Well, it seems you've stumbled upon my first multi-chapter fic for YuGiOh. Welcome! If you're a new reader, I really hope you like my writing. And if you're one of those who have been following some or all of my oneshots for a number of months, I hope my first chapter fic pleases you.

Anyway. On to business. Business being that this story should be established as a "what-if" story, and is, in some way, a little bit AU (simply because I think the chances that this sort of thing really happened in canon are … slim). Which is something I rarely, rarely do, not because I have anything against it, but just because I'm obsessed with sticking to anime canon in my own work. So this story does not take place in the same universe as all my oneshots and other future stories. It exists on its own.

Granted, this isn't terribly AU. It takes place somewhere in the timeline between KC Grand Prix and the Memory World arc in the Japanese anime, which I figured was a significant gap (hey, Yuugi had to decide to go to Egypt, figure out how to get there, get a good chunk of money, buy his ticket …). I have read so very many fun stories where Yami has his own body, either temporarily or as a standard, and I couldn't resist the writing mischief one could make with the concept. There were just too many things to be done. I only hope that I can take my own unique spin on this old idea.

Rated for potential references to violence and angst, and the tiniest bit of slightly rude language. It's non-romance, as is just about everything I write for this fandom. So nothing intentionally romantic between any of the characters. As always, though, you're the reader. Read it as you please. But despite having plenty of unpleasant issues and angst and such things, this may turn out to be fluffier than much of the stuff I write, so I feel it especially necessary to state that no romantic themes were intended.

Well, then, I very much hope you enjoy my first multi-chapter work for this fandom, and my first at all for any fandom in a long, long time. Please leave a review when you're done!

Oh, and Happy New Year!

1

It was a dark and stormy night.

Of course, of all the evenings when he wasn't out saving the world and there were no malevolent madmen out to get him, and he just decided to have a fun evening out with his friends at the local carnival instead of traveling across countries and playing card games of life and death, it would bea dark and stormy night. Rain hadn't even been in the forecast, and by everything he knew to swear to, he had checked. Yet here it was, pouring and plummeting onto the concrete outside the game shop, pattering against the window, thunder occasionally shaking the very foundation of the building and lightning shooting across the sky as if Zeus was playing darts.

This downright sucked.

He wasn't sure if he heard a motion of agreement or a snicker in the back of his head as he sighed, his face pressed against the window so his nose bent and he felt the slight chill on his skin. His eyebrows furrowed. He flicked his eyes up to the angry, swirling, vaguely purple clouds above him, but he did not move.

Mou hitori no boku?

This time he heard a chuckle. He knew he heard a chuckle. Especially when the chuckle was cut off by realization, and even Yuugi could feel the hint of embarrassment seeping through the link.

He thought he heard someone clear their throat. Yes, Aibou?

The chill of the window felt like ice on Yuugi's cheek.

Are you laughing at me?

If the resounding silence hadn't given him his answer—which it most definitely had—the stronger flustered tension following it stamped that answer with a fancy wax seal. He felt the presence fidget.

Of course not, Aibou. Why would I laugh at you?

Normally, hearing his other self sound so downright nervous would have been funny, but right now, Yuugi was a tad too ticked off to take the obvious humor. He pulled back from the window, feeling the glass suck at his cheeks, and crossed his arms over his chest.

Mou hitori no boku, he began, but the retort he had been working on fled from his grasp, and he was left standing there, silent, unfinished.

Another intangible fidget. Yes, Aibou?

Yuugi sighed. Nothing.

Oh, if he could have seen the spirit's face right now, he knew he would have nearly smacked him upside the head. But he didn't need to see him to know the expression was there, and he knew very well that smacking him upside the head was quite impossible.

But still.

He finally gave up on staring at the rain and stepped back to sink into the couch in the living room. His friends wouldn't actually be here for a while anyway. He had time to kill. He could watch the news. He could look through his deck. He could browse the new games Jii-chan had put up in the shop and see if there was anything remotely interesting that he hadn't already played.

He sank further into the couch, put his arms out to his sides, and let out a long and unnecessarily loud sigh.

No offense, Aibou, but you sound really pathetic right now.

Yuugi flicked his eyes to the ceiling, even though he knew there was no image up there to look back at him. I know, I know. I'm just … bored.

A pause. You can talk to me.

Yuugi let his lips twitch into a grin, and he laughed a little. He sensed the bit of hurt that shot through his other self, and he quickly stopped his chuckles and shook his head, sending all the reassuring emotions he had learned how to send over the many months of having someone in his own head to send them to.

I'm not laughing at that, it's just that that's obvious. The feelings in his head calmed and quirked their eyebrow, and he offered the ceiling another smile. You know. You're always here. And I like that! But, I mean … is there anything we haven't talked about already?

Another pause. And this time, even though Yuugi knew he didn't actually sense a smirk, he could so easily have imagined it. But the mental voice came with a tone decidedly stoic and matter-or-fact.

The weather.

Yuugi slipped further down in the couch, and he blinked several times before he realized that he hadn't just been making a joke. The … weather?

Yes. His other self's tone was rather "no duh" now, but somehow still dignified. We haven't talked about the weather before, that I can remember.

But … mou hitori no boku, it's the weather.

Yes. Many people talk about the weather, don't they?

Yuugi gave a tiny cringe. Well, yeah, but …

But what?

Yuugi opened his mouth as if to give a very loud verbal response, but managed to catch himself before he actually yelled for the entire game shop to hear, and probably made himself sound even more insane to Jii-chan than he already did. He sighed.

Usually, mou hitori no boku, he started, and he tried very hard to make his tone as gentle as possible, especially when he sensed an unusual sensitivity within the spirit in his mind. When people talk about the weather, they do it as a truly last resort.

He was met only with baffled silence.

When he was about to say something to try and break it—even if it did have to be commenting on the rather obvious weather outside—he heard a somewhat quieter voice break into his mind.

Well … you know, Aibou, we should probably talk about—

The doorbell rang, and Yuugi just about fell off the couch.

The voice in his head went silent again, and no matter how much Yuugi wanted to tell him to continue, he just scrambled to his feet and toward the side door to the house only his mother ever used, slipping on the carpet and offering a somewhat messy "Coming!" to whoever was standing outside in the rain.

He supposed that after all this time spent around his friends, it should have come to no surprise to him that he knew who was at the door before he even opened it. Even still, though, he brushed away the thought of who it had to be until he turned the knob and pulled open the door.

"Hey, Yuugi!"

"How's it going?"

"Hi, Yuugi!"

Familiar greetings. But though he had heard them a million times over, through Duelist Kingdom and Battle City and the whole fiasco in America, they still made something within him glow and the smile on his face gleam just a little brighter than before.

And though he had never asked to be sure, he always had a feeling his other self smiled when their friends came by, too.

Apparently Anzu had been the only one to bring an umbrella—not that Yuugi was particularly surprised, but he still gave looks of sympathy at the soaked-to-the-bone taller boys who followed him inside, dripping puddles on the floor. Anzu merely rolled her eyes and said that it had been raining for well over an hour, and if they had wanted to avoid the weather they could bring their own umbrella or ask to borrow one.

Yuugi couldn't figure out if it was pride or just annoyance that kept Jounouchi-kun and Honda-kun silent as they tried to dry themselves off as much as possible in the genkan before shuffling through the hallway into the main living room of the house.

Honda-kun rearranged his drooping wet spike of hair and breathed the long sigh of one who has just run a kilometer in unfortunate weather and is only hopeful at this point that he does not catch a cold.

"So, no carnival," he began with a matter-of-fact tone Anzu did not seem to appreciate, at which Jounouchi-kun smirked. "What can we do inside?"

Silence. Yuugi turned his gaze back and forth between his friends, each with a hand on their head or a finger on their chin, or their arms crossed in a new expression of thought he found a little bit funny.

It was nearly half a minute later when Jounouchi-kun looked up with a pose that almost made him look like a scholar.

"…Twister?"

Anzu flinched and snapped to look him flat in the eyes, and Yuugi flinched when she put her hands to her hips like one might look upon a nine-year-old who had just buried his younger siblings in dirty clothes.

"Jounouchi, that game's just dumb!"

Yuugi's lips quirked into the shyest of shy grins. "Sorry, Jounouchi-kun, I don't have Twister."

"But you live in a game shop!"

Yuugi breathed a tiny breath he supposed might have sounded annoyed if it weren't for the nervous smile quirking onto his lips. "We don't carry all American games. Otogi-kun might have it."

Jounouchi-kun scoffed and slumped his shoulders in a pout Yuugi had yet to see any other boy his age successfully pull off. "No way am I walking up to his shop in that."

He flicked his eyes at the nearest window, and then to the door, and Yuugi's eyes followed him. The rain pattered against the glass of the window and the thunder and flashes of lightning made the world outside shake. Yuugi turned his gaze back to Jounouchi-kun, and noticed he was still dripping water on the floor.

"How about a movie, then?" Anzu piped in. She shifted her pale violet bag on her shoulder and titled her head. "I brought a few with me."

Jounouchi-kun groaned.

"Aww, Anzu, that's boring! Let's do something exciting! Like … videogames!"

Honda-kun grinned. "Yeah!"

Anzu gawked. "Videogames?"

Yuugi swallowed—or, more accurately, gulped—as Anzu took a step toward the two of them, focusing on Jounouchi-kun. He might have said something, or at least opened his mouth to give an opinion, but this was the sort of time that he wouldn't have put it past either side of the war to shoot him on sight if he dared pick a side.

So he took a step away as Jounouchi-kun stepped forward in threat, and Honda-kun crossed his arms over his chest and might have looked like an angry mother if not for him being the tallest member of the group.

"What's wrong with videogames?"

Anzu's eyebrows shot up, and she mimicked his pose, except her rendition really did look like an angry mother. Yuugi's mother, to be precise, and if that didn't give a good warning that he should steer clear, Yuugi didn't think anything would.

She lowered her brow. Yuugi could almost imagine her growling. "We came here to hang out!"

Jounouchi-kun gave a decided, definite nod.

"And we will! While we play videogames!"

"We're watching a movie!" Anzu almost shouted, if she hadn't held such control over her voice.

Jounouchi-kun wrinkled his brow. "Videogames!"

"Movie!"

"Videogames!"

"Movie!"

"Movie!"

"Videog—hey!"

Even though he had to back up to the wall to avoid getting caught in the crossfire of the argument—or Honda-kun's darting around the room to search for the Mutou videogame stash—the smile never once left Yuugi's face. The smile of his three best friends, all together, even if all they did was fight instead of actually getting anything done. They were his friends. And that was all that mattered.

And somewhere in the back of his mind, Yuugi was quite sure he could feel someone else smiling, too.

He supposed some people might have been disappointed that half the time the movie was playing, the audio had been indistinguishable from the sounds of the computerized music and binging of videogames on the second TV dug out from the storage closet.

Well, Yuugi would at least have expected Anzu to be disappointed.

But after about ten minutes of rolling her eyes and leaning in close to the screen to hear what was going on in the movie she had probably seen five times already, she gave in and scooted over next to Yuugi to watch Jounouchi-kun and Honda-kun fire away with their virtual guns and laugh at the graphics that had been obsolete for years.

Yuugi never did end up getting his turn to play the game, given that every time they came to a good stopping point Jounouchi-kun shouted a challenge to Honda-kun. But he didn't really mind that either.

Tonight was fun, wasn't it, Aibou?

Yuugi jolted and nearly tripped over his own feet on the way to the bed.

He could have sworn he heard snickering the back of his head, very similar to the voice that echoed in his mind and in his ears at the same time, never quite giving him enough sensory information to decide if he could really hear it. But by the time he regained his balance all he saw was the levitating, transparent form of his other self a meter away from the bed, arms crossed over his chest and head cocked to the side, his lips curled into what was almost, but not quite, his version of a smile.

"Hm?" Yuugi flopped onto the bed and crossed his legs to grip his bare ankles. He grinned. "Oh, yeah! It was great!"

His other self's smile grew, and Yuugi let go of his ankles with a quick breath in. Something heavy settled in his chest, and his gaze fell. He shook his head.

"Oh …"

The smile disappeared. The spirit seemed, in all the ways a spirit could, to tense. "What is it?"

Yuugi looked at him, and that confused expression, transparent as it was, had never been more real. Eyes a little wide and blinking, eyebrows raised, and that hint of worry Yuugi had grown so used to that he knew he shouldn't have been surprised to see it now.

He fidgeted, twisting his fingers together in his lap, and sighed. "I should have let you come out for a while. Sorry."

He breathed out again, and would not allow himself to look away, no matter how much he wanted to. His other self looked back with eyes not quite readable, despite how carefully Yuugi had studied his myriad of strange looks. Old-yet-young eyes blinked though he was quite sure they did not need to blink, and surprise made away for softness and a quirk of the head.

"Aibou, why are you apologizing?" His lips turned up. Not into a full smile, but a smile nonetheless. "I would have said something if there was a problem. There isn't."

Yuugi hesitated and bit the inside of his lip.

"But … you deserve to hang out with them. They're your friends, too, you know."

His other self's smile dropped its concern, and his posture relaxed. "Tonight was yours to have fun." One corner of his lips twitched into a faint smirk. "And believe me, I had plenty of fun just listening to them."

Yuugi bit his lip to keep his snickers from turning into a full-out laugh. Something within him lifted and lightened, and somehow he had a feeling his other self knew.

"Yeah, I guess that is pretty entertaining, huh?"

His other self just chuckled and nodded in return.

"Are you sure you're okay with it?" Yuugi asked after the snickers in his throat had died down. He shifted on the bed, and his other self crossed his arms over his chest in that manner that somehow seemed dignified and royal regardless still. His smile did not fade.

"You'd know if I wasn't."

Yuugi blinked, then gave a nervous giggle.

"Right." He looked to the floor. He stared at the dents his feet had pressed down, and where they pushed back up with the lack of weight. He looked up and met his other self's eyes again. He grinned. "Well, next time they all come over, it's your turn!"

His other self's lips parted in his own version of a dropping jaw. "Aibou …"

"Really!" Yuugi leaned forward almost enough to fall from the bed. "And like you said, I can have fun just watching. Getting a word in once they get going is pretty tough anyway."

A chuckle. Just a brief one, just enough to appreciate the humor of it all.

But then that chuckle faded into silence, and the smile of amusement turned into one of odd appreciation. Appreciation of kindness that perhaps only Yuugi could understand.

The smile softened further, and the violet eyes twinkled with moonlight that could not, for all laws of physics, have truly reflected upon his eyes, but did anyway.

"Thank you, Aibou."

His other self smiled. Yuugi looked at him, and a moment later, he smiled, too.

And never, not once in all the time they had been together, had his other self ever stood there and looked more fitting and more like this was exactly where he belonged.

The smile turned to a smirk. "Now, off to bed."

Yuugi's jaw fell.

"Since when do you tell me when to go to bed?" He leaned his head back and flicked his eyes toward the little clock at the head of his bed. His eyebrows lowered and he turned with a half-mocking glare. "It's only ten-thirty! I'm wide awake!"

The arms over his other self's chest tightened, and he cocked an eyebrow just enough to show. "Oh? Do I have to use magic to put you to sleep?"

"You don't even know howto do that."

A blink. Lips pursed, something between an annoyed frown and a hidden smirk.

"… you're right, I don't. But still. You need sleep."

Yuugi lowered his eyebrows in what he suspected was hardly a good example of annoyance. "No I do—"

His words were cut off with a wide and long yawn.

He blinked and held back a blush, particularly when the next thing he heard was a muffled snicker and the transparent hand of the nearby spirit clamped over his mouth. But Yuugi didn't roll his eyes or scowl. He just smiled, a gentle, tired smile, and sighed.

"Okay, okay."

He climbed under the covers, twisting his legs until they were comfortable and snug, and laid his head down on the pillow. He felt the gentle glow of the moon bathe him in a shimmering light, and he felt the coziness of his bed and his room around him, and the hominess it carried with it.

And standing in that ethereal form at the end of the bed, just as he always did, was his other self, smiling down on him with a smile gentler than any he dared to wear around anyone else, eyes soft and caring, the ties that bound them almost tangible in that one instant Yuugi wished so very dearly would never fade away.

He smiled back, particularly sleepy, as his eyes drooped and another yawn threatened to force itself out. He slipped the familiar chain from around his neck and laid the heavy, not-quite-warm weight of the Millennium Puzzle on the pillow next to his head. He breathed out, and his eyes drooped more.

"Goodnight, mou hitori no boku."

Yuugi did not look up to be sure of the expression on his other self's face. But he could have sworn that the smile grew kinder, and the old but young violet eyes glistened a bit more in moonlight he could not reflect, or in emotion he hardly let himself show.

Except for now.

Sweet dreams, Aibou.

And though it was impossible to tell, Yuugi imagined their smiles matched in perfect synchrony as he closed his eyes and let the darkness pull him down into sleep.

Tugging.

Something pulling, grabbing, yanking at the inside of him. Fight. No, fight it, don't let it take it. Don't let it. No! Fight!

The darkness closing in on him, can't see, but can't give in. Can't let them get away. Can't let them take it. He pulled back, tried to hold on, tried to keep it close to him, keep it near, keep it safe. But pulling, harsh, tugging, hurt deep in his insides. Pulling hard. Pulling it away. Further and further, slipping away, leaving him alone …

No!

Don't go, don't let it go, don't let it—

Thud.

Yuugi opened his eyes.

He focused on the ceiling above him, the colors swirling and finally clearing into the shapes that made up his skylight and the colors of the paint. He blinked twice and shifted under his sheets. The emotions dug up from the dream still bounced within him, his heart pounding in panic. Sweat dribbling down his face. Faint shivers wracking his body.

He breathed.

Still, the memories were vague, and becoming vaguer by the second. His mind calmed, and by some instinct even he was not fully aware of, he reached to the side on his pillow and lay a hand over the smooth gold of the Puzzle. It was here. It was safe. He was here, and he was safe. Everything was fine.

"Aibou?"

A smile worked its way onto Yuugi's face, though his heart still pounded against his chest, and he was just getting rid of the last bouts of shivers. He wiped his sleeve across his forehead coated in sweat. "Yes, mou hitori no boku?"

A pause. Just a little too long for comfort.

"Aibou …"

Yuugi's eyes, which had started to close as the panic was replaced by tiredness, snapped open. The weakness in the voice struck him, as did the uncertainty, the worry, something bordering on flat-out fear.

But that wasn't what made his stomach nearly come up his throat.

The voice wasn't loud and clear inside his head. It always had been, from the very beginning when he had learned to use the mind link. Even if his other self's image was all the way across the room, his voice was always close by, as if he was speaking directly into his head. But this voice …

… it was quiet.

And far away.

Hesitant and gentle from just beside his bed.

Yuugi sat up so fast he nearly knocked the breath out of himself and turned his head.

There was his other self. On the floor, next to his bed, on his stomach and trying to pick himself up. He trembled, though it was hard to see in the pale light of the room. Yuugi couldn't see much more than the basic form of the spirit as he turned his head to look back at him. His violet eyes glimmered, reflecting the glow of the moon.

Reflecting.

Yuugi scrambled to lean over the edge of the bed, almost falling off, and he felt himself grip the sheets. His eyes began to adjust to the darkness, and the form near him grew clearer and clearer. And his other self pushed himself further off the ground, stumbling every second, dazed, dizzy and heavy. As if …

He was dreaming. He knew he was dreaming. It was the only explanation, either that or he truly was losing his mind. Yuugi stayed on the bed for several seconds longer, watching in dumb shock as his other self picked himself up, fell as his arm gave way like wet clay, and finally managed to get himself to his knees. He turned his head and looked Yuugi straight in the face, his eyebrows raised, his eyes blinking and wide.

Yuugi pulled one leg out from the covers, then the other, and slipped down to the floor so slow he might have been a shadow himself. He fell to his knees, and he just sat there as his other self looked back.

He could see his mouth open, his chest moving up and down as he breathed, tired. But his other self still stared back, even though he looked about ready to collapse again. Yuugi raised an arm, so hesitant he wasn't sure at first if he was moving at all. His fingers twitched and reached, and he held his hand up toward his other self's face.

And he felt the warm, smooth flesh of his cheek.

The breath he drew in shook, and it felt sharp and cold. It matched the uneven breathing of his other self, syncing up, perfect and yet so very flawed. He ran that finger along the flesh, and with each moment, he felt his other self stiffen and flinch at the unfamiliar touch.

Yuugi swallowed.

"You're solid," came the whisper so quiet he almost didn't hear it. "You're … real."

His other self just stared back at him in wonder and daze, as if he hadn't said anything at all.