Waaahhh! I wanted to work on my other fic, but college and work leave me with no time for thinky!

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...And with THAT piece of juvenile attitude out of my brain, let me welcome you to the second of my (very) small collection of one shot fics!

This one is set during...oh, just read and find out. You're smart people.

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Disclaimer: I do not own Yugioh

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Opening his eyes, he sighed to himself. The mindscape was still shrouded in pitch-black darkness.

Honestly, how long did it take a person to come out of shock, anyway? It wasn't like Yugi hadn't known he was in here…

They had shared control in every single duel of importance so far…hell, Yami had even done most if not all the work in their Shadow Duel against the spirit of the Millennium Ring, when they had been clearly separate and visible.

Of course there were two big differences between those duels and their most recent game: before they had always won and no one had before threatened to throw themselves off the sides of castles in response to losing.

A slight shift in Yami's seated position sent a lance of white-hot pain up and down his right arm. He grimaced as he tried to move the appendage to a less agonizing position. A little souvenir from his and Yugi's first official…argument.

It had been obvious from the moment Kaiba had started walking backwards that there wasn't going to be a good end to this particular duel. Kaiba had always been ruthless - at least as far as Yami knew - but the brunette's actions showed that not only was he ruthless, he was also extremely desperate.

Ruthless plus Desperate equaled Very, Very Bad.

And in this Very, Very Bad situation, he and Yugi had had what, in hindsight, was a very likely disagreement for the two of them to have. Yugi was against killing other people. Yami was not, as long as it was for a good reason.

Was it even a good reason?

No choice. Leaving their monster out would have doomed them. Switching the Celtic Guardian to defense mode, thus protecting their live points, would have been futile. They would most likely run out of cards before an opportunity to win without hurting Kaiba approached them. Attack was the only winning option.

He remembered…when Yugi's will faltered, he had assumed full control to carry out the move. Because of his doubts, Yugi had stepped back to let Yami carry through.

Anger burned, deep within him.

Yugi's fault.

Yugi had let Yami make the move - what right did the child whose head he was sharing have to stop him from winning? Just as the attack was beginning, one of Yugi's friends - Tea, the girl Yugi had a crush on - had begun screaming something.

He'd ignored it. Yugi had not. Yugi's doubt vanished, but of all the decisions he could have come to in that situation…

It had been a war between minds. A hundred years worth of battle had passed between the two of them in less than an instant. At first it had been Yugi pleading, badgering, demanding that the attack stop, while Yami countered every word without experiencing any interest in what Yugi was saying.

Then Yugi had begun attempting to force Yami away from the controls of their shared body, trying to take over. Yami could tolerate a great many things, but a direct assault was not one of them. He shoved Yugi's mind back.

And just like that, their minds were attacking each other. For the millionth part of a microsecond, the body in question went still, face blank as neither could force control past the other. Its owner(s) were now screaming at each other, rage channeled into deadly bullets of pure thought:

Let me in get out of my body!

No I won't let you stop this!

We can't hurt him we can't kill him!

This is the only way to win we have to do this!

Winning isn't worth this get out get out of me get OUT OF MY HEAD!

At the very last possible moment, the supposedly weaker of their pair attacked desperately with the force of his entire mind. As a result, Yami was ripped brutally out of control and flung into the lowest recesses of their shared soul. Yugi, now in control, called the attack off…

…And the rest, as they say, was history.

And the reason Yami was currently sporting some cracked ribs, a sprained ankle, a heck of a lot of bruising, and an arm that was cracked in at least two places was because the mental assaults Yugi had launched had translated onto his body that way.

Yami eyed the small figure sitting on the other side of the mindspace from him. Yugi hadn't exactly won their war without a scratch on him. Although it was hard to see without any light, it looked like Yugi had a black eye…

His actual body was undamaged, of course - just as Yami's 'body' was just the physical form he had while in mindscape, Yugi's 'body' was just as nonaccurate.

However, since Yami didn't happen to have a real body, he was stuck with what he'd gotten. And until Yugi got off his sulky little butt, Yami's 'body' wasn't going to heal, since he was dependant on Yugi for the extra energy healing would require.

Another wave of irritation filled the spirit. He acted on it, rising to his feet (despite the way he felt like he was about to pass out) and carefully limped his way towards the other.

Yugi's side of the mindscape wasn't that much lighter. Yami doubted Yugi had even noticed the darkness around them anyway, curled up on himself as he was. The other was blocking out everything around him in the outside world - the real reason it was so much darker than usual in here - and as of the current instant Yugi's real body could have fallen into a crocodile-filled pit and the boy wouldn't have so much as twitched.

Yami was not currently in a mood to be ignored and moved to stand directly in front of Yugi. Sure enough, within a few moments the boy lifted his gaze to stare at about Yami's knees.

Close enough.

"This is your fault," Yami declared, not even trying to lighten the anger in his voice.

Yugi flinched. Then he started getting angry himself.

"You wanted to kill him," Yugi said.

Yugi's voice was flat, practically dead-sounding. In a way, that was more accusing than Yami's rage could even be.

"There was no other choice," Yami growled.

By the sands, why were they having this argument again? It wasn't like one of them was suddenly going to say, 'Oh my gosh, you're right, what the HELL was I thinking back there?' And now Yugi would probably get even more upset and annoying…

He had seriously underestimated how much more upset Yugi could possibly get. Suddenly the boy was on his feet, tears dribbling heavily out of his black eye. Before Yami realized it, Yugi was flailing at the nearest object - him.

…

"There's ALWAYS another choice! We didn't have to kill Kaiba to get into the castle! But you don't care, you never cared, you only wanted to WIN -"

Anything else Yugi was going to say was cut off by a strangled half-scream. Confused, the boy opened his good eye to a very disturbing sight. The arm he had been battering had more bends than a regular arm was supposed to have, more than the spirit's other arm had.

That would explain why the spirit had gone completely pale, clutching at the arm in question. Yugi had been aware that for some seemingly inexplicable reason, he had gotten beaten up, but he hadn't even considered that the spirit who shared his head was in similar shape.

Or more specifically, much worse shape.

…

Trying to move away from this sudden source of pain, Yami's wrenched ankle had added its own complaints before going on strike, sending the spirit down on his side and triggering a whole new set of pain-waves from his ribs.

It felt like he might just die of pain, that's how bad it was, but some soon-to-be-damned part of his mind took that opportunity to remind Yami that he couldn't die because he was already dead, so naturally this had to be somewhere in thefarthest blackest depths of HELL -

A small hand on his forehead somehow drew his attention. The physical pain faltered, then receded. But when he opened his eyes…and made out a blurry face that just so happened to have his hairstyle…

In a burst of sudden panic Yami dropped his mental body and accepted the oblivion of total unconsciousness.

…

Yugi yelped when the spirit suddenly vanished. He wasn't really gone, Yugi knew, but he wasn't going to be doing much for a while, that was for sure. And now Yugi felt even worse than he had mere minutes ago.

He didn't want to hurt anybody - but he had. Kaiba might be alive and well, but somehow he and the spirit both were injured. And instead of keeping himself from doing anything else wrong by staying inside his head, he'd just managed to beat up the only other person who knew exactly what Yugi was feeling.

…Even if that person couldn't be trusted.

The spirit's will to dominate had been frightening. Even now Yugi wondered how he had managed to overpower the other. It had clearly cost both of them. But Yugi had also felt the spirit's stubbornness and determination. It was too dangerous to let the spirit get within arm's reach of a dueling deck.

No more dueling. Not even if…even if Grandpa remained Pegasus's prisoner forever. It was just too dangerous. What if during a friendly duel with Joey, the spirit did something to really hurt him? Maybe his friends should just go find someone else to hang out with, someone without an evil spirit inside their heads…

…Someone like Mai? Wait, why was he thinking of Mai?

Yugi's head jerked up as he heard Mai's voice again. It was muffled but he could just make out a few words, here and there.

For a few minutes, Yugi tried to make himself ignore the sounds of the outside world that were beginning to filter in. Somehow he was getting the opposite result, as dim images and more sounds began trickling in. Especially Tea's voice.

Mai and Tea were…they were dueling? For star chips? Tea was trying to win star chips to give to Yugi…even though Tea was almost hopelessly out of her league. The argument the two girls were having came in loud and clear as Yugi reluctantly resumed control over his own body.

Tea and his other friends were there for him no matter what, he'd known that the entire time without realizing it, but Mai made a sensible point. The spirit was inside Yugi's head, it dueled through Yugi's body, therefore Yugi had to be the one that set limits.

Down in the depths of his mind, he could faintly sense the spirit of the Puzzle. As Yugi's confidence rebounded, the spirit's presence seemed to grow stronger. Which was fine. That meant the spirit wouldn't be all beaten up anymore.

Yugi accepted the star chips Tea was offering him. He would duel again. Hopefully he would be able to keep the spirit's…enthusiasm…in check.

…

This was like a nightmare, Yami realized. No, not even 'like' a nightmare - this actually WAS the worst sort of possible nightmare he could ever have dreamed up.

They/Yugi were losing. Unbelievably badly. And Yugi, who was apparently even more of an idiot than Yami had first believed him to be, refused to consider the idea that the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle just might be able to pull their respective rear end out of the fire for a nonlethal win.

If Yugi didn't want help then why did he merge us in the first place, Yami grumbled in the back spot of their shared mind that Yugi was keeping him in, not caring if Yugi heard him.

Oh well, it wasn't like Yami was trying all that hard to convince Yugi to let him help…the last time Yami had attempted to help Yugi do something as foolishly unnecessary as, oh say, WINNING THE DUEL, was still very fresh in his memory.

They were dueling Mai. This was supposedly going to be a honorable duel - honestly, you didn't even consider killing your opponent in honorable duels! The honorable part was that whenever you recognized your defeat, you could surrender without any loss of face or penalties.

Of course, in the future there would be many less-than-honorable duels for the two of them. If their fractured partnership wasn't mended by then…Yami didn't even want to consider what would be in store for them.

The answer was simple: since it was Yugi's body, Yugi would be the one in charge. As much as Yami disliked being told what to do, this was the only thing he could offer and he hoped it would be enough.

Besides, he reflected, sometimes Yugi was actually a pretty okay kid.

…

Yugi watched the spirit like a hawk after finally agreeing to let him take a stab at the duel. The only thing he knew for certain was that at least some of the remorse he had sensed was real.

The spirit played fast. The Swords were already gone, and now it was Gaia and Kuribo against Mai's seemingly unstoppable Harpy ensemble. The spirit had been counting on something called a Black Luster Ritual, but he hadn't gotten the right card yet. And if they didn't draw the card this turn they would lose for certain.

Everyone seemed to be holding their breath as the spirit reached for the deck. He touched the top card, and was about to draw it when Yugi sensed something inside them quiver and then brutally snap. All of the careful self-control the spirit had been using to hide certain feelings from Yugi failed and then -

Yugi was suddenly made painfully aware of exactly how much the spirit had staked on this one card, this one move, this one duel. There were some other feelings mixed in with the fears he was now feeling…loneliness and anger, mostly.

But there was no sign of any lust for power or control, like he'd thought. In less than a second, Yugi realized he might have made a mistake assuming this spirit was evil. The spirit of the Millennium Puzzle just pursued his goals with a little more ruthless determination than the average person.

Like Seto Kaiba, who'd threatened to end his own life in order to win because if he lost he would literally have no reason to keep going.

Yugi moved back to the situation at hand. While he was busy coming to various understandings, the spirit was shredding what remained of his self-confidence in panic.

…there's far too much depending on this for me to risk losing again, murmured the spirit's thoughts, I can't do this, I can't!

We can! Interrupted Yugi.

In the mindscape, Yugi was treated to a vaguely amusing expression of surprise and astonishment on the spirit's face when he spotted Yugi standing next to him, ready and willing to provide support.

…Yugi?

Everything will work out fine as long as we work together and trust each other, Yugi said, And believe it or not, I trust you. Do you trust me?

…I…yes.

Together, they drew. The cards almost seemed to tingle under their fingertips, Heart of the Cards pumping double-time now that they were working as one again.

It was really no surprise that the card they held was Black Luster Ritual.