Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh nor do I make any money from writing this piece of fanfiction.

Challenge Name and Number: #044, Invisible
Drabble Title: The Power Behind the Throne
Word Count: 596
Warnings (if applicable): None really, although it depends on how you want to read into Yami/Nameless Pharaoh/Atem/whatever-you-want-to-call-him's feelings for Yuugi as I have written here.
Pairings (if applicable): One-sided Revolutionshipping, Puzzleshippy
Author's Note: Set during the Doma/Orichalcos arc, on the train ride in episode 160. Written for the YGO Drabble LJ community.
Summary: She always thought it would be her, until now. With him gone, she realizes just who the real power was behind the Nameless Pharaoh.

She knew, from all the fairy tales she used to read, and all the history lessons she heard, that behind every king was someone who held him together, who encouraged him when he needed it, who picked him up when he fell down. She knew, that this person was the so-called invisible "power" behind the throne. She knew, that in the case of a king, the person was usually a girl the king loved, and the girl, of course, loved him in return.

In her daydreams and fantasies, that was who she was: the dancing girl that was the "other half" of the King of Duelists.

And in her fantasies, how perfect could it be? She had gone to the library, and done her research – pharaohs had a troupe of dancing girls for entertainment. In her little daydreams, she was the pharaoh's favorite.

But then Dartz and Orichalcos happened, and Yuugi was stolen away. And she realized just how much her fantasies would remain simply that: a fantasy.

For the first time, she saw just how little influence she had on him. She had tried so very hard on the train ride to cheer him up, even just a little. To raise his flagging morale, to give him hope that everything would work out in the end. But she was not the one who grounded him, was not the embodiment of the other half of his soul – simply put, she saw now, she was not Yuugi. And to her disappointment, she only succeeded in driving him away from his seat next to her, and out of the awkward atmosphere of the compartment. She followed a few minutes later, despite Honda and Jounouchi's words, and through the rounded square window on the door, she saw him slumped down the wall and onto the floor, cradling the Puzzle as though it were a memento from a long lost lover. She was sure she saw tears running down his face, if that black trail of make up from the corner of his eyes was anything to go by.

And then she realized: Not once had she ever seen him cry.

He did not cry in relief when he saved her from that crazed bomber in the Ferris wheel, not out of anger or grief when the Kaiba brothers had been turned to stone in front of them, not when Mai was left comatose after her duel with Malik's insane evil side. Never. And on second thought, when had she ever seen him lose any and all hope like this in the past? Even when the situation looked impossible, he never once stopped believing that he could succeed in creating a miracle.

And he always did. This time would be no different.

So she did the only thing she could. She would go back to her seat, make no mention of what she had seen, and wait. She would not be jealous of Yuugi – she knew the short teenager well enough and long enough to know he more than deserved the affections of a king.

So she sat down, pointedly ignored Honda and Jounouchi's mirrored curious glances and waited.

For even if she could not be the one invisible driving force behind all of his actions, the one he would do everything for, she would at the very least stand in for her dearest and longest friend who was. Because that was what Yuugi would have done if their positions were reversed. And she was not about to let him down, even in his absence.

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