear ran down Yugi's spine. Excitement, because whatever his yami was up to felt amazing and he was obviously very good at it. Fear, because he wasn't entirely sure what his yami was up to, or that he would be able to stop him. He was trapped by the arm underneath his shirt, wrapped around his torso like a constrictor, and by the deadly sweet taste of sin in his mouth.

Teeth came down on his tongue, not painfully, but not gently. The moan he had been holding back made it halfway out of his throat. Yami caught the small sound; he bit down again, harder, attempting to elicit a similar result. Yugi didn't want to encourage the spirit any further, still afraid of where this might be headed, but a quiet mewl floated out against his will.

"How was that?" a low, sultry voice hissed in his ear.

He pulled away as much as he could, still hopelessly caught in the loving, lethal embrace of his Darkness.

"I don't know about this, Yami."

"Ah, don't tell me you're not enjoying it; we both know better. Come here, hikari."

Yami had but to tighten his hold and his Light was at his mercy. Soft, sweet, nervous panting momentarily fanned him as he again leaned in, allowing no resistance. Unable to help himself, he bit.

A brief, muffled cry passed Yugi's lips at the intense pain.

"That really hurt," he gasped, light violet eyes tearing up involuntarily. Yami smirked fiendishly, but quickly ran his tongue up Yugi's in an almost apologetic manner.

"I got a little carried away. Let's see . . ."

The serpentine arm that had remained beneath his shirt, coiled around his torso, flexed and shifted as Yami drew back just enough to maneuver his fingers onto Yugi's mouth. They brushed temptingly against his lips like something forbidden. Yugi closed his eyes, quietly inhaling and letting the fingers in. When Yami was done inspecting the damage, he held his fingers up between their faces. They were red with blood. Yami stared at them, transfixed.

Yugi realized his breathing had become shallow and he was a starting to feel dizzy. He watched Yami's face, watched the intense eyes flickering darkly beneath their lashes as they stared at the crimson. Yugi couldn't read the expression on his face, but it was both unnerving and electrifying. Yami looked up from his bloody fingers. Pinning his Light to the spot with a leering, smoldering stare, he raised his fingers to his lips and started licking them, slowly. Yugi was suddenly struck with the realization that his safety was no longer guaranteed, that he was trapped in the grasp of something predatory that had only its own interests in mind. He was prey now. He was helpless.

"Why did I wait this long to find out how lovely you taste?"

His frightening train of thought was abruptly cut short as Yami suddenly pulled his hand out of Yugi's delicate grasp and removed the other from his shirt to seize him by the hips and spin him around. Hooking his hands through Yugi's belt, he roughly pulled him forward into a hard kiss. It tasted metallic and salty. Yami briefly flashed him a demonic smile, teeth tinged pink. The kiss grew more violent, more demanding, and Yugi would have fallen backwards if he hadn't been held fast, stomach-to-stomach with Yami.

Eager hands found the buckles on Yugi's wrists. Oh, how his innocent Light always wore a gratuitous amount of buckles and belts and leather. It was enough to make anyone feel as if they were burning alive with desire, really. Yami even surprised himself for resisting this long, when something sweeter than honeyed fruit was just outside of his reach, something with soft, limpid pools of amethyst for eyes that would offer so little resistance to his attentions.

Taking hold of the buckles, he raised Yugi's hands above his head, bringing them to rest around his neck so his Light was finally returning the embrace. A wicked thought entered his mind. He began fumbling with the buckles in an almost aimless, mischievous manner. Yugi didn't seem to notice, or at least mind, and began absently combing his fingers through Yami's hair. Carefully, he undid the buckles and re-threaded them to make one strap around the slim wrists. Scheme complete, he pulled away from the kiss. Eyes hazy with newly awakened passion and confusion searched his face and then widened as Yami gave a vicious grin and cinched the leather tight enough for Yugi to realize what had happened.

"Ah! Yami, what—?"

"You really didn't see this coming, hikari?"

Keeping one hand on the buckles, Yami held his freshly caught prize and took hold of the belt around the lean hips. He took a few steps forward and forced Yugi backwards until they tumbled onto the soft bedspread in a breathless heap.

Taking advantage of Yugi's momentarily stunned condition, Yami finally undid the vexatious belt. Grinning, he grabbed the bound wrists and used the additional length of leather to secure them to an ornamental post in the center of the headboard. Unable to pull himself into a sitting position, Yugi drew his knees up, giving Yami a playfully defiant glare. Enticed even further by the challenge, Yami carefully eased his frame across the smaller, more delicate body and began softly kissing and nipping Yugi's neck. He closed his eyes in pleasure, giving Yami a moment to ponder his next move. Thus far, he had been playing a dangerous game of pure impulse and opportunity, and he wanted to draw it out. Five thousand years of solitude would give even the most virtuous of souls a heady appetite for foreplay. It was well within his physical abilities and moral comfort to force those slender legs to cooperate, but he wanted to see if he could make Yugi give in of his own free will. Force could come later, if it looked like the anticipation really was going to rend him from his sanity.

Sighing into the fragrant skin, he ran his tongue up and down in teasing patterns and toyed with a lock of golden hair. Carefully, he drew a hand down Yugi's chest. He paused to explore the subtle angle of his waist and moved onto caress a tensed leg. Massaging the inside of a thigh, Yami placed a tender, almost childish kiss on Yugi's cheek. The Light responded, turning into the kiss and giving back. Yami sensed an opportunity and began coyly leaning into the soft mouth and then pulling away, trying to get Yugi to chase him. The ploy succeeded. Unable to move far enough because of his bound hands, Yugi threw his legs around Yami and held him, starting a surprisingly rough kiss. He bit at Yami's lips in a chastising way, expressing his displeasure at Yami's antics in an effectively nonverbal method.

Rolling over, careful not to shift too much of his weight onto Yugi, Yami deepened the kiss and reached up to wrap his hands around the fettered ones. He ran his fingers down Yugi's arms, memorizing every inch. He ran his hands down Yugi's sides, then back up underneath the fabric and down again until he reached the waistline of his pants. A distracting nibble to the ear, a few deft movements, and he eased them off. He was unbuttoning his own when he noticed the enticing creature beneath him was no longer making those maddening little noises of pleasure and had tensed up. He paused.

"What is it?" he whispered, tickling the edge of Yugi's ear with his tongue.

The sweet mouth was open, lips parted as if to speak, but no sound came out. The widened violet eyes searched his face.

Yami realized he was about to cross a line. His Light might not want this. He wasn't saying no, but there was fear in his gentle eyes. Should he stop? That dark, wicked impulse was telling him to go ahead, to take this opportunity to find out what it felt like to break the rules. Oh, how he wanted to know. To take him and take him and take him and—

"Yami, wait . . ."

"Wait for what?" he chuckled.

Yugi wanted to end it, to tell the Darkness to stop. But he didn't. He couldn't. What would happen if he let Yami have his way? Was it that forbidden? No one would judge them if no one knew. He could feel his resolve begin to weaken under the steady pressure that had been building up since that first embrace. What would be the penalty for this sin? Surely it could not be worse than the torture of not knowing fully what the Darkness was offering, what it was begging to give him. No matter how hard they fell, what paradise they were cast out of, the Darkness would be with him. Maybe that was really all he needed.

"I love you."

"And I love you, aibou."

Gasping in pain, in pleasure, Yugi tried to say more but the endless letter he had been writing in his heart for what must have been forever, that explained everything, that told his Darkness how he would always love him and how he had loved him from the moment they first met and even from before that moment came out only as a breathless cry of

"Yami!"

A reply—

"Yugi!"

They called out each other's names again and again, until it became a litany that became a song that became a prayer. They called out to heaven that the Darkness and Light would remain joined eternally, that their personal forever would outlast all other infinities.

-Epilogue-

Joey had had rough nights. He had stayed up until ungodly hours in the morning. He had just stayed up period and gone to school on no sleep. Joey was looking at Yugi stumbling into the classroom just before the final bell, and he could tell that Yugi had had a rough night.

For starters, the poor kid couldn't have had more than three hours of sleep if the bags under his eyes were anything to judge by. Not to mention his apparent inability to walk in a straight line. His clothes had clearly been pulled on in a careless hurry; the buttons on his shirt were out of alignment, so one side of his collar was higher than it should be and the other lower. Speaking of his collar . . . despite Yugi's customary choker, he didn't seem to be able to entirely hide—whoa, were those bruises? Even though Yugi's hair was normally something to behold, it seemed even more messed up than usual. Had he even combed it? Joey had no business sticking his nose into the more personal aspects of his friends' lives, but it was becoming more and more difficult to not put two and two together.

Running up and slinging an arm around his smaller friend to shield him from any other sets of prying eyes, he couldn't help but notice a slight wince.

"Hey Joey! How's it going?"

At least his smile was still the same.

"You all right, Yug?"

"I'm fine!"

Yugi reached up and ran his fingers through his hair in a distracted manner. Joey tried to keep from openly staring. There, on his wrist between his shirt cuff and his leather buckle. What was the word for what he spotted? It had been on one of those crime shows. Ah, he remembered: ligature marks.

"I only ask cause I gotta tell ya man, your ass looks wrecked."