Summary:

Yuugi is just your regular everyday freshman who is struggling to fit in to everyone else's view of him, and so experiments with several aspects of life in an attempt to find one where he belongs. One night he runs into a couple of strangers who claim they are vampires and offer him a chance to control his own life. Will he fit into this new way of living? Or has he finally plunged into something way over his head?

Author Notes:

This is the first story I've written that I actually thought through first instead of writing it as it came to me. The outline is finished for this particular short story, so all I need to do is type the chapters and answer the reviews. W00t! And here I thought I was going to have to do more work! [sarcasm]

Dedication:

This is dedicated, as always, to my hikari, Reana. But this time it's her birthday present! (Albeit belated by weeks --;;;) HAPPY BIRTHDAY HIKARI-DEAREST! [b-day glomps]

Disclaimer:

Yu-Gi-Oh! is copyright to Kazuki Takahashi. Anything else you recognize I don't own.

Warnings:

Blood, hints of shounen-ai (boy/boy, no like, shoo, go away), language, alcohol, drugs, innuendo's

Well, I guess all I can say now is READ ON!

Chapter One

Seduced by the Darkness

"...so then I told her that I fucked her son and the sumbitch slapped me!"

Yuugi nodded sympathetically and took a gulp of his Bloody Mary, the fiery concoction burning a hole in his stomach and lining his throat with flame. But he drank anyway. All the better to get laid with my dear, he thought ruefully. He looked at the chattering woman beside him, his foot tapping to the heavy metal music thrumming in the smoke-filled air.

She was young enough to still be considered attractive and old enough that she would have experience in bed. Yuugi himself looked like he had just passed seventh grade, but tonight luck seemed to be on his side as he had somehow snagged an already drunk woman who took no notice of his seemingly young age.

Though from what he understood from her nonstop babble she liked the type that were too young to drive. He was beginning to wonder if all one-night stands were going to be so trying on his patience. He listened with a polite ear as the woman rambled on.

Just as it seemed she was tiring of her monologue and ready to start getting it on in a hotel room the inevitable happened. A tap on Yuugi's shoulder interrupted his eyes' busy work of studying the generous cleavage down her low-cut blouse. He turned around and was confronted by the large black bouncer he had managed to sneak past before. Sometimes being short had its advantages.

Now was not one of those times.

"Either you're the youngest looking man I've ever seen in this bar or you're not supposed to be here. Show me some ID or get out before I call the cops." he demanded.

Yuugi took in his no-nonsense face, bulging muscles and the telltale knife handle sticking out of the waistband of his pants and decided he'd better do what the Negro said. He said goodbye to the woman, who waved cheerfully at him before turning to the man on the other side of her and striking up a conversation.

"Slut." Yuugi muttered darkly, turning to the bouncer with a cheerful disposition. "No worries, I get that all the time. It's about time I be heading off anyway; wife's at home with the kid and I promised her I'd be back before midnight." he said pleasantly with a slight slur and an honest smile on his face.

The bouncer seemed doubtful, but when Yuugi captured his hand and gave it a firm shake while wishing him a good night, he seemed to cave. He even went so far as to escort the short guy through the tough crowd, bidding him a safe trip home when they reached the door.

"Fool." Yuugi growled once he was out of earshot of the big black man, the music following him teasingly. Third successful night sneaking into the bar and the first time he had managed to actually strike up conversation with a woman and he had been booted. He cursed his young face and short stature, both getting him into way more trouble then they were worth.

He only noticed that he was staggering when he nearly ran into a lamp pole. Standing with his legs spread wide and one hand on the pole, he took a few deep breaths of the fresh night air to try and clear his clouded mind. When his head wasn't buzzing like it had been inhabited by a hive of bee's he continued towards home, keeping his eyes on the sidewalk to assure himself that he was indeed walking in a moderately straight line.

He didn't even want to think about climbing up the drainpipe when he reached home.

It was during his intent study of the ground that he abruptly was thrown on his ass, painfully jarring his bones but clearing his mind surprisingly well - for a few moments anyway. He still was not too impressed with suddenly finding himself on friendly terms with the sidewalk and so started to curse the existence of everything on the planet in the off chance that he would damn the correct object he had run into.

Yuugi was interrupted from his exceedingly imaginative threats by the sound of someone clearing their throat; that or smothering a laugh. Either way, he glared up... and up... and up - he realized in some sober corner of his mind that when he was drunk things seemed to stretch out and expand and just seem to grow - until he could see two pairs of eyes staring down at him.

He got to his feet and swayed on the spot slightly, still glaring at the two people standing in front of him. He assumed that one of them was what had made him not so gracefully fall on his ass, which he was sure was going to develop on hell of a bruise in the morning. And considering morning was only a few minutes away...

"Get out of my way 'fore I kick your ass so hard that you'll have to shit out of the same hole you eat out of!" he growled, inwardly congratulating himself on coming up with yet another brilliant threat and storing it away for later use.

The figure on the right made a disapproving noise and stepped into the dim light of the street lamp, showing it to be a he, with albino features and emerald eyes that studied Yuugi with amusement. "Now, now; is that kind of language necessary?" he asked with a British accent laced through his smooth voice.

Yuugi leaned back and squinted, trying to focus on the looming shadow that had advanced out of the darkness behind the Brit. Only a pair of dusky violet eyes were clear in the haze of his mind.

The two gave him matching grins, and Yuugi noticed the elongated canine teeth that slipped over their bottom lips. He stared in awe, finally managing to vocalize the question that sent alarms off inside his clouded mind. "What the fuck are you?" he breathed.

Somewhere in the distance a siren started to wail and a dog began to bark.

The albino laughed, revealing more of his unnaturally long teeth. "Usually when strangers meet they introduce themselves, little Yuugi."

Yuugi's mouth dropped open and he half glared, half gawked at the Brit. "How?" he managed in a small voice.

The figure standing behind the albino stepped forward and offered his own chilling smile, fangs noticeably longer than the albino's. His exotic looks and tanned skin reminded Yuugi of the Egyptians he had seen on a tour of Egypt he had gone on with his Grandfather. "We know you, and you know us, but not as our other selves, as we are now."

Even more confused, Yuugi took a step back. That was all he could manage of his original plan to run away, his mind too sluggish to send proper signals to tell his legs to get the fuck out of there. He idly wondered exactly what had been slipped into his last drink.

Settling his cold green gaze on Yuugi, the albino revealed his fangs in a smile that wasn't reassuring in the least. "I am Bakura, and this is Marik." He glanced toward the assumed Egyptian, who was staring intently at Yuugi with lidded eyes. Satisfied with the other's study of the tricolour haired teen, the Brit turned back to Yuugi. "We are vampires."

The dog ceased its barking.

Yuugi blinked. Looked at Bakura. Blinked again. Looked at Marik. Blinked yet again. Looked back at Bakura who was swiftly becoming annoyed with the lack of response he was getting from the short teen. Blinked once more...

...and burst out laughing.

"I may be drunk but I'm not stupid, so you can cut the crap!" he said harshly, shaking his head in amusement. He looked at the vampires, who were grinning at him widely. He was suddenly unsure at the sight of the long, pointy teeth.

"You don't seem so certain of yourself." Bakura purred. Yuugi glanced at Marik, shivers running through his body at the sight of the Egyptian caressing his fangs with his tongue.

Suddenly wishing that he hadn't gone to the bar that night, he turned to leave. At once he was hindered helpless as a wave of dizziness washed over him and threatened to pull him under the surface of consciousness.

Bakura and Marik were abruptly on either side of him, arms slung about his neck and waist. Which arm belonged to whom, Yuugi's mind couldn't grasp.

"You shouldn't be so quick to shun our kind away," a silky voice said into his ear, warm lips brushing against his lobe as the being spoke. "You have no idea what kind of life you're missing. The welcoming darkness, the parties, the absolute control over your life..."

Yuugi listened as the voice continued to seduce him into the life of darkness, his tongue darting out of his mouth to lick his dry lips when the voice finished.

"So, are you ready to be in control?"

Yuugi turned his head and was greeted by malevolent green eyes that were veiled, tempting him. He again wet his lips and found his voice, which had been the smart one and high tailed it as soon as the vampire started to speak his sweet poison.

"Yes."

So it was with that single word that he gained the upper hand of his life, and consequently sealed his fate.

Yuugi was standing in front of a mirror that took up a better part of the wall in Bakura's bedroom. It was clean and organized, with only clothes strewn about the floor from the albino's raid of his wardrobe in a strenuous search for clothing small enough to fit Yuugi.

His mind was a little less buzzed, but he was finding that parts of his evening were fogged over. Yet Bakura's words were like a beacon through the darkness, and Yuugi struggled back into sobriety using the promises as a lifeline. He was slightly surprised when he found that he was still intrigued at the prospect of becoming a vampire.

The way that Bakura had explained it made it sound like the release he had been looking for, a way to get out of the chains and shackles that held him back from a world of freedom. When presented with the proposal to become a completely different person, with no resemblance to whom he was at the moment, who could really pass the chance up?

Yuugi had asked what he had thought was a perfectly logical question while they were on their way to Bakura's house, something that had involved a lot of stumbling and being caught by the two vampires on his part.

"Why not just suck me dry?" he had inquired, to which Bakura had crinkled up his nose in distaste.

"Crude," was the reply, before he had expanded and explained that they were not the vampires from folklore that turned into bats and fried in sunlight. "Think of vampirism as a kind of religion." he had said, and Yuugi had found that to be strangely alluring.

When he had realized that they weren't true vampires, merely people with odd tastes but a wicked cool lifestyle, and that the choice to join them wasn't irrevocable, he was that much more pumped to join their... faith.

"He needs something else." Bakura thought aloud, studying Yuugi's leather clad body in the mirror critically. The tricolour haired boy flushed slightly under the intent emerald gaze currently staring at his backside.

An unexpected movement from the shadowed corner caused Yuugi to flinch; he had forgotten that Marik was in the same room. The blond hadn't spoken a word since his confusing introduction, and Yuugi was admittedly nervous around the Egyptian.

Bakura caught what Marik had tossed his way, giving it an once-over before grinning widely. "Yes, this will do quite nicely." he murmured to himself, obviously pleased with his fellow vampires nonverbal suggestion.

Yuugi peered at the object in the albino's hand, laughing when he found the mystery item to be nothing more then a dog collar with a large silver buckle. "I thought you were vampires?"

The Brit smirked and tossed the dog collar at Yuugi, who yelped and caught it before it could connect with his face. He glared ruefully at Bakura and stuck out his tongue, suddenly finding it captive of the vampires fingers, the Brit waving an admonishing finger in front of Yuugi's face before releasing the teen's tongue.

"You'll give us vampires a bad name. Restrain yourself from any childish acts and gestures. You control your own life now, so what kind of person are you going to be?" the albino asked in a low voice, one that Yuugi had to strain to hear. Yet every word was consumed greedily as they spilt from the vampires lips.

Yuugi mulled the question over. He had been asked what persona he would be as a vampire a few times prior and he had thought it over thoroughly. The name would be permanent, so he wanted to make sure that it truly fit his new personality.

The mirror showed a reflection of Yuugi in tight leather from head to toe, his blond bangs spiked more up and back, skillfully applied black eyeliner giving him a more slanted gaze and crimson coloured contacts making his eyes pools of blood. He looked like he had been born from the shadows.

One thing that most people didn't know about Yuugi was that he was fascinated by other cultures, especially their languages. Japanese was his current obsession, and he had taken a two-year course on how to speak it fluently. It was this language that Yuugi turned to.

Bakura leaned in and whispered in the tricolour haired teen's ear. "Who are you?"

The short teen reached up and put on the dog collar, smirk never seen before on Yuugi's face slipping on like a well-worn pair of pants. Suddenly Yuugi was banished, and in his place a vampire came forth.

"I am Yami." The name rolled off his tongue with a voice that was rich, melodic and demanded attention. "I am the darkness."

Minutes later they were admitted into the nightclub with a flash of the fangs by Bakura and Marik and insisting that Yami was with them. The smell of something sickly sweet hung in the air, along with the scent of sweating bodies and alcohol. Punk rock music vibrated the floor they were standing on, and multiple flashing and coloured lights illuminated most of the bar.

Bakura grinned, and with a flourishing wave of his hand, bowed Yami into the popular nightclub. "Welcome to Homogoblin."

Yami chuckled and swept past the albino vampire, wasting no time in getting wasted. He sat himself down at the counter, the bartender immediately in front of him and chatting away a mile a minute.

"Hey! You're new here aren't you? I've been working here for two months and I've never seen you around. I suppose you got conned into this place, right?" Without waiting for Yami to agree or disagree or even get a word in edgewise much less order his drink, the gregarious bartender started to mix a drink for Yami, ignoring the tricolour haired vampires attempts at a protest and setting the drink down in front of him. "No worries about it, drink's on the house!"

Yami was left sitting there with a look of surprise pasted on his face when the bartender swept off to meet the needs of another customer.

Shaking his head in bewildered amusement, Yami sniffed the drink and was once again hit by the sickly sweet smell that the entire pub smelt of. "Bottom's up," he said aloud, tipping back the cup and taking it like a shot.

"Bloody Mary, best damned drink there is." Bakura said from beside him, his own drink in hand. "Lucky bastard. When I first came here all I got was a lousy Mosquito Bite, hardly what I'd call satisfying."

Yami nodded and looked around for the Egyptian vampire, finding him in the middle of a grind session sandwich on the dance floor. Just as he was about to glance away, he caught a flash of pearly whites and did a double take. Sure enough, all three vampires - two of them guys and the other one debatable - were sucking on each other's shoulders and Yami knew it wasn't his imagination that created the scarlet trickles running down their backs.

Bakura noticed where he was looking and smirked. "Stupid sadist, I swear that if the ugliest man on the planet offered his shoulder for a bite, Marik would agree with no hesitation."

Yami cracked a smile and ordered another drink, taking Bakura's murmured advice to get an Acid Leecher. When the drink came he plucked the lemon off the side and chugged it, coughing harshly as the bitter concoction made his stomach into a fire pit and caused tears to appear at the corners of his eyes. "Holy sh-"

"Yeah," Bakura agreed, thumping Yami on the back. "It's some great shit, but they put something in the blood to make it sour."

Crimson eyes turned to study emerald ones, narrowing critically. "What do you mean blood?"

The albino laughed. "We are in a blood bar. What do you think they're going to be serving? Grape juice?" Bakura chuckled again and downed the rest of his own Bloody Mary.

Marik finished up with his share of sweat-slicked shoulder sucking and sidled over, sitting on Bakura's lap and latching onto the Brit's shoulder. The albino suppressed a moan but other than that there was no reaction.

Yami shook his head and looked around, surprised at the sheer number of vampires there were in the small city. As his ears became accustomed to the loud noise of the nightclub he was able to discern several different conversations.

As he listened to who was biting whom and what was in and what was out, it suddenly occurred to him that all the vampires with fangs seemed to talk with a lisp, much to his own amusement. He smirked and decided to test his little theory.

Turning to the vampire beside him, he asked, "Hey, Mr. Vampire?"

"Yeth?"

He shook his held, trying to hold back a chuckle. "Never mind..."

The vampire gave him a confused look and turned back to his partner. "Wath it thomething I thaid?"

Yami burst into laughter and the two vampires glared at him and stalked off. Bakura and Marik merely smirked at each other, Marik having unlatched himself from the albino's shoulder to order a drink.

The tricolour haired vampire turned back to the two just in time to see Marik sprinkle in a fine white powder with his drink. Curious, he looked around only to find that several other vampires were doing the same.

"What is that?" he inquired, motioning at the white crystals dissolving in the Egyptians drink.

Bakura glanced at the bloody beverage, looking back at Yami with a wide grin. "It's a marvelous creation. It heightens all five senses - taste, touch, sound, sight and smell - so that we vampires can think ourselves immortal." He frowned at a vampire in the middle of the dance floor, currently stripping while trying to stay on her own two feet. "Sadly, most of the time they just act like idiot's."

Yami nodded. "Yes, but what is it?"

Marik turned towards him with a sadistic smile on his face, fangs coated in blood and lips painted ruby red. His general demeanor looked positively ominous. He licked his lips and leaned towards Yami, his lips brushing against the side of his neck as he spoke.

"Flow."

Author's Endnotes:

Well, I suppose there are a few people thinking that I made Yuugi out of character... I guess I may have, but it was on purpose and not because he's drunk (though that does have an influence on his choice of words.)! I see Yuugi as someone who is very good with words and can use his charm and wit in any given situation flawlessly.

Bakura was a bitch to write, literally! No matter how hard I try, he seems to come off either as a childish semi-evil baddie who fails in everything or a slutty bitch who is ruled by his 'smaller' head! [groans] Why couldn't Kazuki have made him into a chick? He'd be so much easier to write! [thinks] Then again... Baku-chan with boobs! Run for your lives! He's got PMS!!!!

Marik didn't talk very much in this chapter for a reason... he doesn't trust Yuugi/Yami and, well... damn. I can't say to much without giving anything away... well, let's just say that his relationship, if that's what you could call it, with Yuugi/Yami does get better. As the wicked wolf in Grandma's clothing would say: All the better to make the 'ship crash and burn my dear...

Well, what did everyone think of that first chapter? I rather liked how this chapter happened, despite it taking me seven tries to accomplish! sighs The plot will thicken and the blood will flow. Well, until the next chapter... sayonara!

---Jasper Sable