Ever watch the beginning of that sequence where Yami dueled Arcana (Pandora in Japanese), the part where he shuffles his deck and randomly comes out with the Dark Magician? He did it in the anime version of how Yugi became friends with Tea (Anzu) too. I thought about it, and came out with this.

Without my meaning to, the themes kinda meandered around from humorous, to rather deep, and back to humorus. I hope it works, or at least flows right. Reviews, pretty please?

Disclaimer: Yugioh and all it's characters belong to Kazuki Takahashi. I'm just taking them out for a joy ride, and I promise to put them back when I'm done.

Joey blinked, then wished he hadn't.

"Do that again."

Yami chuckled softly, then replaced the card in his hand and began shuffling his deck. Joey watched carefully for some trick, some slight of hand, anything, but there was only the rythmic pattern of his friend's hands as he randomized his cards. Then, without warning, he stopped.

"Ready?" Yami asked, a confident smile on his face.

Joey grinned back at him, and nodded.

Yami drew the top card from his deck and showed it to him. It was the Dark Magician.

"Aargh!" Joey sat back and held his head in frustration. "How do you keep doing that?!"

This time he laughed, a rare sound. "It's not that hard, Joey. You should try it with Red Eyes."

"Well, alright..." Skeptical, Joey pulled out his deck, fanned it out to search for his Red Eyes Black Dragon, and placed the card on top. Slowly, trying to keep an eye on the card's relative position in his deck, he shuffled his cards exactly the way Yami had. Soon, however, he completely lost sight of the card in question, and placed his deck on the table in disgust.

Yami frowned a bit. "Well, that's your problem right there," he said.

Joey looked up. "Eh?"

"You keep trying to watch where the card is, and stop shuffling when you think it's on top. Joey, if you look for it, it'll hide from you. You have to trust that it'll come to you on its own."

Joey eyed his deck critically. "You make it sound like the card's alive."

Yami raised an eyebrow, and Joey instantly realized the stupidity of what he just said. "You've known me how long?" Yami said, "And you still don't think these monsters are real?"

"Okay, okay! Point taken." Joey sighed softly and picked up his deck again. He started to fan his cards out again, but decided against it. If he knew where the Red Eyes was, he'd just make the same mistake as before. He closed his eyes.

Slowly, then picking up speed, he began his standard card shuffle. It was a practiced motion, he didn't even need to think about it. Instead, Joey's thoughts wandered to the Red Eyes Black Dragon, and what it meant to him. It was his pride and joy, and represented the fact that maybe he could actually do something worthwhile, and be something more than he was...

He stopped. He didn't know why, he just stopped. He wasn't sure, but he thought he might have heard something, some kind of whisper in his ear that was a roar at the same time. Joey opened his eyes, only to see Yami grinning at him.

Joey picked the top card from his deck. An electric tingle ran up his arm.

It was the Red Eyes Black Dragon.

"Dude! How'd you do that?"

Yami laughed again, but his eyes were at their most serious. "I didn't do anything, Joey. You called for your dragon and it came. Furthermore, you trusted that it would come. That's what the Heart of the Cards is really about: trust."

Joey remembered that. He remembered all the times when he was sure he'd lose, when his mind had gone curiously blank, and all he could hear was that roaring. He remembered the times when he was certain he would win, because he had something to fight for, and his dragon was his weapon, as well as his friend. "Trust in the cards..." he murmured, "and trust in yourself." He looked up. "Seems to simple."

"Well I told you it was easy," Yami smirked. "The hardest part is getting over all your preconceived ideas about what's possible, and start accepting what's right in front of you." Then he got serious again. "Besides, real trust is hardly a simple thing, either to give or to earn."

Both of them fell silent, thinking simultaneously of the one person they both knew who readily trusted all he came into contact with. They wondered if they ever would have learned what trust actually meant were it not for him.

"So you can do this during duels, too?"

The tension broke. "Yes," Yami replied, face lighting up at talk of his favorite subject, "though it's not as obvious. With both decks already shuffled, it's almost impossible to know what you'd need halfway through the game." He shrugged. "I'm not sure how it works, I just trust that it will, and it usually does."

"And this has nothing to do with freaky Millennium mind-powers?" Joey asked, only half-joking.

Yami scowled, but only slightly. "I don't do that sort of thing anymore."

Once more, Joey broke their silence. "But you can still usually draw whatever you want, right?" Then he - attempted - to look suspicious. "Sounds like cheating to me..."

Yami gasped in mock offense. "You insult my honor as a duelist!" he cried.

Joey grinned, his face alight with mischief. "Care to prove me wrong?"

"You're on!"

Both of them re-shuffled their decks, placed them on the table between them, and drew five cards each.

"Put 'em up, cowboy!" Joey challenged.

Yami just laughed.

Win? Fail? Divide by zero? Review and tell me what you think.