Review Answer: (Thank you, by the way! Thank you very much!)

Yami Silverdramon: What's with the "le" things, you ask? A very good question! That would be the unfortunate effect of fatigue combining with a poor French immersion education, which leads me to mangle both the English AND French language! … Sorry if I got you saying it. Poor you! pats back supportively And I AM glad you enjoyed the stories!

Brainfarque #Whatever

Dark Love

Disclaimer: To quote many other inspired writers, if they WERE mine, everyone would be declaring their shonen-ai type love for each other within the first series. Thus, be very, very thankful they're NOT mine. Howzat sound?

A/N: WARNING! Vaguely serious SHONEN-AI is contained within the following rambling. If you can't tolerate Yami murmering "Soft! What light through yonder window breaks?" and Yuugi swooning (in a macho-esque manner) into Yami's manly, skinny arms, then you probably shouldn't read this.

First posted shonen-ai, for the record. I think. (I've lost count of how many attempts I've made at WRITING these scenes…)

So yes: YY/Y pairing. Don't like, don't read, o'course!

……………

Yuugi hummed to himself as he watered the plants, a smile illuminating his face. Absolutely everything was going great! The plants were flourishing, Grandpa had increased his allowance, just because Yuugi had been so responsible, his grades were positively soaring, and best of all, he and his Yami had increased the bond between them.

A random thought fluttered through his mind, as an episode of Star Trek he'd seen last week was brought to the surface. "Your thoughts to my thoughts," one of the characters had said, before two minds had been joined. Yuugi knew he hadn't much cared for the show, but that one phrase had jolted through him with all the power of a lightning strike. Immediately, he'd turned and glanced at Yami, both their eyes widening in surprise as they met one another's glance.

A sound behind Yuugi made him automatically reach out his mind for his other half. Be it friend or foe, it seemed that everything was just ... easier when Yami was around. The enemies weren't so intimidating, and the friends seemed more fun to be around. However, in this case, the sound belonged to neither of the two. As Yuugi finished turning around, curious as to who it was, he came face to face with a glowering Yami.

A Yami, who, arms crossed, had his left foot tapping impatiently.

Yuugi blinked. Yami? he questioned, wondering at the sudden mood swing. With anyone else, he would have maybe retreated a step, before hesitantly approaching and trying to console. But this was Yami. Yami, who had revealed his soul to Yuugi, and yet who was still such a mysterious enigma. What could have happened, Yuugi wondered to himself. Was there a new foe? Was something wrong with something?

"Has anything happened to Grandpa?" he blurted out, suddenly unable to check the overpowering fearful bile that rose up within him at the mere thought.

Yami's eyes narrowed, and he stomped a few feet closer. Soon, he was less than a foot away. As always, Yami's lustrous presence washed over Yuugi, the way it did when the two of them were together and alone in the room. However, this time Yami's aura was tinged with enraged red - a red which was starting to batter on Yuugi's soul room door.

"Yami!" he cried, as Yami's hands suddenly came up to grip Yuugi's. The grip tightened almost painfully, and the watering pot dropped with a clatter and a splash as the rest of the liquid spilled out.

"Mine." Yami finally ground out. Yuugi blinked as he nodded his agreement.

"Of course, Yami. You know I belong to you. Just as you belong to me. We are two parts of the same soul, after all."

'... But what's this all about?' continued the unfinished sentence.

Yami smirked at what Yuugi had said, and the red aura flashed sporadically as it darkened into the blackest shade. The black seemed to cover the room and overwhelm the sunlight; so intense was its power.

And suddenly Yuugi understood. Over the past years they'd been together, Yami had been his constant companion, through thick and thin, the rough and the smooth. And yet, despite the fact they could read each other like an opened book - with large print, no less - there always came a time, once a year, when Yami would seemingly shut down. When this happened, the good that had blossomed like a rose within the spirit would shut up and disappear, and Yami's feral dark nature would come raging to the surface. Then it was impossible to reason with him, impossible to do anything but stand there, swept up in the charismatic anger, which Yami embodied.

Yuugi had never figured out why this was, though. Oh, sure, afterwards - after he'd caught his breath - he'd run through a list of possibilities. Naturally, they all had to do with something unknown that had happened in Yami's living existence before. His birthday, perhaps? A particular traumatic even, maybe? Or possibly (and the more Yuugi saw of this scary side of Yami, the more he grew convinced), this was the time of his death. The death of Yami would have reluctantly plunged him the seeping pool of dark evil, an evil that would have eventually permeated the otherwise good soul. And, as that time came round again and again, the darkness within Yami would wax and wane accordingly.

In front of him, Yami's eyes flashed in anger and to Yuugi, the crimson colour within them had never seemed to resemble freshly spilt blood so much as they did now.

Yuugi shuddered, wishing Yami would release his hands so that he could embrace Yami. He wanted to so very badly, to show Yami that it was all right. Because it was all right. Yami needed to understand that Yuugi accepted him - ALL of him - with everything that was inside. It was only fair, after all. Because, you see, Yami had accepted everything Yuugi was as well. His good points, his faults, his likes, his loves, his hates - EVERYTHING.

Yuugi felt tears well up in his eyes as he was hit by an epiphany. He loved this one. This poor, tattered soul in front of him - he loved him with everything he had. Blinking back the tears of hope, he slowly leaned forwards - slowly, so as not to frighten the beast that Yami was now - and gently, shyly, brushed a soft kiss against Yami's cheek.

Electricity jolted through him - more so than in any of his duels before - and Yami seemed to blink. It was as if the door that had opened to let the darkness come in had slammed suddenly shut. In fact, Yami's eyes were returning more to the harmonious purple and red - the colour they were when Yami was at rest and content.

'It's us,' Yuugi suddenly thought. 'The mixture of the two colours, living side by side - it's us!' He sniffled, and then blinked as his hands were released. In front of him, Yami was staring in horror, yet with a resigned expression, at his aibou. The memories of what he'd just done while under evil's influence were washing over him in waves. Shuddering, he sunk to his knees, and grasped his salvation loosely around the hips.

"A-Aibou?" he choked out, desperately seeking reassurance. Reassurance that everything was ok, and that the beautiful light that had sprung from his cheek mere seconds ago had not been another dream.

And the reassurance came flooding over in waves, from Yuugi's ever-bright mind and from the arms that tightened around his shoulders. "It's all right," Yuugi murmured, and a blind man would have been able to see the tenderness and caring that infused the voice.

Yami tightened his own arms, not wanting to let his better half go.

"... mine...?" he whispered hopefully.

Yuugi smiled, bent down to stare into Yami's violet-crimson eyes and leaned in close to murmur something into Yami's ear.

And outside, the sun shone brightly, once again.

……………..

A/N: DONE! … A prime example of what happens when I get babbling at 9 in the am. coughs nervously