A/N: Based off the song "Defender of the Child" by Heather Alexander (Album: Life's Flame). Yu-Gi-Oh belongs to Kazuki Takahashi. Rough draft... and my first songfic.
Defender
Evil Overlady (evil_overlady@excite.com)
Violet eyes the color of sunset lifted and looked into glass. Faintly, a face similar to his but older, determinedly stared back at Yugi against the backdrop of a city.
Yugi smiled.
//So there you are
//Hiding just behind my eye.
Yami nodded solemnly to him.
Yugi was still recovering from the last duel he'd been in, the one against Malik, to save a possessed Joey and Téa.
//Another scar.
//Breadth of the death, you will never die.
Yami was a spirit, immortal, from five thousand years ago, a pharaoh.
Malik wanted Yugi's Millennium Puzzle.
Yugi clenched his fingers over the gold upside-down pyramid reflexively.
But in order to tap into its power (whatever power that might be) Malik had to defeat Yugi/Yami in a duel.
//Fresh-drawn blood upon your cheek
//Confrontation's all you seek
...And in order for Yugi to save his friends he had to defeat Malik in a duel.
Let's duel,
Yami said, as he always said it, with a gleam in his eyes that spoke of confidence and determination and... something Yugi just felt-//Passion rampant, hatred wild
Yugi felt that rage once, atop Pegasus' castle in a duel against Kaiba to gain entrance...
To save his grandpa.
Kaiba was holding his own until Yami played a card combo that literally forced Kaiba into a corner. In order to save his brother, Mokuba, Kaiba did what only Kaiba would do. He stepped up to the top of the castle wall, threatening suicide if Yami defeated him.
Yugi was taken aback. He couldn't hurt Kaiba, not even to save his grandpa. But Yami pushed on, ordering his Celtic Guardian on.
Yugi, you can't!
Téa had cried.Yugi frantically regained control. STOP!
That memory still haunted Yugi. For a long while after that he swore never to duel again.
//Defender of the child.
But then he realized Yami was only trying to do what he thought was right, to save Yugi's grandpa.
He was a friend.
Like Joey and Tristan. Friends he'd wished for on the puzzle...
//Another friend
//This means that the blood will fall
Joey and Tristan had poked fun at Yugi and knocked him around a little.
But they didn't deserve the beating the school's hall monitor had given them after that.
"Stop! Leave them alone!"
Yugi had cried, standing between the bully and two.It was a stupid move, Yugi noted as an afterthought. The man just beat Yugi up too and made him promise to bring in money to pay the guy off.
//Can it not end?
//Why should I try having love at all?
Sometime after that, Yugi finished the puzzle and fell asleep.
Yami woke up with an unscrupulous smile on his face and went to face the bully himself.
With a challenge.
//Sword is drawn, you take that stand
//Soon you'll sever friendship's hand.
Yami stacked the money on his hand, stuck a knife in the money, and pulled up the bills stuck to it to keep and had the bully do the same.
//Add it to the bodies piled
Needless to say, the bully lost the challenge.
Yami turned the man insane, using the power of the Millennium Puzzle to cause him to see money everywhere.
//Defender of the child
At the time, Yugi hadn't the foggiest idea what had happened, but now he knew.
//Without you
//Life would seem forever sweet
//Without you
//'Twould be a merry dance
Yugi had to stifle a smile.
After Duelist Kingdom, Yami began to wonder who he really was.
Yugi couldn't think of how to help in that regard, but he secretly set up a meeting with Téa.
He wouldn't tell Yami where they were going until he was just a few meters away from Téa. Yugi summoned Yami. The Puzzle glowed, and Yugi slipped into the spirit room.
The look on Yami's face was pure embarrassment!
Yugi, this isn't a duel!
Yami and Téa went to a gaming place to dance. Yugi had looked on, unseen. Téa was so graceful onstage. Then, he'd looked down and saw the sparkles of complete wonder in Yami's eyes.
//Without you
//I would trust each face I meet.
Bakura was also a close friend of Yugi's, but at Duelist Kingdom, the evil spirit in the Millennium Ring he wore stole all their souls.
Yami took over in Yugi's absence and challenged Yami Bakura to win them back.
Yugi owed his aibou for saving them.
Since then, Yugi never completely took his eyes off Bakura...
Not even now, in Kaiba's Corp's blimp about to participate in another major duel...
//Without you
//I'd never have a chance.
//So stand by me
//Fight them only when you must
But up against Joey under Malik's control, Yugi had to ask Yami to step aside.
It was no longer a duel against foes.
But a duel against the heart.
Yugi and Joey were friends. Close friends. Closer than brothers...
Yugi summoned the strength and confidence he'd seen for so long in Yami.
Yugi and Joey together broke Joey free of the power of the Millennium Rod and defeated Malik...
//Love yet can be
And they might not have succeeded if Yami hadn't trusted Yugi to know what he was doing...
//Pain will remain if we do not trust
Yugi relaxed his grip on the Puzzle and looked into Yami's eyes in the reflection of the window.
//Join as one instead of two
//If they love me then they love you
//Wisdom strong and mercies mild...
Together, they would defeat Malik!
//Defender of the child!