A/N: First Yugioh story, ever. I wrote this some time ago, and have finally got round to posting it.

Summary: Yami has always been Yugi's protector, his other half. How would Yugi cope if, suddenly, their roles are reversed?

Disclaimer: Yugioh belongs to a very rich guy who lives in Japan (no, not Seto Kaiba). Don't sue, you'll only get a half empty jar of old fashioned jelly babies.

Warnings: Nothing really. Yami and Yugi's relationship could be read as slash if you want, but I see it more as brotherly love than anything.

Rating: PG13 American, 12 English.

Role Reversal

His neck itched where the chain once was. The absence of the comforting weight on his chest. And the worst…the ringing, cold, unbearable silence. He felt so empty inside; incomplete. Well, he supposed, technically, he was incomplete. At least, in part.

"Mr Mutuo?"

'I miss Yami…'

"Mr Mutuo?"

'I hope he's alright…he must be pretty lonely…well, I guess he's been alone for 5000 years before now…'

"Yugi Mutuo!"

'After Oricalcus, he's been awfully quiet…I hope he'll talk to me soon…'

"Mr Mutuo, would you kindly PAY ATTENTION!"

Yugi was jerked out of his distracted revere by the clipped and precise tones. His head jerked up to meet the narrowed emerald eyes of the new language teacher, Miss Hiritomi. He blinked.

"Oh." He smiled, sheepishly "Sorry, Miss Hiritomi."

She straightened up, her arms crossing over her business suit, metallic pink nails clashing horribly with the rest of her attire. Yugi refrained, just barely, from wrinkling his nose in disgust.

Normally, he wouldn't be so quick to scorn, but the fact was he already held a great deal of bad feelings towards the language teacher. Firstly, Yugi had been very upset when their previous teacher, Mr Mitsuami, had drowned while on holiday in Majorca. He had been Yugi's favourite teacher, and had been the small boys mentor and friend through the years prior to his friendship with Joey and Tristan.

Secondly, from the moment she had walked through the door, Yugi had known he would not like her. Somehow, his first impressions were always correct. Joey, for instance, he had known had a heart of gold underneath his 'gung-ho' countenance, and Kaiba…well, at least he had known the CEO wasn't completely beyond help.

Miss Hiritomi, with the aid of her excessively high and noisy heels stood very tall at 6 ft 2. Had it not been for her harsh features and overly sharp nose (at least in Yugi's opinion) she would seem quite docile. Her long black hair was seemingly never out of place, and seemed to get shinier with every day (Yugi suspected hair dye was involved somewhere within that).

But the thing which made Yugi hate her, and loath her with every fibre of his small being, was that she had banned jewellery in school. And, far worse, she had stood high above Yugi, that overly sweetened condescending smile curving her face, and had leant down and said quietly, but in a whisper the entire class could hear:

"You're necklace, if you please, sweetie. Oh! What a pretty design. Where did you get it?"

Yugi had stared up at her with wide-eyed disbelief, before slowly beginning to undo the clasp at the base of his neck. Yami had been strangely silent as Yugi felt their connection waning before fading completely. Yugi couldn't suppress a wince as the lethal blade of her index fingernail tapped lightly against the side of the millennium puzzle as Yugi lifted the chain over his head and grudgingly let it fall into her hand. She squinted at it.

"Ah, Egyptian. Such a fascinating subject. I myself studied it extensively in my high school years…" she had sighed, and turned away.

And Yugi decided then and there, as he watched his puzzle and the spirit he knew to be trapped inside be set down on the front desk like a mere paperweight, that Miss Hiritomi might well become the first teacher who he disliked. Even hated.

It wasn't as if she knew of the massive loss Yugi had suffered with the confiscation of his puzzle, but Yugi couldn't bring himself to let that pass. Yami had become a part of him.

Forty five minutes later, and all the students cheered (well, all except Yugi and Kaiba, Yugi because he had been brooding, and Kaiba because…well…he was Kaiba) as the lunch bell interrupted Miss Hiritomi's lecture on the perfect and dative tenses in Latin. She sighed, and blew a strand of hair out of her eyes as the students twitched in their seats, ready to be set free for a whole hour.

"Lunch time so soon…" she tutted "my, my, class, time does fly when you're having fun, non¿Cuál está para la preparación, clase?"

"Research on the perfect tense, Miss." The class chorused, and Miss Hiritomi smiled briefly.

"Très bien. Vous pouvez partir. Au revoir."

"Au revoir, Madame Hiritomi." The class gabbled, and rushed for the exit.

"See ya, Miss!" Joey called over the commotion. Kaiba rolled his eyes briefly before sedately making a dignified exit after the chattering rabble, looking disdainful. Yugi remained cemented to his seat, staring at the small patterns of light reflected off the surface of the puzzle onto the ceiling. The eye of Horus seemed almost to wink down at him, shimmering and indistinct on the cream tiles.

"Well, Yugi. Much as I admire your enthusiasm for my class, I am in need of some much craved caffeine." Miss Hiritomi smiled, and beckoned him up to the front. Yugi got up, not bothering to tuck his chair under the desk, and walked over to the front, where Miss Hiritomi sat perched on the edge of her desk, smiling in that sweetly sinister way.

"I think I'll keep this," she gestured with one manicured hand to the puzzle "until the end of the day. Come back after last class, and I'll give it back. That okay, sweetheart?"

"Yes, Miss." Yugi said politely, a pang of disappointment failing to be suppressed. She smiled in a patronising way, as though speaking to a small child, and had the gall to pat Yugi on the head.

"Don't worry, Little Yugi. I'll take care of it."

"Miss Hiritomi!"

There was a loud bang as the door was flung open, and a girl with short, amber hair in mismatched plaits skidded into the room, uniform askew.

"Miss, oh Miss!" she exclaimed, running over to Yugi and Miss Hiritomi, banging into desks as she hurried. She stopped mere inches in front of Yugi, her face twisted with panic.

"Quill!" Miss Hiritomi hopped off the deck gracefully, and put her hands on the girl's shoulders. "Calm down, child! What on earth is the matter?"

Quill took a few short, gasping breaths, before launching into speech again.

"Those two boys, the blonde American, and the moody kid? They're fighting, Miss, by the gym!"

Yugi stiffened.

"Joey? Kaiba and Joey, is that who you mean, Quill?"

"Yes, I-I think so…" Quill trailed off.

Miss Hiritomi sighed deeply, and sedately made her way towards the door, her business like posture and clipped tone set back in place. She turned when she reached the door.

"Thank you, Quill. Yugi? At the end of school, don't forget." She left. Yugi could hear her heels slapping the lino floor all the way down the corridor.

"You're worried for your friend, aren't you?"

Yugi jumped, and turned back to look up at Quill. She was a head taller than him, and was a transfer student from England. Yugi smiled.

"Don't worry. He'll be okay."

"I worry for both of them. Kaiba and Joey."

Quill grinned, the gap in between her two front teeth showing.

"Kaiba always seems sad. And Joey, constantly troubled. Jumpy. Their personalities clash. Do you know their star sign?"

"Uh…" Yugi said, biting his lip "well, Joey's birthday is January 25th, and Kaiba's is October 25th …I think…"

"Ah…Aries and Libra…I suspected as much…and with Neptune in alignment with Mercury…" she shook her head sadly, plaits dancing around her face.

"Great tension, I'm afraid. You might want to watch them more closely."

"Uh…right…thanks." He smiled at her awkwardly. "Well, I'll be off. Better sort out Mr Macho and Mr Sensitive. I'll see you in…is it maths?" Quill nodded vigorously, dimples standing out on her cheeks.

"Yes, yes, I sit behind you! I'm so glad you noticed! Well, have a nice lunch period!"

Yugi nodded, and hurried from the room, sending one last longing glance at the puzzle, which looked almost lonely, as he left the classroom.

Three thirty took an age to come. Yugi heaved a deep sigh of relief as he entered the now deserted classroom. The thin rays of afternoon sunshine shone through the blinds, casting a striped row of golden bars across the desks. Yugi's eyes brightened as he recognised the sharp edges of the puzzle, still resting on the desk. He hurried over to it, fingers closing tightly over its cool surface, welcoming.

The familiar link spun up his arms, spiralling up to his head. A tingle in his veins. It was a pleasant feeling, warm, and a little tickly. The connection fuzzed in and out like a faulty radio, before settling into a pulsing rhythm.

'Aibou, that was quite possibly the most boring four hours of my life.'

Came the indignant and sulky tones of his darker half. Yugi giggled as he attached the chain of the puzzle back around his neck, slipping the pyramid beneath his jacket.

'Which, considering you're an old man of five thousand, and technically are not alive, must constitute as pretty boring.'

'Old, aibou?'

'Yes, Yami, old.'

'I beg to differ. I am mature, eighteen with four thousand nine hundred and eighty two years of experience. And it was the most boring four hours of my death, to be absolutely metaphorically correct. That woman could bore the sun god himself to death.'

'Why, my dear Yami, I do believe you are going senile.'

'Senile?'

Yugi chuckled quietly to himself as Yami cursed him half heartedly in Egyptian. He was so pleased to have the sarcastic pharaoh back inside his head, he decided to refrain from teasing Yami about his age…for now.

"What's so funny, Mr Mutuo?"

It was Miss Hiritomi, looking innocently curious as she emerged from the cupboard where she had evidently been lurking in, a pile of books balanced on one patterned knee.

'Run, aibou! Before she starts a lecture!'

Yugi snorted, eyes widening as Miss Hiritomi's eyes narrowed in contradiction.

"Mr Mutuo, are you patronising me?"

'Well, she's one to talk…let me speak to her. I haven't mind crushed anyone in so long, and her brains so screwed up anyway…'

'Yami!'

"Uh…no, Miss Hiritomi. Just…laughing at something my…uh…friend said, at lunch."

'Awww, I'm your friend? I'm touched, Yugi, really.'

'Shut up, pharaoh!'

Miss Hiritomi blinked, and stared at him.

"Mr Mutuo, are you feeling alright?"

'Holy crap, did I say that out loud?'

'Well, my dear hikari, judging by the fact she just questioned you're mental state of mind-'

'Did I ask for your opinion!'

'No. I believe you are blessed with the infinite and wise nugget of knowledge I have so kindly bestowed upon you.'

'You're so conceited…'

'Nineteen years of doing anything I damn well please will do that to a guy. The world is my playground. All living creatures are my pawns. They are here only for my amusement.'

'…and insane.'

'You flatter me, aibou.'

A hand to Yugi's forehead jolted him out of his interaction. He glanced up to find Miss Hiritomi's face mere inches from his own. He jumped, as the door to the classroom banged off its hinges for the second time that day.

"I'm here, Hiritomi baby!"

Joey froze, as he took in the fact that Yugi was present, and also that the door was now unceremoniously flat on the floor.

"Oh, Jes-us! Sorry."

Joey leant down and retrieved the now thoroughly battered door and stood it gingerly back in place in the doorway. He grinned sheepishly at Miss Hiritomi, who scowled.

'Well, that was interesting.'

"Mr Wheeler. You're…early."

"Sure am, Miss. Thought I'd make up for lost time, ya know?"

Just as Miss Hiritomi opened her mouth to respond, the door once again fell forwards with a loud bang, revealing a rather confused looking Seto Kaiba, eyebrow raised.

"Apologies. I wasn't aware the school had employed the latest technology in fire escape doors…original system, a door which you can walk over."

'Ooh, I would love to pull that stick out his arse and beat him over the head with it…'

'Yami Atemu Mutuo!'

"I suggest you go home and get some sleep, Yugi. It may do you good. As for you, Mr Wheeler, you now have two lines to write one thousand times: firstly, 'I shall not engage in physical assault of my fellow students' and secondly 'I shall not abuse school property'."

'Yami, please don't talk so much when I'm with other people. I can't think.'

Yugi rubbed his forehead as he hurried down the quiet street, the puzzle banging against his chest as he picked up his pace.

'When else am I supposed to talk to you, then? You're always with people, and when you aren't, you're sleeping.'

Yugi stopped. Yami sounded almost…resentful? No, not resent…something else…not anger, or even annoyance…something else entirely…sadness? Yugi felt a flare of frustration rise inside him. Life was bad enough without his Yami going all sulky on him.

'Look, Mi hitori no boku, people are starting to think I'm crazy. Maybe I am, anyone hearing voices inside their head is generally considered out of it!'

'Well, I didn't ask to be sealed inside a triangle for several million millennia! I didn't ask to be Pharaoh!'

'Maybe if you hadn't been, you wouldn't be so damn conceited! You're always pushing me around!'

'That's a lie, Aibou! You're the one in charge of this body, and-'

"Well, well, well! Look wha' tha cat dragged in."

Yugi jolted, and blinked, squinting his eyes from the glare of the sun as he looked up at the dark figure towering over him. His eyes widened. It was Lim-Bai, the boy who Yugi had gotten expelled for violence in second grade. Yugi gulped, glancing round nervously. Nobody was around. The street was deserted.

He was alone.

'Aibou! Let me handle him!'

Well, not quite. Yugi felt his resolve harden.

'No! I didn't need you then, I don't need you now!'

'But, Yugi…'

Yami was pleading now, as the thick-shouldered man advanced slowly, licking his lips.

'Maybe I've become too dependent on Yami…' Yugi thought, glaring up at Lim-Bai. 'I need to do this…to prove to myself that I am just as strong as he is…'

Lim-Bai raised his fist, chuckling throatily, lips curling into a sneer. A wave of utter terror swept across the mind link, but Yugi knew it had not come from himself.

'Yugi! Aibou! No!'

Yugi's eyes widened as he saw the world around him move away…or was he moving back? Darkness grew at the edges of the image, and Yugi could see the faded image of darkened stairwells flicker in and out of sight. His eyes narrowed, and a stab of anger coursed through him.

Yugi watched, chest heaving as he seethed, as Yami handled the situation with his usual stoic calm. How dare he? He, Yugi, was the person who belonged here! If it wasn't for Yugi, Yami wouldn't be here at all! If anyone should have a say in his life, it was Yugi himself! And to think mere minutes ago, Yami was claiming that he was in charge…

As soon as Lim-Bai had fled, Yugi reached out for the dark presence above him. He found it, familiar and warm, but for Yugi, it was no longer comforting but scalded him and heightened his anger. He clenched a superficial hand around the dark being and thrust it forcibly into the back of his mind, even as he rose to meet the quiet street around him, once again deserted. He heard Yami give a startled cry of pain as he was thrown back into the confines of the puzzle. Yugi smiled with bitter satisfaction.

'Ouch! Aibou, that hurt…'

'Serves him right.'

'Good.'

Silence. Yugi could feel Yami's confusion at this statement surge across their bond.

'Ano…nani?'

Yugi snorted. Well, at least Yami had learnt something through using his body in the modern world.

'I said good. As in, I'm glad it hurt, Pharaoh.'

'Yugi…what…?'

'You have no right! How could you? I told you not to, I could handle it! I handled him before, without your help! I don't need you!'

A twinge of hurt fluttered across the thinning bond, but Yugi ignored it, throwing himself down onto a bench, panting.

'But, Yugi, I was only trying to protect-'

'Protect? A fine job he did of it.'

Yugi felt the waves of anger become a hurricane, bursting in his chest, searing across his lungs, making him gasp for breath.

'Protect me? Don't make me laugh, Pharaoh. Since when have you ever done anything but held me back! Remember the seal of Oricalcus? Who saved me, us, then? It was me! You nearly destroyed both of us, not to mention the entire planet, and who sacrificed himself to save your sorry hide? I DID!'

'I…I never meant…didn't mean to…I never wanted to hurt you, Yugi…'

Yugi laughed bitterly, the sound rattling in his chest. The puzzle was gripped tightly in his hand, his knuckles turning white. A burning sensation grew, and Yugi felt the puzzle grow hot.

'You couldn't even control yourself! With me gone, the darkness overpowered you and nearly led to the destruction of the world! You're pathetic! Weak! How could you just succumb like that?'

All the hurt, the anger, the helplessness which Yugi had held back within the times in which Dartz's tyranny reigned suddenly burst forth from their previously closely kept defences.

'Protect me? PROTECT ME? When trying to so-called protect me, you ended up losing my soul! I nearly died because of your pathetic attempts to protect me! Maybe I don't need protecting anymore!'

'Aibou, please…'

'And you know what? Maybe I don't need you, either! Maybe I don't even want you here! You say you didn't ask to be locked in a puzzle! Well guess what? I didn't ask for you, and maybe I didn't even want you in the first place! I should just smash the puzzle and be done with it!'

'Yugi…is that really what you want?'

Yugi started, anger dying down briefly. Yami sounded…scared. Yugi felt a momentary stab of guilt, then smirked, malicious. That made a change.

'Do…do I really want this?' Yugi thought, pondering.

'Of course! It's all his fault!'

'Yes, Yami. It is.'

There was a silence. Yugi blinked, as he found himself staring out at the street, the faint shadow of the interior of the puzzle gone.

'I see.'

The puzzle grew cold.

'If this is truly your wish, Yugi Mutuo…so be it.'

Yugi gasped as an invisible barrier sliced through the link like a blade, releasing a ringing note which sounded like the toll of a bell on a brass gong. The warmth of the bond fled with a soft sigh, to be replaced with a cold, ringing silence.

Time passed, flew by, and many minutes had died before Yugi straightened, legs shaking slightly, and took an unstable step towards the game shop at the end of the road.

'Yami?'

Yugi took another step, hesitantly, searching tentatively in his mind for something, anything…a flicker, or a shadow.

'Yami?'

There was no answer; save for the silence.

A/N: So, should I continue? This is an old story, but I think I could get back into it...review and tell me what you think!