Title: Difference
Theme: 12 – Self-Love
Summary: This was narcissism, any way they looked at it. This was insane. And neither of them found the will to care.
Rating: T
Genre: General/Romance

It was all going so simply until he noticed the differences.

This spirit – Yami – was taller, leaner, stronger. His legs were more elegant, shaped his body in a way Yugi's had yet to grow into. Whereas Yugi's fingers were rather short and simple, his other's were longer, more defined. There was a glint in his mahogany eyes, imagining things, horrible things, that Yugi would never dream of doing himself. His edges were sharper. His mouth was the tiniest bit wider. His jaw was straighter.

The more he noticed these little details, the more he found himself admiring him. Yami was everything he was not, after all, and everything he'd ever wanted to be. It was only now that he was wondering if he had wanted to be this man, wanted these features for himself, or if he merely wanted them – even if they weren't his own.

Yami knew the differences from the start. He – the King of Games, the Nameless Pharaoh, the Yugioh, because these names, of anything, he could remember as clearly as he could not anything else – knew that this boy's nature was much different than his own. Yugi Mutou had taken his spirit in when others would not; he had been embraced, befriended, and even named… He was different. Much different.

It did not take long for each of them to appreciate the other's differences. It didn't take long for them to embrace them. It didn't take long for them to realize that they worked well together, each of their strengths balancing the other's out, in ways that only Fate could have a hand in.

It certainly did not take long for them to begin to admire the other, not only for their contrasts, but for their similarities, as well. They saw things in each other that they knew no one else could or would ever, and this knowledge continued to draw them ever closer.

It also did not take long for them to realize the attraction. And in their partnership, they not only grew to appreciate the qualities that made the other who they were – but they grew to love their own, the ones they shared, and the ones that made them different beings; the ones that other people were just now starting to notice.

This was narcissism, any way they looked at it. This was insane. And neither of them found the will to care.

Words: 400