Yuya is 12 years old, sitting on swing alone in the park, rocking back and forth slowly, goggles over his eyes. It's late in the evening and the sun had started to set, painting the park in shades of red and orange. He needed to go home soon, or his mom would worry and come looking for him, but he wanted to be alone for a little while longer.

His head still hurt a little from a rock one of the other kids had thrown at him. Their words hurt more, 'coward's son' still ringing in his ears, barely drowned out by the squeaking of the chains and the birds that had built a nest in one of the trees nearby.

Yuya pushed his goggles back onto his head. He moved his hand to his deck in his pocket and pulled out his favourite monster and biggest comfort.

Odd-Eyes stared back at him from the card, unmoving and still, but Yuya thought he could feel warmth from his multi-coloured eyes. Looking at his ace always comforted him, he had read his status effects more time than he could count, traced the letters of his name and numbers for his attack and defense with both eyes and fingers.

As he looked at the card in his hands, what felt like a small tingle started in the back of his head.

Yuya gave a small smile at the dragon. "At least you don't think I'm a coward, right, Odd Eyes?"

There was no answer of course. But Yuya felt like he could tell Odd Eyes anything without being judged. Without worrying he was being a bother.

But sometimes, Yuya swore he could hear his dragon rumble back, or feel the card in his hands become warm or let out a small glow for just a second.

He put Odd Eyes back in his deck safely and started to wonder if he should head home, when a searing pain split across his head.

Yuya let's out a scream and clutched at his hair, folding in on himself as if trying to escape the pain. It feels like his head is splitting at the seams, stretching and breaking open.

He trashes backwards, making him fall off the swing, the pain as his back roughly hits the ground barely noticed. His mind feels like it's stretching by itself, reaching out, out and further out.

A boy in a yellow shirt collapses to the ground in a garage, tears leaking out of his eyes.

A boy writhe on the floor in a dark living room, cards spread in front of him.

A boy curls up in a garden, teeth grit to bite back any noise that wanted to escape.

Then he feels like something clicks in place, and the pain abruptly stops.

Yuya is panting hard. His ears are ringing and his throat hurts. He must have screamed more than he thought. The ground is hard and cold against his back. His mind feels like it's been teared open and put back together anew, but it feels like everything fits.

As he lays there, staring up into the sky and trying to gather his thoughts back together, phantom sensations came over him.

~Owwww, what the hell was that?!~

[What... just happened?]

{I better not be getting sick...}

Yuya freezes. Those voices felt so much closer than anything he'd ever heard. He looks around, still to shaken to think about getting up, but he can't see anyone. The voices have turned into mumbles and distorted phantom feelings.

/Hello?\

It's the voices turn to freeze up now. He feels as confused as they probably do.

~What the hell?! Who's talking! And why is it so close!~

Yuya winces. That was loud.

[I don't, what's going on? Is anyone there?]

{Who's speaking?}

The voices sound as confused as he does, but he's at a loss for what to do. His manners for meeting new people end up kicking in.

/I'm Yuya Sakaki. What's your names?\

Silence meets him at furst, but it's the loudest voice that answers first.

~I'm Yugo!~

{Your name is Fusion?} Yuya thought he could hear snickering.

~Hah!? It's not Fusion, it's Yugo!~

The quieter of the voices speaks up before an argument can break out.

[I'm Yuto.]

Silence washes over them, their third companion seemingly unwilling to name himself.

~What? Don't have a name or something?~

Yuya got the distinct feeling the unnamed voice was turning his nose up, a huffing sound coming from him.

{Of course I do, don't be stupid.}

~So? We need something to call you, you know.~

{…My name is Yuri.}

Yuya smiled. He had a name to everyone now! /Nice to meet you! So um, what are you all doing talking in my head?\

~It's you guys talking in my head! But I don't know how that happened. I was going through my cards when my head started to hurt really badly...~ Yugo sounds strained at that.

Yuto spoke up. [You too? I was sorting my cards when my head started to hurt.]

{I was re-organising my deck, I don't know why it happened. But my deck is a mess now.} Yuri sounds miffed.

/I wasn't going through my deck but, I was looking at Odd Eyes when my head started to prickle, then it started to hurt.\

[Odd Eyes?]

Yuya perks up. He was always ready to talk about his dragon. /My ace! Odd Eyes Dragon! He's really cool!\

[Wait, all of you are dueslists?]

~Uh, duh? Can you be something else?~

{Of course I am. Everyone at Academia is one.}

~What's an Academa?~

{Aca-de-mia. Can't you even prounounce words properly, Fusion?}

~It's not Fusion, it's Yugo!~ Yugo paused. ~And what does that mean anyway?!~

{Exactly what I said.}

Yuto cut in before the argument could continue.

[What about you Yuri? What were you doing?]

Yuri paused, but answered. {I was looking at Starve Venom when my head started to, prickle as you call it, as well.}

[Starve Venom?]

{My ace monster.} Yuri sounds pleased and happy to talk about his monster. Yuya could understand the feeling. {Starve Venom Fusion Dragon. He's the strongest there is.}

~Nuh uh! My Clear Wing Synchro Dragon is obviously the strongest!~ Yugo sounded excited despite his words. It was contagious. ~But I was trying to see if any of the cards I found could work with my deck and Clear Wing when my head started to itch.~

[I was holding Dark Rebellion XYZ Dragon. Luckily he wasn't damaged when I dropped him...] Yuto sounds relieved.

/They all sound so cool.\ Yuya gushes. He loved dragons, and he could feel his heart doing flip flops at hearing about these new ones he'd never heard about before!

Yuya was about to ask again what they were doing in his head, when a familiar voice rang out across the park.

"Yuya! What are you doing, out at this time?"

Yuya looked up. It was mom. It had turned completely dark while he'd been busy talking to his new, friends? Were they friends? He wasn't sure.

He realised he really wanted to be.

Yuya sat up as Yoko reached him and picked him up to his feet, despite his protests that he could do it himself, and dusted him off. "I was getting worried when you didn't come home and then i find you lying in the dirt. Did something happen?"

Mom had that worried look in her eyes, despite smiling. Yuya hated that look.

"I'm fine!" Yuya smiled and swung his arms. "I just fell off the swing, no biggie."

Mom didn't look like she wholly believed him, but she let out a sigh, smiled and stood up.

"Let's go home then, it's way to late for you to be out!" She held out a hand for him to take and they started to walk home.

/Hey, are we friends?\ Yuya asked, nervously. Memories of kids he'd thought were his friends leaving him and calling him names after dad disappeared poked their heads out from where he'd done his best to bury them.

Yugo blew away his worries with some simple words and made his steps feel lighter.

~Yeah! If you're gonna talk in my head I'd rather we're friends. Plus our dragons kinda match, and I think Clear Wing likes you guys!~

[Friends...] Yuto sounded dazed. [Y-yeah! We're, we can be friends. I want to be friends!] He sounded happy.

{I, I suppose.} Yuri sounded puzzled, like he didn't fully understand the word. {Just try not to annoy me too much if we're going to be stuck like this.}

~That's my line! You talk too much like a Tops!~

{What does that even mean?}

~What I just said.~ Yugo sounded very smug.

{That doesn't even mean anything in this context.}

Yuya laughed, his mom giving him a questioning look.

He beamed up at her, feeling happier than he's been in weeks. "I made some new friends today!"

I'll put this up with every chapter but for reference:

/Yuya\

~Yugo~

[Yuto]

{Yuri}

Soooo, story where the yu-boys share a telepathic link, hope you'll like it!