Day 6: Embers from a fire always fade once extinguished, but these embers never planned to fade from the hearts of two distraught souls stuck in the raging inferno of the burning Black Crown.

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Red.

There was nothing but red around him. The stench of smoke and ash in the air congealing in all his senses. His eyes, his throat, his lungs. All warnings told him to flee, flee before he was buried. But he couldn't, not without the item that meant more to him than his very life. His heart, his soul, his partner. Shattered into nothing by a jealous and frightened hand. Broken...fragmented...just like the memories lost to him. Lost. He didn't want to feel lost again without his other half. So he rushed to put the puzzle together again. Quickly now. The eight years before was nothing to the haste in which he put it together now. Fingers danced over searing metal pieces. Red hot pain stung sensitive flesh.

Fire raged and wood cracked and crumbled. Then...a touch. A faint response of the spirit trapped within. Run, he yelled, but the cry went unheeded. He won't run until the item is safe. More fire, more dangers. Sirens blared their baleful tones outside the building. Rescue was here but the blaze was too strong to settle. Would he die here among the embers of the burning crown? He would accept such a fate if the item came with him in death. Black clouded his vision, breath grew shorter with each inhale. Heat. Fire. Danger. But relief. The item was completed, the echoes of a worried voice cried out. Terror gripped him but he was glad.

Glad...the puzzle...was whole.

"I gotcha, pal!"

/Save him...Jounouchi.../

...

The Black Crown had burned. Merchandise, a secret game room, the office above. All gone. Left behind was the embers of a proud gaming store to rival the small game shop nearby, a loss brought by one's incompetence and greed for something that didn't belong to him. And the one to suffer was left with those memories. Of panic, fear and fire. A golden item almost lost to the fire, an important soul nearly placed to rest by unworthy means. But both were safe. Both were sound. Scars etched in pale hands from the puzzle unable to fade like the embers of the shop that crumbled, their glowing ashes dimming from blackened wood and debris. In the hospital bed laid the frail form of Yugi, Jounouchi beside him who had brought him safely from the shop as it burned.

Both were unharmed but the damage was done. The blonde could only look to his friend, knowing that he was not truly sleeping. He was within a place that can't be reached, speaking to a figure that can't be seen. They needed this moment when both were so close to death. It was hard to pull Yugi from that room. The puzzle nailed tight to the table, fingers holding tighter to the chains of the puzzle. Angry red scars on delicate hands but to the unseeing eyes, those very hands were held in the spiritual grip of another. The spirit held in the puzzle who lamented on his failure to protect his host, his light, his love.

/You have nothing to apologize for, mou hitori no boku. I just wanted you to be safe. I love you too much to lose you. Whether it was to Otogi or the fire./

/You valiant heart warms my own, aibou. But please, not even for me is my spirit worth your life. I don't want such a vibrant soul to fade from this world like the embers that you nearly joined. Cremation doesn't suit you./

A laugh. /Neither does it for you./ The spirit smiled and nodded before whispering for Yugi to rest now. The doctors said another day and he would be fit to leave. The boy nodded, yawning softly as his body settled in full for actual slumber. The spirit leaned down to press cool lips to his forehead and a promise that when Yugi returned home, to visit him in their soul room. Even when fraught with fear, the spirit had to reward Yugi for his tenacity. To protect the puzzle and him, truly he was unfit for such care but his heart swelled to knowing he had that of the boy.

Unlike the embers that faded with the shop, the embers of their love will continue to burn, becoming the passionate fire to light their souls with the bond they held so close.