Here is an interesting story about how this story got it's name. You see, yesterday my mom was off work so we went shopping. She wore these gold hoop earrings. I was sitting behind her in the car, secretly thinking of new storylines. She had her head turned just so I could see through her right earring. I thought 'Hmmmm....interesting story name, perhaps?' and I've always wanted to do a vampire fiction, this one is based loosely on my original story.

Gah!! I hate my computer! I just typed this whole thing out, and when I went to save it my stupid computer froze and I lost it!! Gahhhh!!!!!

Ok, here it is--again(ya gotta love me! I really hate to type;).

I went back over this and took some of the suggestions I was given, so maybe it is a little longer and better...

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As Seen Through an Earring

Chapter One

The Meeting

The small city of Domino was quiet. The midnight sky fell open to reveal an orange moon and countless smaller pin pricks of light.

Along a dark street a single young man walked. He was cloaked in black-shirt, jeans, long jacket, and worn boots all the same shade of ebony. His large eyes burned crimson, his smirk revealing very white, very sharp teeth.

He walked, feeling the darkness as a normal person would the sun. Thoroughly enjoying the cool feel of the shadows that clung to him lovingly. He walked, hands shoved in his pockets, no real destination. Nothing held him in one place very long. He had been all around the world, slept in every continent, hunted and been hunted. He walked, waiting for prey to happen across him. He hadn't fed in about a week, and was starting to hunger for the warm taste of blood again.

The only sound on this street was regular nighttime noises, the far-off rustle of downtown traffic, and the thumps of his footsteps. The warmth of the walls of buildings on his right abrubtly ended, leaving a cold black hole where once was solid. He stopped, wondered in the feeling he had experienced. He had a bad feeling about that hole, like something evil waited in the pitch black pool that posed just out of the street light's orange glow. And, as much as he hated to admit it, he was becoming uneasy.

'This is no good, everyone is inside in this part of Domino. Noone to take off guard, and therefore no fun. Better head back downtown.' He thought, and had actually whirled around, before another thought took the form of a voice and whispered in the back of his mind. 'Running away from the dark? A creature born to darkness afraid of it...how pathetic.' But, he was hungry...

He was struggling with himself when he heard a sound float out of that black pit. The sound of sobs. The kind of cries a tortured soul would utter who had been refused the final refuge of Heaven. The kind of cries only the truely heartbroken knew. Such heart-wrenching, though muffled, cries the young man felt something he hadn't felt for ages stir inside him. Pity? Sympathy? Maybe just remorse.

He could relate to such grief, so he swallowed the feeling fluttering in his throat and slowly walked down the passage and into the pit.

After a few seconds, the darkness recognized a friend and it allowed his eyes to adjust. He had expected a small child, although he couldn't say why, what he saw was a boy only a few years younger than himself.

He sat behind some trash cans, arms wrapped around his knees, head on his arms. His shoulders shook slightly. The stranger in black came to stand just in front of the boy. With a gasp, he looked up, although he couldn't see who-or what-was standing before him, he knew something was there, and he wanted to be alone. The stranger almost gasped in return which was something he had never done in his life, and he quickly convinced himself it was just the alley in which they met, it was spooky even for him.

Suddenly, the boy stood, almost knocking the other off his feet, and ran out of the alley. Surprised, the stranger followed. They ran down the street, the steady--light-dark-light-dark of running in and out of the streetlights was nearly hypnotizing. The boy was beginning to slow, the stranger ran on not tireing at all. Then, the boy tripped, went flying with a yell, and landed hard. He sat up as the other reached him, holding his bloody hands to his chest.

They had the same eyes. His were purple instead of magenta, though. They had the same hairstyle--black, tipped with crimson, and spiked up and backwards. Blonde bangs framed their faces that were the same shape. A tear-streaked pale face stared up into an almost identical one, distrust and fear laced the purple eyes.

The stranger tried to soften his deep voice, and ignore the blood that was running down the boy's thin arms, as he crouched down in front of him.'Here is someone unsuspecting...plenty of fun.' That dark voice whispered. He ignored it, he couldn't attack him here in the middle of the street.

"What's wrong?" Distrust and fear turned to surprise.

"What?" He whispered.

"I asked what was wrong with you, out here in the middle of the night in a dark alley crying as if your heart was broken?"

He sat there, not saying anything. Neither moved for a long while, then the stranger raised an eyebrow and, as if a gate had been opened, his story came pouring forth.

He was seventeen years old, and summer break from school had just started two weeks ago. All his best friends were gone. The stranger picked up the mental images of the people he began to describe.

A girl he called Tea had left for America for a dancing school, and a boy he named Ryou had left for London not long after. Then two days after they left, his two closest friends were both killed in the same car accident.

"Leave it to Joey and Tristan to leave right when I needed them the most." He said bitterly before continuing.

Then, not three days after that, his grandfather, the only family he had left, had a heart attack, sinking them into deep debt before he passed away just four days ago.

"I had to sell everything---the shop, the house, and they are still after more." He paused and held up a bloody hand. Small drops of the red stuff dripped out of a nasty scrape on his palm. The stranger's breath caught in his throat. "So if you are planning on robbing me, save yourself the trouble, I have nothing. And if you are going to kill me, you are only doing me a favor, since I was about to do it myself."

The stranger tore his eyes off the boy's hand as it fell, looking into his eyes instead. He was thinking. Then, he spoke.

"What's your name?" Again, the boy was stunned. Who was this guy?

"Y--Yugi Motou." he said hesitantly.

The other grinned.

"I am not going to rob you, or kill you."

'What? I thought you said you were hungry....' He wished that voice would stop.

"I am going to help you." he said, standing. Yugi looked up at him suspiciously.

"Who are you?"

"I am called Yami by the ones that matter." He offered a hand. Yugi looked at his outstretched hand, then back at his face.

He then slowly took the offered hand and was pulled to his feet.

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Paladin: Muh ha ha ha ha!!!!! stupid computer, take that!(wacks computer with bat)

Ira: Ya know, that might be the reason it is broken in the first place.

Paladin: I don't care, it makes me feel better!!(grins evilly)

So what did you think? Did I waste my time retyping it??

Yugi: I don't like the looks of this story.

Paladin: HA! Then you're really not going to like the next chapter!

Yugi: What??? What are you going to do to me?!

Paladin:(ignores) Please R&R! Thankies!!