Title: Half Full
Genre: Gen
Rating: G
Word Count: 553
Notes: Written for and winner of Yu-Gi-Oh Drabble challenge #006, "Ocean", located at the ygodrabble community at
Summary: There are things that change with him.
Half Full
The first time he sees the ocean is through Yuugi's eyes when he is still something half-formed and mostly unknown sitting coiled and waiting in the back of his skull. It's when Anzu curls her fingers around Yuugi's wrist after school, makes him blush without meaning to and pulls him along towards Jounouchi who is already waiting by the door, slouched with his schoolbag flung over his shoulder and grinning. Honda is outside unchaining his bike, and he rolls his eyes when Jounouchi smacks him on the back of his head and tells him to come with, but shrugs and wipes his palms down over his pants without arguing and follows.
The sun is sinking into the curve of the Earth, and when Yuugi kicks off his shoes and steps into the water the spirit stirs enough to watch, to pull himself free from the darkness that has been weaved around him for three thousand years and realizes that maybe, this should be more surprising than it is. He thinks it should seem strange, new, but still familiar in the way that the sand sticks to sweat on Yuugi's neck, feels gritty and too hot on the souls of his feet. It's all there teetering on edge of a memory that he doesn't have, and for the first time since Yuugi slotted the puzzle back together, it suddenly matters that he doesn't know what he is.
Jounouchi folds his fingers into a fist, sweeps his arm across the surface of the water and splashes Yuugi in the face, making him laugh and cough. The spirit (nameless, hidden, nothing more than a flicker of awareness hanging around Yuugi's neck like an anchor) is distracted by his own amusement and the brief, startling awareness of his solitude.
The second time is similar, but he knows enough about himself now to realize why the sand is a steady and grounding thing to him when Yuugi sits and drops his palms to the beach, why looking at the stretch of the ocean makes him feel out of place and wrong. The buffer of Yuugi's consciousness sitting between him and the world abruptly falls away, and he is forced to take control. He sputters, listens to Yuugi's soft encouragements as Jounouchi drops an arm over his shoulders, shoving at him but not hard enough to make him fall. Otogi tosses a red and white beach ball in his direction and Anzu smiles and snaps a quick, blurred photograph with her cell phone as he lifts a hand to bat it away.
Later, he sits close enough to the water for the waves to sweep up across his outstretched legs as they lazily roll over the shore, and Yuugi's translucent figure appears at his side. He sits with his elbows resting up on his bent knees, chin tipped back and eyes squinting at the sky before he rolls his shoulders and turns his gaze to him.
Having fun? Yuugi asks, open and hopeful, and the spirit inclines his head, listens to the sounds of everyone behind him, Honda's and Jounouchi's bickering, Anzu's smooth voice chiming in with laugher on her breath. Their presence is an unacknowledged responsibility, a devotion he has chosen to carry and keep.
"Yes," he says, and Yuugi smiles, his silence an unspoken understanding between them.
(End)