Heartshipping...why? I've never been ale to pair poor Yugi-chan with anyone but Yami up 'til now...perhaps it's because Yami's out of the picture...

Heartshipping is RyouxYugi, for those of you who don't know. I got bit by a plot bunny, I suppose. That's never happened before...

From Ryou's point of view.

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I suppose it should come as no surprise, really, that you and I would end up together, in the end.

It may have been a little unexpected; to some people – we are quite different, in most respects. Your naturally flamboyant hues – of hair, eyes, and clothes – rather starkly offset my own colorless, almost albino appearance. Our natures, as well – you, outgoing and risk-taking, when all's said and done, and I – shy, quiet. Analyzing. Perfectly content to sit back and wait…even at someone else's cost.

We do have a few similarities, though. Our builds, for example, are quite the same. Though I'm a bit taller, we are both slim and remarkable feminine. Both of us keen strategists. Both creatures of the light. …both missing their other half.

I remember that time…when you first put your small hand in mine. That sense of wholeness, of being, that I had not felt since…he left. I'm sure you felt it, too. Otherwise, why didn't you take that hand away? Why did you, later, lift your lips to mine?

I remember, too, that you had to stand on tiptoe to kiss me. Light and sweet and chaste, that kiss was. That's what a real first kiss should be like; not the violent tongue-battles he used to grace me with.

I miss him, though…I really do. I've no doubt you miss your other just as fiercely as I mine, if not more.

I had never had any control in that relationship. When he first kissed me, I remember, you thought he'd hit me – my lip was bleeding. That look on your face…the sweet horror, and bitter pity writ large in your eyes. I would have reacted, have comforted you somehow, if all else hadn't been drowned out by the warm, red haze of my own first kiss.

I know you and yours had an easy relationship. You had no grudges, no images, no weaknesses to hinder you. That's what he called me, you know: 'his weakness'. Perhaps it was the difficulty of our love that makes this so hard.

At any rate, in any case, the time came – and we were simply devastated. I still don't remember those first few days after – and, for a while, neither of us were really there. As time went on, we grew closer; we just kind of clung to each other, recognizing a kindred spirit.

Yet here we are, now, to halves of two very different wholes, struggling to live through the pitfalls and cracks our ungracious others left for us.

You were whole then. Happy. Are you happy now?

I can't tell…not really. I know you cry a lot – I'm always there to dry those tears. Those sparkling, crystal tears…is it wrong to think they're so beautiful?

I want you to be happy. You deserve it. Oh, you deserve it. But I don't know it I have the strength…this division…I think it's killing me. You were like a patch, a bandage, but my time is up, I just can't take it anymore…. I want to be with him. I'm sorry…

Bakura is killing me by inches.