A new story I've thunk up. Oh, yeah - WARNING! SPOILERS! WARNING! Just for good measure. If you already know what happens at the end of Yu-Gi-Oh!, then not to worry - I don't know much myself, so it's pretty vague. And I'm not recapping it, either.

Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh! does not belong to me. If it did, there would be a good deal less friendship speeches and a hell of a lot more kissing.

I wasn't sure whether to classify it as 'angst' or 'humor'. That seems kind of a wide difference, but the beginning is angsty, and I do like to make my stories funny. So - it says drama. I figured that was a nice mix of the two. Without further ado, enjoy:3

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…and if you have to leave
I wish that you would just leave
'cos your presence still lingers here
and it won't leave me alone.
These wounds won't seem to heal,
this pain is just too real,
there's just too much that time cannot erase…
Evanescence, 'My Immortal'

He was gone. Yes. Everyone knew that. No one so much as looked at him nowadays. They'd see him looking at old dueling posters and think – 'Is that?! Nah, couldn't be. Must be a relative. His sister, maybe.'

His friends told him to forget. They saw his tearstained face and thought maybe they'd all have been happier if he'd never come. But Yugi was glad the Pharaoh had come. He had the memories – that was all that really mattered. At least, that's what he told everyone. That was the brave front he put on.

Yugi had tried to change his hair. It had broken every pair of scissors he'd taken to it, and dye just seemed to roll off. Needless to say, it was still just as ridiculously pointy and tri-coloured as ever. He'd also stopped wearing so many pointless belts. His other self had put them on him in the first place, after all. No, nothing left to show that the Pharaoh had ever been there. The Puzzle had been buried under some useless old schoolwork in a bottom drawer somewhere.

All that were left were…memories. Their 'adventures', too numerous to count, had been, for the most part, terrifying. Yugi couldn't help but wonder – if he hadn't solved the Millennium Puzzle, would any of it have happened? Or would the world just be ruled/destroyed by millennias-old psychopathic spirits by now?

Remembering was painful. Each time he looked in the mirror, he was forcibly reminded of the one he'd lost. They looked so similar, but for the eyes. Their eyes had been as different as night and day; darkness and light. Yami'd had a bit of a stronger chin, too.

There was also a gaping, bleeding hole in Yugi's chest. His friends couldn't see the scars. Though they weren't entirely physical, they were still there. When the Pharaoh had left him to spend eternity with a bunch of dead people he barely remembered, it was like he'd driven a gilded dagger between his partner's ribs. And now, every time he thought of his other self, it was as though the Pharaoh, cold and impersonal, had dipped the dagger in acid and twisted it in he wound.

They'd had their good moments, yes. They'd saved their friends. Saved each other. Bonded more tightly than any two human souls were ever meant to have been bound…that was what he tried to keep hold of.