I should really be working on my other stories.

Hey, you. Yeah. You. Tell me to go work on my other stories.

*sighs* Oh well. It's about time I wrote my requisite Yugi-angst fic anyway. (I think it's some sort of rule, every YGO author has to write a Yugi- or Ryou-angst fic, a chibi fic, an ancient Egypt fic, and a shounen-ai Y/Y and R/B fic.) Enjoy. For future reference, 120 yen equals a dollar.

(It should be noted that about nine-tenths of the way through this chapter my computer crapped out and I was back to four-fifths, where I had last saved. Thus there are probably a group of paragraphs near the end that could be better. Trust me, they were better the first time around.)

Warnings: Speculation about future seasons. Possible spoilers. References and information about Japanese culture. General AUness. Enough angst to drop an elephant at twenty yards. Other than that, not much.

Disclaimer: *suddenly grins* *nances around* I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! Doo-da! Doo-da! I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! Takahashi does! ...Cause he's uber-spiffy!

Tenshi no Hane
Chapter 1

alone, (adj.) 1. separate, apart or isolated from another or others. 2. Unique; unequaled; unexcelled.

Yuugi fell hard to the icy ground, the breath exploding out from his lungs painfully. The bully du jour sneered, looming over him in such a cliche manner that, once upon a time, it might have almost been funny. In fact, to a group of teenagers a distance away, it apparently was funny.

The bully grabbed Yuugi by the hair again and yanked him to his feet. "Come on, little wimp. Surely you can muster up a scream for your good friend Ushio."

Yuugi cast the group of teenagers a pleading, heartrending glance. Anzu simply giggled and snuggled closer to Honda. Mai and Jounouchi weren't even paying attention. Ryou and Shizuka laughed, passing a bag of M&M's between them and Seto, who cracked a grin. Yami wasn't laughing, but he wasn't leaping up to stop Ushio, either.

Yuugi flew backwards several feet as Ushio's fist impacted his gut squarely. He felt like throwing up, but he couldn't because it would get all over Ushio's shoes and then he would get mad and pound Yuugi's head into the wall and it would hurt and hurt and it wouldn't stop and Yami wouldn't fix it for him and-

It was a different bully, a different day, but the same scenario, as Yuugi was kicked in the ribs. Nothing broken, fortunately. He rolled away, curling into a ball as the bully snickered. "Weakling."

And then there was another bully, another day, another set of bruises. "Twerpazoid, can'tcha take a few punches?"

And another. "Come closer, doormat, I need to wipe my feet some more."

Another. "What a wimp." Another kick, harder, and he landed at the feet of his once-upon-a-time friends. They giggled, snorted, laughed out loud, Honda kicking him back like a soccer ball in a really demented variation of soccer, probably thought up by a yami, and no one lifted a hand.

God, make it stop!

It continued, faces and places and blows and pain flickering about him like a never-ending slide show, and then it was his former friends - Anzu slapping him when he had asked her if she wanted to see a movie, Jounouchi brushing past him brusquely in the hall, Honda cheering Ushio on with the rest of the cronies, Seto pushing him into the wall in the locker room, Ryou politely hiding a snicker when Yuugi failed a math test...

And then it ended, culminating in a final flash of pain as Yugi rolled onto the floor, stimulating nerve endings in a multitude of bruises.

"Yuugi?"

Chikusho!

"H-h-h-ai?"

"Having nightmares again?" Yami mumbled, barely awake. "Lighten up, will you? You keep waking me up." And he snored back off to sleep, not seeing Yuugi's flinch.

Yuugi gingerly got back on the bed and took deep, shuddering breaths, quaking inside. That wasn't as bad as it could have been. He didn't fully wake up this time. Last time Yuugi had woke him up, he had contracted a new set of injuries.

Of course, he's supposed to be my guardian.

He lowered himself very carefully to a more horizontal position, wincing as the recent bruises on his back started registering complaints. Confronted by a sudden flashback of a night three and a half years ago, when he had whimpered in pain and Yami had healed the bruises, he thought How did it get this bad?

He knew the answer, though. He had had this conversation with himself more times than he could count.

After Duelist Kingdom, after Battle City, I had thought we, we, the whole group, I had thought we would be friends forever...we had been through Hell and back, risked our lives for each other - we were bound together by so much more than just friendship, or so I thought.

Then we became teenagers.

I mean, we were teenagers before, but not in the real sense - we were only fourteen, still kids, much as we thought otherwise. Our strength was in numbers and Yami, not experience. I still don't know how we survived, helping Yami get all seven Millenium Items...even though we didn't do much. Malik had Bakura's two and his own, and we had two, and after we had defeated Malik - which was all Yami, incidentally - Shaadi came forward and gave Yami his two, with the condition that Yami not set himself up as ruler of the world. God only knows his reasoning. And since Yami never breaks his word...

So Yami got his memories and a real body, and made one for Ryou as well, and somehow managed to completely kill Yami Bakura and Yami Malik, and we all went back to normal lives and became teenagers. Only I couldn't. I was a teenager, technically, but I wasn't anything like them. I still had that innocence that so many people find incomprehensible, even repugnant, though I knew what they knew and understood it. My entire mentality wasn't focused around sex, though the same hormones flowed in my blood. And I was cast out from their life, though I had broken no unspoken rule. I was just uncool.

But once upon a time, it wasn't like that. I was "a little weird, but kinda neat. Good at Duel Monsters." After Duelist Kingdom, I got double takes in the hall. When the Battle City results became public knowledge, I got so much respect it nearly scared me.

Then Yami got his own body.

They flocked to him like fish to fishfood. He was supposedly my older brother, who had been living with my dad since the divorce and was coming to live with us now that tousan had died. He immediately got the adulation and hero-worship that not even Battle City had bought me, and I can't blame his worshippers. Even before he regained the memories - and ego - of the Pharoah, he exuded charisma. And now that Yami had his own body, he didn't need me...he had no reason to protect me.

So the bullies swooped down, almost like vultures, to get back their punching bag.

And my "friends" forgot about me, even Anzu, who had dueled Mai for me, and Jounouchi and Honda, who had saved my life, and Yami, who had saved my sanity and my grandfather, and Ryou, who had defied his yami for all of us...and all of whom I had helped out in return.

But it wasn't you, a little voice whispered in the back of Yuugi's mind, interrupting his mournful monologue. It was Yami that had helped them. Never you. Yami was the one who saved Anzu, who helped Jounouchi against Mai, who won that Shadow Duel. Yami saved Mai from Malik. Yami gave Ryou a body. It was just your body Yami was inhabiting. Of course they would have forgotten about you, once they had Yami. He's so much better.

But we were friends, Yuugi sobbed mentally. Doesn't that count for anything?

Obviously not, the voice sneered.

And it was me who gave Jounouchi the money for Shizuka's operation, Yuugi thought. He shifted around on the bed to get more comfortable, strangely emotionless. I would think he'd remember that. I would think he might have cared.

Yeah, right. Yuugi couldn't tell if it was him or the voice that had thought that.

He rolled onto his side without thinking, and winced as those bruises gave up a rousing cry.

Dammit.

(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)

"Wake up, Yuugi!"

Yuugi gasped as Yami poked him in the side, just below the ribs. Once upon a time, Yami would have immediately stopped and asked what was wrong. Now he just cast Yuugi a slightly disgusted look and rattled downstairs for breakfast.

Yuugi sat up, sore from sleeping in the only position that was at all painless all night. He slowly got dressed and went downstairs to find toast waiting for him. Jiichan still makes toast for me in the mornings. Thank God for small blessings. He ate it gratefully, dawdling slightly so he got out the door well after Yami did.

About a block away from the Game Shop, he hesitated, remembering the goons from yesterday afternoon. They'll be there again. Remembering Yami's poke and his body's opinion of it, he added to himself, And I really don't think I can take it today. After a moment's deliberation, he decided - somewhat reluctantly - to skip school.

And the teachers can go rot, for all I care.

He walked to a small cafe and had a cup of herbal tea for the headache he felt starting up. Realizing he now had about eight hours to kill and ignoring the puzzled glances he got, he grabbed some manga off a booth, barely looking at what it was, and headed to the park to read it.

He sat down by a tree and looked at the cover. Two issues of Ranma 1/2. Cool. He started reading the first one, but quickly realized that, hilarious and slapstick as it was, it wasn't helping his mood at all. As much as he didn't want to admit it - Yuugi did not consider himself an angstful person - Yuugi was in an angstful mood.

He sighed. I suppose I could get some DN Angel manga, but I only have about five hundred more yen on me. And I can't go home for more - jiichan would kill me.

You know, I never thought I'd say this, but I'm bored.

His hand went unconsciously to where the Millenium Puzzle had once rested against his chest. Yami had it now, of course. All seven Millenium Items were in the bottom drawer of Yami's dresser, except for the Rod, which he carried around with him because he liked the blade. Not that he needed anything of the sort - if anyone needed it, it was Yuugi.

I suppose Yami earned it, though, Yugi thought. I mean, he's battled Evil Forces and loss of memory, not to mention protecting me from various people at the beginning.

Not to mention the fact that Yami would likely relieve Yuugi of his head if he even mentioned carrying the Rod to school with him.

Yuugi shivered at that thought.

*****

Somehow he managed to kill time with angstful broodiness until he could safely go home. Fortunately, Jiichan had run out on an errand. Unfortunately, he had left Yami to mind the store.

Once upon a time, Yuugi would have rejoiced at the absence of the parent figure.

Now, though, Yami leveled a ruby-red gaze at Yugi maliciously over his magazine. "Why weren't you at school, Yuugi?" The sweet tone belied the cunning lying behind the pretty face.

Yuugi wasn't fooled. He still knew Yami inside out. Fortunately he'd had plenty of time to think up an excuse. "After you left I suddenly started throwing up violently, and Jiisan said that since I was throwing up and I was so tired that I could stay home today." He made an effort to look pale and pathetic.

The gaze narrowed. "Really." Yuugi couldn't tell if Yami believed him or not. "Then why were you out and carrying your briefcase?"

Ah, shit. "I was going out to see if I could meet Jounouchi-kun or Anzu-kun and get my homework from them, but I didn't find them," Yuugi smoothly improvised.

He waited with bated breath for the excuse to be accepted. Yami shrugged and went back to his magazine. "Lucky. That bloody English teacher had another tantrum today. I swear I'm gonna send him to the Shadow Realm next time he does that..." (Yuugi suppressed a frown; 'tantrum' was rather rude. But he had to admit, that teacher had issues.)

Yuugi tried not to breathe a sigh of relief as he went into the back area. Then he poked his head back into the store. "Did you get my homework?"

"Yeah, it's in my briefcase," Yami said without looking up from his magazine.

"Thanks," Yuugi said, and went back into the living room. Yami's briefcase was on the couch. He opened it and, with some rummaging, found the homework papers. Briefcase and papers in hand, he went upstairs to do his homework.

Once inside the relatively safe confines of his and Yami's room, however, he collapsed into the chair in front of the desk, exhaling heavily. Then he inhaled heavily. Then exhaled. Then inhaled. He felt the angstful broodiness lifting slightly. It can't be that bad. He was civil to me. He smiled slightly.

And then he buried himself in algebra problems so deep he might have been hibernating.

*****

Yuugi put his pencil down and leaned back in the chair. His head was spinning with algebra, but you could almost have said he was in a good mood.

This, of course, ended when Yami banged into the room, sparks sizzling in his hair and murder in his eyes. He grabbed Yuugi by the collar and hauled him up until they were eye-to-eye.

"You were in my briefcase." It was a fact, not a question, hissed flatly at the now-terrified Yuugi.

"Y-y-yeah, to get my homework-"

"Did I say you could go in my briefcase?!"

"N-no"

"Why the hell were you in my briefcase?"

"You said my homework was in there-"

"I didn't say you could go in it!" Yuugi cringed at the growl in Yami's voice. Yami's hand tightened, and next thing Yuugi knew, he was thudding against the wall painfully.

Yami loomed over him, his fury abated but still present. "We may have once been aibous, Yuugi. I am grateful for what help you contributed. But-" and here he leaned down and put his face to Yuugi's- "my things are my things. You will not go into them." Casting him a cold stare, he strode out of the room. The door slammed behind him.

Yuugi simply lay there for several minutes, breathing heavily against the pain.

We may have once been aibous, Yuugi. I am grateful for what help you contributed.

Words. No more than that.

As he lay there, Yuugi felt his angstful broodiness returning. But not in the form of angst.

It came in the form of anger.

His thoughts weren't in coherent words. They were in emotions: boiling fury, rebelliousness, anger at being ignored, pushed around, taken for granted. They eventually merged into one coherent, rage-tinted thought:

I'm going.

End-of-chapter-author's-notes: Japanese high school children do carry their books and stuff in briefcase-like things, called briefcases here for convenience. (Yes, Yuugi carries a backpack in the anime, but I have the suspicion that that's supposed to be an expression of his childlike naivete.) FYI, high school in Japan is taken much more seriously than even college. Manga *is* sold at booths on the street in Japan. It should be noted that in the fic Yuugi used jiisan when talking to Yami, but jiichan when thinking to himself; this indicates either that he's closer to his grandfather in his mind than in real life, or that he was speaking humbly in front of Yami. In the anime Yuugi does refer to Anzu by -chan and Jounouchi by nothing, as I remember; this serves to show that their relationship has changed. (Isn't Japanese fun?)

Aibou is, more or less, partner, but there's a strong connotation of love there. (Notice the ai.) Not necessarily love as in sexual relationship, but platonic love. Yami does address Yuugi as aibou. Note how he throws the term around in the fic.

*looking back at fic* ...Never, ever take anything for granted in this fic. Not even the author's notes. ^_^ JFYI, there was a fair amount of stuff I'd wanted to put in but didn't end up doing. I was partially winging this chapter. I think most of that stuff is still there, though...just left unsaid. See if you can find it. ^_~

Anyway, please review. Hopefully this will get more reviews than my other stories. It should run about...*counts on fingers* seven to ten chapters? Maybe less. But they'll probably be long chapters. Baibai!