Title: Incomplete
Summary: "Dark Magician looked at him. "Young one, tell me. What would you give to get the pharaoh back?" Yuugi makes a sacrifice to get Yami back… and never expected the resulting consequences. Fem!Yuugi and Fem!Ryou, YYxY, BxR, SxJ
A/N: Okay, I'm (obviously) not afraid to write slash so what the hell am I doing here? Good question. I was asked whether I would consider re-writing my other YGO story with female hikaris. Short answer, no. But then my mind started wandering. I really shouldn't let it do that anymore; it goes to dangerous places. This is an experiment for the time being; if it's continued updates would be sporadic at best. But… lemme know what you think.

Empty spaces fill me up with holes
Distant faces with no place left to go
Without you within me I can't find no rest
Where I'm going is anybody's guess

I tried to go on like I never knew you
I'm awake but my world is half asleep
I pray for this heart to be unbroken
But without you all I'm going to be is incomplete
Backstreet Boys: Incomplete

Another day over with and thank Ra for that because he didn't think he could take anymore. Mutou Yuugi sighed as he opened the door the Kame Game Shop and slipped inside. Surprisingly, his grandfather wasn't at the counter manning the shop, but Yuugi was relieved for the temporary reprieve. After spending the whole day at school being overly cheerful in an effort to make his friends believe that he was fine, he was pretty sure that his whole face would crack off if he had to maintain that fake smile for even another five minutes. He tried to keep as quiet as possible as he crept across the floor, and his foot had just landed on the first stair when he heard voices behind him.

"Yuu-chan, there you are!" his mother chirped, poking her head around the corner. "I've been waiting for you to come home. Could you watch the shop for a while? I want Jii-chan to take me to the flower show."

No! No no no! Yuugi bit the instinctive words back as he turned around slowly. Mutou Koto's face flickered briefly when she caught sight of him, but her expression quickly smoothed out into a beaming smile. She flat out refused to admit that there was anything even slightly wrong with her son. In her eyes, that would mean acknowledging that 'that whole Millennium nonsense' might have been real. As far as anyone outside of the family was concerned, Yuugi was just entering one of 'those stages' and he would get over it soon. He might have cared more about what she said and did if he cared about anything at all.

That was the problem.

He didn't.

"Sure," he said dully. "I can do that."

"No," Mutou Sugoroku said firmly. "Koto-chan, I told you I would go with you later tonight. We'll close the shop a little earlier than normal and have dinner out."

"Yuugi can watch the shop. It won't hurt him," Koto said, thrusting her chin out stubbornly. She wielded her ladle like a sword and normally, Sugoroku probably would have backed down. But not right now, not when Yuugi was wasting away every day and she refused to see it.

"I said no," he repeated. "Go upstairs and have a nap, Yuugi. Maybe you'll feel well enough to come with us later."

Yuugi obediently turned and continued up the stairs, not waiting around to hear his mother protest a second time. Soft squabbling broke out behind him as he made it to the top, walked into his room, and slammed the door. The solitude of his room didn't really help - this was where the memories were the strongest, after all - but he was too tired to want to do anything else. Listlessly, he tossed his bag into the corner of his room and threw himself down on the bed without bothering to take his sneakers off. All he wanted was to forget about the world, but that was easier said than done.

Even though he craved being alone, the memories kept crowding in on him; memories of times that he had never been alone because his other half had always been right there with him. He squeezed his eyes shut tightly in an effort to avoid giving over to the tears that wanted to fall. It was always worse in the middle of a crowd, because he couldn't connect to anyone the way he'd connected to the pharaoh, but somehow it was no better when he was alone. A muffled sound that might have been a sob lodged in his throat.

"Yami…" he whispered into his pillow, clenching his hands so tightly into the cotton that his fingers began to ache. Exhaustion dragged at him. He hadn't been sleeping well lately; his dreams were always of Yami and they never failed to make him hurt regardless of whether they were happy or sad. He didn't want to dream anymore. But sleep was a demanding mistress and gradually, his breathing slowed and evened out.

The air shifted. Yuugi froze, instantly awake, recognizing the strange sensation even though it had been a long time since he had last felt it. He rolled over and looked up as a faded mass of roiling purple storm clouds manifested in the middle of his room. Slowly, the clouds elongated and formed into a tall and slender figure. By the time he had sat up, the features had solidified into that of Dark Magician, who promptly knelt and bowed his head to the boy sitting on the bed. Yuugi just stared, his mouth hanging open, for several minutes until Dark Magician looked up. Blazing blue eyes snapped him out of his daze.

"D-Dark Magician?" he stammered. "What… how did… Why…?"

"We have been worried about you, young master," Dark Magician said gently, rising to his feet. He towered over Yuugi but the smaller boy felt no fear. "For the past year we have been watching over you as the pharaoh requested. We had hoped that time might begin the process of healing your wounds, but you have only grown worse with time, and we fear for you future."

Yuugi glanced down at his lap and rubbed a hand over his eyes. "I'm sorry."

"Do not apologize. Most of the humans in this world could not understand what it's like to only be one half of a whole. It is cruel to leave you here all by yourself." Dark Magician watched his charge anxiously, as though Yuugi might fade away right in front of him. He took a deep breath and asked, "Young one, tell me. What would you give to get the pharaoh back?"

"What?" Yuugi's head snapped up, his fatigue vanishing. "There's a way to get him back?" He hated the golden warmth of hope that instantly blossomed in his chest. "But… he chose to leave."

"Sometimes duty requires us to do things that the heart does not want," Dark Magician said carefully. "There is a way for him to return, but it requires a sacrifice on your part. Something will be taken from you. A very important part of what makes you you. It will change who you are and you will never be able to go back, so you must be certain."

His heart was pounding very fast as Yuugi struggled to make sense of what Dark Magician was saying. Did Yami want to return? Oh Ra, if he did… "What will be taken?" he asked in a small voice.

"That is not for me to say," the duel monster replied. "Our time grows short, young master, and you must make your decision. It took a great deal of energy for us to be able to visit this world and I doubt we will be able to make the journey again."

There was no decision to make. "Yes," Yuugi said firmly, looking squarely into the brilliant blue eyes. "Yes, Mahado, yes. I want Yami back!"

Dark Magician smiled, apparently pleased by the answer. His eyes began to glow and Yuugi found that he couldn't look away, not even when the light grew so bright that it actually started to hurt. He squinted and wriggled in place, letting out a low gasp as a strange tingling began in his fingers and toes. It spread slowly up his arms and legs into the core of his body and became more intense to the point where it bordered on a burning pain. A low whimper escaped him and he began to struggle, trying in vain to find a position that would lesson the tingling. And through it all, his eyes remained locked onto the intensity of the light until all he could see was a stunning array of black spots.

Small hands caught his shoulders and eased him down on the bed. Yuugi gasped for breath, guessing that at some point he had stopped breathing because his lungs were begging for air. He strained in an effort to see past the spots and realized that Dark Magician was gone. In his place was Dark Magician Girl, and she was staring down at him with a sad smile on her lips. She reached down and gently ran her fingers through his hair, a comforting motion that helped to soothe the headache already blooming behind his temples.

"Good luck, Yuugi-chan," she said softly, leaning down to place a kiss on his forehead.

"Bring… Yami back… to me… Mana…" he mumbled, his eyes fluttering shut. A very small part of his mind flailed - why had she called him Yuugi-chan? - but he was too far gone to care.

Hours later, Yuugi was awakened by his alarm clock. Automatically, his arm snapped and he shut it off before he sat up and rubbed his eyes. "Did I dream that whole thing?" he wondered out loud, blinking sleepily. It was very different from his usual dreams about Yami. Ra but he hoped that he wasn't going to start having dreams where Yami returned; he didn't think he could handle waking up to reality every day if that was the case.

He stood up and swayed slightly, feeling a little odd, though he couldn't put his finger on why. His head was still aching faintly, not really hurting, but threatening to become a full blown headache if prompted. He moved around his room carefully, collecting the things he'd need to take a shower, and then walked to the bathroom. Koto's bedroom door was still closed, he noticed; no doubt she was angry with him for having fallen asleep the night before instead of joining them for dinner. He'd have to think of some way to make it up to her, but not at the moment. Not until he could think without it taking all of his energy.

"Thank god it's Friday," he mumbled, setting his things down on the counter. Steeling himself against the light, he reached out and flipped the switch, fully expecting a disaster to be staring back at him.

There was.

Just not in the way he had imagined.

Yuugi's jaw hit his chest and he stared. It took several seconds for his mind to catch up with his eyes and fully process what he was looking at. Slowly, very slowly, he reached up and touched his cheek, then trailed his hands down his throat, his shoulders, his chest -

Oh.

Oh.

Honestly, he'd never known that he could scream so loud.

But girls could do that.

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