It had been an offhanded comment Yugi'd made that started off the conversation. It was 12 at night and the two of them were sitting on Ryou's couch staring intently at the open world rpg Ryou had just bought. Yugi heard Ryou yawn to the left of him, and he smirked.

"You're tired already? I'd always taken you for a night owl," he said casually, looking back at the television. Ryou's brows furrowed in confusion.

"What do you mean?" he asked, chancing a glance away from the game to look at Yugi.

"I mean, back in school you'd always show up with dark circles under your eyes and you'd nearly fall asleep during lunch. I always figured it was because you were up doing homework or painting your figurines," Yugi shrugged as he explained. He waited for a response from Ryou, but none came. He continued watching the screen, but as minutes passed it became clear Ryou was wandering aimlessly. He'd begun ignoring the little arrow at the top pointing towards the main mission and was running around the map occasionally fighting some basic enemies. Yugi finally looked away from the screen to Ryou, and noticed he seemed to be deep in thought.

"Uh, everything okay Ryou? You're not going the right way to the boss…" Yugi pointed out, hoping to garner some response. Ryou's eyes seemed to focus back on the screen again after Yugi spoke up, but the strange look on his face didn't go away.

"Oh right, sorry, just got distracted," he let out a sheepish laugh and turned his character around.

"Sure…" Yugi muttered, "Hey, I'm sorry if what I said bothered you. I wasn't trying to insult you, I'm kind of a night owl myself," he offered, giving a slight smile. Normally that would bring Ryou back, but this time it didn't seem to. Instead Ryou paused the game and turned his full focus to Yugi.

"Oh no, I didn't take it as an insult," he spoke quickly, giving the nervous smile Yugi had grown familiar with, "It was just… I mean, I used to be when I was a kid. I used to have a really hard time sleeping, but when I moved here I would fall asleep at 10 at the latest almost every night."

Yugi stayed silent, trying to piece together what exactly Ryou was trying to say. If he was going to bed on time why would he still be-

Oh.

The realization must have showed on Yugi's face, Ryou gave a short nervous laugh and looked away.

"I'd assumed I just wasn't sleeping well because I was somewhere new, but you don't get bruises and cuts from not sleeping well," he sighed, moving his hand from the controller to fiddle with the necklace he'd worn ever since he'd finally been separated from the Millennium Ring, "I figured out what was happening after we went to Duelist Kingdom, but I didn't really know what to do about it so I didn't say anything," he pulled his hand away from the necklace and put it back on the controller, unpausing the game.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Yugi asked in as gentle a tone as he could manage. He felt hurt that Ryou didn't seem to see the issue with hiding this from the people who told him they would help.

"I didn't want to make him angry," he sighed, "I couldn't hide what I did from the spirit, and if I told you he'd find out and I didn't know what he would do. I didn't want him to think I was trying to find some way to get rid of him, he'd finally let me have friends and I didn't want him to decide to take that from me again."

"Ryou, you know Atem could have helped-"

"Did I?" he said harshly, Yugi saw himself cringe after he spoke the words. Ryou almost never spoke in a way that could be seen as violent or harsh, and Yugi couldn't deny the split second he saw him as the spirit and not his friend. Ryou sighed.

"All I knew of him at the time was he'd been willing to sacrifice Kaiba's life, anything else he did I wasn't awake for. I trusted you but, I didn't know if the spirit in the puzzle would even tolerate me after what the spirit had done to you and your friends," he sighed, "If he was anything like my spirit, he'd make sure you didn't see me anymore. I know it was selfish but I just wanted to pretend that I was just having a normal relationship with normal people and didn't have to worry about them all disappearing."

Yugi sighed. He didn't know what to even say to that. He wanted to defend Atem, but he remembered that there were plenty of times when he'd first met the spirit that he feared him. He'd attempted to quit dueling after the incident with Kaiba, and he couldn't blame Ryou for being hesitant. He also didn't know how to let Ryou know it was okay- he knew that it wasn't, and if he was being honest he was so happy to see Ryou admit something wasn't okay for once. Seeing him admit his worries, show something other than the idle happiness he put up whenever they were at school or in public.

"Do you sleep okay now?" Yugi finally spoke. He needed to pull Ryou back to the present, back to the world where he didn't have to worry about possession, death, or being close to people. It took a moment for Ryou to respond, but soon his mouth twitched up.

"I take something to help, but yeah. As long as I don't get too caught up in writing for campaigns," Yugi smiled as Ryou spoke.

"Is tonight gonna be one of those night?"

Ryou seemed to think for a moment, "We don't have to get up early in the morning, right?"

"Not if we don't want to."

"Then I guess it will be. Do you have the guide on how to beat this guy pulled up?"