Fiction, a yu-gi-oh fanfic

HTYT: I LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE!
Yami: 'Bout fucking time...abandoning us for another fandom.
HTYT: Whiny bitch. Anyway, I've been obsessed with Avenged Sevenfold since their new album came out. Their new songs are...I wish I could marry the band, I really do. And this fanfiction uses the lyrics of 'Fiction', the last song that Jimmy 'The Rev' Sullivan recorded before his death 3 days later. And it inspired me to a ridiculous degree. So I hope you enjoy this Post-Ceremonial Duel-3 Years on fic. Oh, and it's not with the other songfics because I think it deserves its own title.

Yugi looked at the calendar again, seeing the note on the current day, but not really needing the little reminder underneath the number.

It had been 3 years now. And every day he still missed Yami. A tear seeped down his cheek, the same way it had last year, and the year before. Exactly the same: a single tear that was the release of all his pent-up sorrow over that day.

He kicked the covers off his bed, and stood up to get ready for the day. Another day of his university course, another day of living without Yami.

Maybe he should have said something at the time. Maybe he should have shouted it as Yami had walked through the doors into the afterlife. Or maybe he should have just told him in the first place and they would have had time to see whether there was any way for them to be together.

That would have been how it had worked...

The night after he got back from Egypt, Yugi had found a note in his bag, left by Yami the night before the ceremonial duel. And right at the very end of all of it, the apologies of his actions, the thanks for letting him use his body as a vessel, and for keeping the puzzle safe...Yami had told him he'd loved him since the start.

It had taken 4 days for Anzu to talk him out of his bedroom, where he broke down in tears in her arms all over again. He showed her the letter, and she cried for him and with him as he released all the pain he could through the salty drops of water. Why couldn't he have stayed? Why couldn't he have stayed and made Yugi happy?

Now I think I understand

How this world can overcome a man.

Like a friend we saw it through

In the end I gave my life for you.

Yami sat on the edge of the marble banister around his balcony, dangling his legs and staring down at the ground below. Even if he fell, he would just float down to the ground, completely unharmed.

He hated the afterlife. The afterlife was meant to be paradise. But there wasn't going to be paradise without his Yugi.

When he'd first gotten there, he'd come face to face with an image of Yugi...but it had been a hollow shell. It didn't have Yugi's personality, nor his warmth, or any of the things that made him Yugi besides his looks.

Yami had screamed from the rooftops for Yugi the first night, wishing he hadn't left that note in his bag and had told him instead. Why didn't he tell him?

Mana tried cheering him up, distracting him, but the only thing he did was sit on the balcony and watch the city below him go about their lives, never bothering to take note of any events that happened. There were carnivals, bazaars, balls, dances, everything in the city...but none of it mattered. Not without Yugi.

Gave you all I had to give

Found a place for me to rest my head.

While I may be hard to find

Heard there's peace just on the other side.

Yugi heard everything his professor was saying, and understood it all...but he couldn't distract himself from the churning in his stomach like there was a storm in it, the knot in his throat the only thing holding his cries of anger and pain back.

A few strokes of pain shot through his chest and he whined quietly...every year since Yami left, he'd had the same pains go through his lungs and heart, the exact time when Yami had walked through the doors. And the pain didn't get any easier as the years had gone past.

Ryou saw his writing falter, and nudged his arm. He knew what day it was...it was the same day where he had lost all hope of Bakura coming back.

[Rev]

Not that I could

Nor that I would

Let it burn

Under my skin,

Let it burn.

The Thief King crouched on the rooftop, meaning to grab something to eat for his lunch. He was above a fruit stall and the scent of the freshly picked fruits were enticing him. But he found himself lost in thoughts about the vessel he had left behind back on earth in the present.

His stomach flipped at the thought of Ryou alone, wondering if the teen had moved on, got over the pain he had caused him. Bakura felt guilt flood through him. He'd used the boy to get to the Pharaoh, endangered his life, made him ill, swore to himself that he didn't like the body that he was using as a vessel.

It was a shame he was just lying to himself. He wished he could take back everything...go back and make things right...tell Ryou, treat him like queen, win his heart. A tear seeped from his scarred eyelid, and he breathed heavily to stop it turning into a full blown weeping session.

The Pharaoh had caught him on the roof of the palace once. And instead of trying to stop him...they'd spoken. They'd shared their reasons for their actions. They'd explained why they'd hated the other so much. They worked out their differences, sorted out their problems and buried the hatchet, swearing that they would not try to hurt the other anymore.

Because really, they were alone together.

He turned away from the fruit vendor and hopped across the rooftops. It was the afterlife...he didn't have to eat.

Left this life to set me free

Took a piece of you inside of me.

Now this hurt can finally fade

Promise me you'll never be afraid.

Yugi lay his head on the pillow. He'd been told to go home after nearly fainting in one of his classes...he hadn't quite been eating properly for a few weeks before. It was always what it was like before the anniversary.

Staring at the ceiling, he tried to imagine what Yami was doing in the afterlife. He'd probably found himself a wife, had a harem full of sexy entertainers, surrounded himself in friends...not even thinking about him.

He shook his head. Even telling himself Yami wasn't thinking of him didn't work: it made him feel worse.

The tears started falling again and he rolled over to try and stop them with his pillow. But as he caught a deep breath of cinnamon, chocolate and honey...he began crying all over again. Yami had always had a sweet tooth while he'd been there...

Suddenly he caught a look at the picture of himself, Ryou and Malik, and the tears stopped like a tap had been turned off. He couldn't cry anymore.

Yugi looked down at himself, wiping away the evidence of his sorrow to clear his vision. He could see his ribs under his shirt. His hair was lacklustre and messy, his eyes dull with too many bad emotions. He compared the photo of himself with him now and wondered what Yami would have said to him.

Yami was the one who kept him eating well, despite the sweet tooth he possessed that made him crave sugar, a danger to Yugi. He kept giving him his insulin like he'd needed it since he was young for the diabetes that would shorten his lifespan. He made sure he did exercise, and got his homework done...all the while trying to get his memories back.

Yami wouldn't have wanted him ill. He wouldn't have wanted him to fade away like he had been. He wanted him to be able to carry on while waiting to meet again...find his own path, live his own life.

He smiled a little, and sat up before standing up and walking over to his closet and picking out an outfit Yami had said would look great on him. He'd never worn it and its tags still hung from the labels in the back.

When he'd exchanged his clothes for the new ones, he looked in the mirror and gave a proper smile, remembering how Yami had stood next to him in the dressing room as he'd changed into them the first time.

He'd been embarrassed. Yami's eyes looked as if they were undressing him after he'd just put them on, desperate to get to the skin underneath and taste him. And he'd assumed that this was just because of how long he'd gone without action. Several thousand years without sex was enough to make any spirit want to do things that he shouldn't, or couldn't in Yami's case. Without a physical body, it would be pretty hard to get some action.

Yugi remembered wishing, to his own surprise, that Yami's form was actually material rather than just a spirit so that he could touch him, feel him, run his hands over the man's smooth looking body and feel skin upon skin...and it was then that he realized that he had fallen hard.

He giggled a little to himself at the memory, picked up his bag he used for university and headed out the door hoping to find Ryou. The white haired man would probably need some support.

[Rev]

Not the I could

Nor that I would

Let it burn

Under my skin

Let it burn

Ryou was shocked that Yugi had such a smile on his face, but felt glad that his friend seemed to be coming back from his grief. There was colour and brightness in his eyes again, and he was eating the soup and toast like he hadn't seen food in a year.

They talked all through the afternoon, through the evening and late into the night, only stopping when it was 2AM and they realized they needed to be up early for classes the next morning. They shared their grief, talked about the good and bad memories, how they'd changed and what they still had to look forward to in life even with Yami and Bakura gone from their lives.

And when he asked what had changed, what had made him want to live again...all Yugi could say to him was something that he said Yami had told him over and over just a month before the Ceremonial duel, something that had been triggered by looking at that photograph on the wall that afternoon:

I hope its worth it, here on the highway, yeah

I know you'll find your own way when I'm not with you...

So tell everybody, the ones who walk beside me, yeah

I know you'll find your own way when I'm not with you tonight...

I hope its worth it, whats left behind me, yeah

I know you'll find your own way when I'm not with you...

So tell everybody, the ones who walk beside me, yeah

I know you'll find your own way when I'm not with you tonight...

HTYT: By the way, I beg of you, go listen to the damn song. It's beautiful, heartfelt, and haunting.
Yugi: And remember this: you don't play guitar with your neck, bro...you play it with your bum-bum!
HTYT: God, I love Synyster Gates...