Disclaimer: I do not own YGO GX.


The rainwater seamlessly blended with his salty tears as he struggled frantically with the box of 25 count matches. Damn. Only two left. He should have gotten another one a long time ago…

The unrelenting torrent of rainwater had soaked through his clothes and had and was still dampening his spirit. Worriedly, he struck the match against the strip of striking surface. No good. The head of the match itself was soaked. Indeed, the cardboard that composed the matchbox—the matchbox that his brother had given him—was also water-spattered.

If only Judai and I hadn't started so many campfires…

In vain, Sho attempted to strike the match again.

so that we could toast marshmallows…

Furiously, Sho threw the worthless match he had been uselessly trying to coax back to life and hoped to the bowels of his being that the other match was drier as his fingers landed on it.

and eat their gooey insides…

Sho, a desperate man at the moment, dolefully raked the match along the strip. He needed to dry himself. He needed to create a roaring fire with the sticks and pine boughs he had heaped in front of him or he would take sick. He would die.

As he applied the match to the striking surface again, a bone-chilling laugh escaped his lips. He would die! For some strange reason, that was funny as hell.

as our laughs drifted into the night air with the smoke.

His laughs dissolved into sobs as he realized...wait! A spark!

The flame bounced heartily at the end of the matchstick as he desperately bent forward and worked at lighting a piece of the driest wood on afire. However, the little lick of flame was no competition for the stray gust of wind that soon blew it out. As comprehension dawned on him, Sho openly bawled from under the tree he was currently sheltered under.

His brother…gone. Judai…gone. His matchbook…gone.

His hope…0. His odds of survival…near 0.

Struggling to gain control of himself, Sho vacantly gazed up at the steely sky and could only try to remember just how good those gooey marshmallows had tasted.


Author's Note: Some Sho angst. Sho is so versatile to write about.