Photograph

Summary: one-shot thingie. Based on the new Nickelback song "Photograph". 5 years after graduation, 23-year-old Yugi's in the new town, a new home and is working instead of going to school. While looking at old photograph's he remembers many things about his old town Domino, and his old life.

Okay, this fic is dedicated to Shrooms-of-doom and my sister, one for inspiration and the other support. Okay read the entire thing, or you won't get it. Even the lyrics, I've changed them a bit to suit Yugi's P.O.V, which the entire story is in anyway. Umm yer, one with the fic.

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh or the song Photograph that belongs to the band Nickelback and their producers, blah blah blah. I don't even own the inspiration for this story, I just wrote the damn thing! XP

"Get in there you son of a…GOT IT!" Yugi Motou's muffled voice came from under his canopy bed.

The reasoning been for the 23 year old's half a curse and why he was in fact under the bed in the first place was simple. The only other power point in his room of his new apartment was on the other side of it. And Yugi wasn't keen on having extension leads running from one edge of the room to the other, just for the purpose of his bedside lamp and alarm clock.

But it'd be just as easy to move the bed, no? Well yes, but though the young man was taller, and a lot stronger than he was in his teenage years, there was no way that he could lift the great heavy bed that his grandfather had given him, just after he'd found this place. It'd taken four men just to get it in the apartment itself. Yugi wasn't about to waste any strength on something that he knew that he couldn't move. Besides he had a heap more unpacking to do.

Yugi wriggled out from under the bed, and flopped onto his back with a massive groan.

"Why can't everything just unpack itself?" he muttered, groaning, his eyes narrowing at the thought of wasting a beautiful day outside on unpacking.

He turned his head towards the window. Eyeing the cloudless sky, green trees and children's laughter from a nearby playground. Yugi smiled in spite of himself. The park was the main reason for him buying this apartment in Tokyo, the nearby park. It was a great place to sit down and write (and sometimes perform) his songs.

Though he was part owner in a successful club/pub downtown, his real passion was songwriting. He'd gotten some part-time work writing songs for local acts, and sometimes preformed with them, but he hadn't had his big break…yet.

(A.N: okay I don't know if that's true about song writing or not, but I don't care, it's in the story, which is only fiction, so it shouldn't matter XP)

He sighed, and got up. Going over to several stacked boxes in the corner and started to unpack. He grabbed a load of books and put them neatly on the bookshelf, til he came to a particular one, his photo album.

Yugi stared down at the leather-covered book, slowly turning it in his hands. He then opened it, to a photograph of everyone at graduation. Tea, Mai, Serenity, Joey, him, Duke, Ryou (Bakura), Tristan, Marik, heck even Seto had been nice enough to pose for a photo, and smile.

Yugi laughed, everyone was decked out in the graduation rob and hat thingie, apart from Joey who had something that looked like road kill on his head; everyone's eyes were red from the flash.

Look at his photograph

Every time I do it makes me laugh

How did our eyes get so red?

And what the hell is on Joey's head?

He turned the page, coming across some scenery shots of Dominio. One was of the Kame shop he'd grown up in; he and his grandfather (who since then had since retired, moving to a quite, residential area in Dominio) were posing just out front, big cheesy grins on their faces. The second floor window still shut properly then.

Joey, been the smart guy he was, decided to sneak Yugi out to a night on the town, when Yugi been grounded. Joey had pulled him out, Yugi had over-balanced and grabbed onto the windowsill. It'd cracked under both of their weights combined, and popped out a joint or something. But they'd gotten safely to the ground and (luckily) away with it, and many more times after that.

This is where I grew up

I think the present owner fixed it up

I never knew we ever went without

The second floor is hard for sneakin' out

Yugi's eyes moved to another photo of his old school. Although back then he usually had better things to do, he did well. Besides he got to hang out with his friends all day, duel in and during classes and watch Tristan try to vandalize the school, on numerous occasions Until he left early to work and decide what he'd wanted to do with his life. He'd never went back, but otherwise, it wasn't too bad

This is where I went to school

Most of the time had better things to do

Criminal record says Tristan broke in twice

He must've done it half a dozen times

"Life's a lot better now, for me than back then though." Yugi mused out loud. "But then I've changed."

I wonder if it's too late

Should I go back and try to graduate?

Life's better now than it was back then

If I was them, I wouldn't let me in

Yugi thumbed mindlessly though the album, taking in all the blurred images. Remembering so much of his past, through these small images. Remembering putting each and every one of them in there, searching for certain pictures for different pages.

Every memory of looking out the back door

I had the photo album spread on my bedroom floor

It's hard to say

It's time to say it

Goodbye, goodbye

Every memory of walking out the front door

I found the photo of the friend that I was looking for

Yugi clenched his eyes shut, and shook his head.

It's had to say

It's time to say it

Goodbye, goodbye

He slowly opened his eyes, looking down at a picture of the old arcade the gang used to hang out at.

"We used to spend every cent we had." Yugi smirked, and then frowned. He remembered that his grandfather had told him, that a year after he graduated some drunken fool had doused it in petrol and set it alight one night. It hit the owners pretty hard, they'd never bothered to rebuild it. That was really sad, he'd had some awesome times there.

Remember the old arcade

Blew every dollar that we ever made

The cops hated us hangin' out

They say somebody went and burned it down

His eyes then found a photo of Joey's first "car".

"Well okay, so it was a rusty old pick-up truck that needed some serious tuning. So what? It was Joey's pride and joy. Plus he'd put in a pretty good sound system to make up for the crappy transport." Yugi said, shrugging his shoulders. They used to put up the radio full, and sing along/off key with all their personal favorites.

We used to listen to the radio

And sing along with every song we'd know

I said someday that I'd find out how it feels

To sing to more than just the steering wheel

He flicked a few more pages, coming across a photo of Tea, taken on her surprise 16th birthday party. She'd looked so pretty then, in a pale blue dress. Yugi hadn't seen her since forever.

Tea's the first girl I kissed

I was so nervous the I nearly missed

She's had a couple of kids since then

I haven't seen her since God knows when

"God I've missed everybody, and everything so much." Yugi's eyes watered a little. Truth be told, he'd missed Dominio so much, but hadn't yet gone back.

"I suppose that I've always got my memories." Yugi gave a weak smile. Probably to convince himself more than anyone else that he was telling the truth.

I miss that town

I miss their faces

You can't erase

You can't replace it

I miss it now

I can't believe it

So hard to stay

Too hard to leave it

If I could relive those days

I know the one thing that would never change

He flicked back to the photograph of graduation, small tears slipping down his cheeks, falling onto the photograph.

Look at this photograph

Every time I do it makes me laugh

Every time I do it makes me

He sat there all afternoon, bent over old photographs. Crying over the past that he wouldn't change, but missed so badly. Before he put himself together, picked up his keys, and drove all the way to Dominio, to see who and what was left of what once was.

Crappy? Anyway R&R and tell me yourself. Ciao!

F &#$&#ING AWESOME!