A/N: An experimental one-shot. It's based roughly around Season 0 Yugi and the spirit of the puzzle, making the spirit a little more twisted than is cannon, if I'm remembering that season correctly. (I haven't seen it in quite some time, so I'm not 100% sure.) Yes, this is a Puzzleshipping fic, but there's nothing explicit, and you could read a type of 'friendship', if you will, into it if you don't support/appreciate/approve the pairing. It was inspired by a piece of fan-art I found while floating around the internet, and if anyone is curious to see it (or to tell me who the artist is), message me and I'll email it to you.
{Warnings: PAIRING: Puzzleshipping (Yugi x Yami), mentions of non-specified abuse}
To The Darkness With Me
Yugi was light.
He was happy, he smiled constantly, he was kind to everyone, he did not judge, he would listen, his laughter was contagious, he was willing to help with anything he could…
He was well liked.
But it was not always exactly so.
He used to be timid, shy, and easily frightened. He was a small boy, and was often teased about it. He was not athletic, so the other boys would jeer and laugh and call him names when he chose to spend recess and class breaks working on solving puzzles or playing games by himself, sitting alone in the corner, half-hoping no one would notice him, despite his burning desire to make friends. He just did not want to be hurt again.
He used to be bullied, pushed around and beaten, his things stolen and hidden and sometimes destroyed. He would beg and plead but things would never change. Eventually, he started to lose hope that his life would ever be any different.
All he wanted was friends. People that would like him, laugh with him (not at him), enjoy being with him, and not leave him alone. He wanted to be accepted, he wanted love.
And he found it.
It was a dark love, a love that quickly became self-destructive, no matter how he denied it.
It was a love that would promise him happiness then cause him pain, and he would not mind it, because he found someone that would stay with him and never leave.
So he grew happier, more outgoing, gaining confidence from the tainted love. He started making more friends, getting closer to people at school, no longer secluding himself away. He started laughing with people, hanging out with them, and he was happier than he had ever been.
He knew, however, that the friendship he had gained was nothing in comparison to his newfound love.
His friends smiled, laughed, and played games with him. They seemed genuinely happy to be around him, and for that, he was grateful. But a part of his mind, a very small, frightened part, kept hidden way in the back where he did not have to see it, cried and begged and pleaded his friends to look deeper, to see the dark love that was tightening its hold around him, absorbing his very soul.
This small part of his mind was terrified of the darkness slowly suffocating him, but he ignored it, locking it away and convincing himself the love was real, and it would never hurt him.
It had its hold on him, smirking behind his back, tugging him slowly down, down, farther and farther into the darkness, murmuring promises of love and protection as the boy was gently dragged under.
Yugi's light was going to die, drowning in darkness, but he loved it too much to care.
A/N: Musical assitant: My Side Of The Story by Hodges
I also wrote this, in part, as a challenge to myself to show how a person's mind can be affected by an abusive relationship, and how hard it is for the person to admit, even to themselves, how unhealthy it is.
I've been told that this story, if altered slightly in a few places, could very easily fit some people's view of Ryou's relationship with his dark spirit, but it suited my needs better to use Yugi here.
Please review.