Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh is copyright to Kazuki Takahashi. Not Kiwi.

Notes: ... I come up with some weird ideas at night. Here's a Ryou one-shot.

PAPER CUP

by Kiwi Wolf

~~~~~

The cup is full.

The cup is as full as it can be without the content overlapping the edges at the slightest movement and spilling out onto the table.

I can compare myself to that paper cup set in front of me. Silly, isn't it?

But I can.

I am the paper cup. A shell, a vessel for something else. A pretty surface, holding yet not revealing what's within until someone searches for it.

A mystery. I am a mystery. Nobody knows what flavour is in it, nobody knows how cold it is. Nobody knows how cold hearted I may be...

But I am not. Things are made cold by what's around them. So are people. The ice in the cup cools the soda. The ice was frozen by the actions of others. Like my Yami... and I. I am the soda. He is the ice.

But we both hide under the same pretty face. A face so appealing it attracts unwanted attention... to empty the cup, to destroy it, to crush it. Out of envy, lust, or vindictiveness. The paper is weak. The soda remains strong. The spirit... MY spirit is strong. My body is weak.

Or so I am told.

If my body is weak, how am I able to take so much pain?

The cup is half empty.

The soda is wearing away the ice, melting it. Does my spirit do the same to my Yami's frozen heart? Does he care about my spirit or my body? The soda or the cup, what's more important?

But the spirit is wearing away, too. Disappearing... and the ice remains to chill it.

What is it that causes a spirit to be worn down this way?

Loss. Pain. Suffering.

It eats away at not my face, but my spirit.

Loss. The loss of who you care about. It's like losing a part of you. Amane... and my mother...

Pain. Your face, used to attack your friends. Your spirit, pushed away by the cold iciness of someone who is not you...

Suffering. Suffering through the agony of loneliness, pushing yourself away from those you care about, so you won't go through loss once again...

The cup is nearly empty.

Only the ice remains.

Possession. The ice owns the cup. The cup is now not the face of the soda, but the face of the ice.

Where does my spirit go, when my Yami takes over? My body, my face becomes his.

I am no longer me.

Only his icy cold heart remains.

But the ice melts...

Is my yami really the same as the ice? Does he care?

What froze him to begin with? What, or who? Will he ever melt, like the ice?

The cup is empty.

It has served its purpose. It's now an empty shell. No soda, no ice, just a face.

Now what?

Is it worthless? Is a body, a face, worthless?

No, it can't be.

The face is what will be remembered. It doesn't contain what was once there, but it contains a memory of it. The sight of the face triggers a memory of the spirit.

It's known that a paper cup contains soda and ice. It is known that a body contains a spirit. And when it's empty, what happens to it?

A body... will be buried or burned.

A paper cup... destroyed or thrown to the ground.

There's not really a huge amount of difference.

But does a paper cup really need to be destroyed? For if the cup is destroyed, does a memory get destroyed with it?

No.

A memory is not only within a face, it's within the minds of those who have known it...

Let the face go. The memory does not need it to remain.

And the spirit does not need it either.

The face is just a pretty surface that can be destroyed, torn apart, burned. A spirit can be frozen, a spirit can be warmed, but like a memory it will always remain...

Let the paper cup go... the face is not needed, it's what's within that's important.

Just like me.

THE END

Eheh ^^; Review?