A/N: This is something I came up with some time ago. I thoroughly enjoy heartshipping, but my interpretation of it is always much angstier and darker than the norm. This AU stemmed from a 'what if' line revolving around Yugi and Yami, then with Ryou and Bakura thrown into the mess.

Don't know how often I'll be updating, what with other large projects taking my attention, so don't expect them until they arrive! :)

Beta: SkyTurtle

Historian's Note: This is a canon divergence AU, so we won't be following the canon timeline exactly. Events and details will be rearranged as needed to fit the story - without throwing everything completely out the window. Our story picks up not too long after Ryou first transfers into Domino High, Duel #50 in the manga.

Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh! and related characters are © to Kazuki Takahashi.

…

Wicked Game

Part I

Raven Ehtar

…

It wasn't as though Yugi had been expecting a lot when he graduated from middle school to high school. He had never been particularly popular with any of his peers, nor had he really wished he were when it got right down to it. He wasn't cut out for popularity. Too weak and awkward to be an athlete, too short and plain to catch anyone's eye, not particularly talented at anything which a bunch of high school students would consider cool. He didn't even have searing intelligence to make up for his lack of physical prowess. Yugi was just about as plain and average as it came, which might not have been so bad if it weren't for his game addiction.

He hadn't expected much, but even his low standards were failing to be met.

"Did you hear about Imori?"

"That creepy little kid from A-3?"

"Yeah!"

Unconsciously Yugi stilled as he listened in on the conversation of his neighbors. It was lunchtime and, as was usual, he was spending it in the classroom, picking at his food with one hand while flipping cards in a quick game of circle solitaire with the other.

Yugi almost never went anywhere else on his lunch breaks anymore. He always packed his own food, and the classroom was quiet, allowing him to focus on whichever game he'd brought with him that day. It wasn't as though he had any friends to meet elsewhere, and those few who also spent their lunch in class had the decency to let him alone.

The two now speaking, a pair of girls whose names he was uncertain of - Miho might have been one of them - didn't normally stay in class, and were a little louder than the regulars.

"I heard he got sick… or did his transfer out? There was a rumor his family moved to Kyoto, wasn't there?"

"He got sick, alright!"

There was a pause. Out of the corner of his eye he saw as the knowledgeable gossip looked around for anyone who might be listening. Either not noticing Yugi sitting only two desks away or deciding he couldn't hear them, she went on in a lower but still very audible voice.

"I overheard it from the headmaster and Ms. Mori, A3's teacher. They were talking about how Imori was doing in the hospital, and how he still wasn't showing any sign of coming out of his coma."

"Coma?" The girl whose name might have been Miho squeaked in surprise.

"Shh shh! Yes, coma," the know-it-all said, even lower than before. "But that wasn't the weirdest thing. From what they were saying, it sounded like Imori was found in his classroom, sitting in his chair, a complete vegetable!"

"Eee, scary! Do you think someone cursed his chair?"

"Don't be stupid, curses aren't real. Of course it was something medical, but for it to take effect so suddenly like that, it's definitely weird."

The girls lapsed into silence for a moment. Yugi chewed on his food, flipped cards, and did his best to look less present than he had before.

He remembered Imori. Quiet kid, kept to himself a lot, had a penchant for smiling widely at what felt like inappropriate times. Yugi had felt a minor kinship with him. They were both reclusive, thought of as a little creepy by their classmates, and neither of them seemed to have any friends. Not that any of these things had brought them closer together, but it was a little nice to know there was someone else out there who was at least a little like him.

And then Imori had come to the Kame Game Store, his grandfather's shop and the home he shared with Yugi. He had come not to buy, but to show Yugi's grandfather something his own grandfather had picked up while in the war. He'd called it a game, but it looked like an urn, sealed with paper and knotted cords.

Yugi's grandfather had called it 'Dragon Cards,' a kind of mystical game, but more of a test Feng Shui masters gave their students. He'd told Imori it was a game that could steal souls and give the winning player the power of darkness, and warned him never to break the seal. Imori had agreed and left the game shop, grinning.

Imori had stopped coming to school almost immediately after that.

"… reminds me a little of Mr. Karita," maybe-Miho was saying, quiet and concerned. "Isn't he in the hospital, too?"

"Yeah, but that's no big loss," the other girl said flippantly. "That guy was a huge jerk, I'm sure he only got what was coming to him, you know?"

"I guess so…" Maybe-Miho sounded doubtful, then brightened. "He did want the new boy to cut his hair, and now he doesn't have to, so that's good!"

The other girl laughed. "You're awful, Miho!"

"What, why…?"

As the girls' conversation devolved and splintered into different topics Yugi stopped paying attention.

He tilted his head slightly to glance behind him at the new boy the girls had mentioned. His name was Ryou Bakura, a fact Yugi only remembered because he had recently transferred in and been introduced to the whole class. He was quiet, kept to himself, and seemed to go to some effort to make himself as unnoticeable as possible, even going so far as to sit at the back of class with delinquents like Jonouchi.

If it was his intention to go as unnoticed as possible, his efforts were somewhat in vain, given his looks and the inclinations of teenage girls. He was good looking, with fine features, deep brown eyes and long white hair, all things sure to catch the notice and interest of the female population of the school. What made it worse was that no matter how he might personally feel about the attention, Bakura was unfailingly polite to everyone. He was so polite and gentle he often made even the adults seem rough in comparison.

But Ryou Bakura had shown no interest in taking advantage of what his natural charms would have garnered him. He refused company whenever he could without seeming rude and kept himself to himself.

Yugi felt a twinge of sympathy for the boy, even if he didn't share his problem of avoiding popularity.

Yugi wished he had that kind of problem.

...

It wasn't as though he hadn't tried.

All through middle school Yugi had been something of a social outcast. He never understood exactly why that was, but put it down to his natural shyness and disinclination to put himself forward. Shy and awkward boys weren't apt to make a large circle of friends, unless he already had one or two who could then extend their circle with their charms. Yugi only had one real friend, and she had stuck by him since elementary school - Anzu Mazaki.

Anzu was his opposite in a lot of ways - tall, bold, popular - and yet she hung out with him, even stuck up for him when the going got tough sometimes. It baffled him a little why she still stuck with him after so long, and when she obviously had so much more going for her than he did.

But as much as it might confound him, Yugi wasn't going to spurn a friend he somehow managed to hold on to. Not when making any more was apparently a Herculean task.

When high school had begun, Yugi had been determined to get the new semester off on the right foot. Entering high school was a little like getting a new beginning, and Yugi wanted this new life to be as unlike his old one as possible.

He'd put on a bright smile, introduced himself to everyone he met with hopes high, brought some of the most interesting games he owned to school to play on breaks and invited classmates to play… None of it had worked. Oh, some had come and played a game or two, but had quickly lost interest after that and never repeated the gesture. Now when he invited others to play with him he got - at best - a chorus of refusals. More often he was met with silence.

Out of desperation, Yugi had made it widely known that he lived above a game shop his grandfather owned, and hinted that he might be able to give discounts to anyone he told his grandfather was his friend.

Even bribery hadn't worked.

He couldn't remember now if he had begun to seriously withdraw from his surroundings before or after he'd heard someone describe him as 'a weird reclusive freak.' Either way, hearing his classmates' impressions of him after he had been trying so hard to be open and friendly, had only made him withdraw more. He had tried so hard, and that was what people still thought of him? Why bother, then?

Seeing what was happening, Anzu had tried to bring him around a little. She hung out with him more, talked about his interests, even invited him out to gatherings with her other friends. Yugi always refused. His own reputation being in the gutter was bad enough. He didn't want Anzu's to plummet by association.

So he'd fallen back to his usual pastime when he was left with too much time and no one to spend it with:

Games.

It probably had something to do with the fact his grandfather owned an entire building stuffed with the things, but games and puzzles had always been of special interest for him. They were a refuge, a place to escape and it didn't matter if he was alone or not. Some games were meant to have more than one player, but so many others were not, and they provided Yugi the perfect escape, allowing him to forget.

He'd even dug up the hardest puzzle he'd ever worked on to help distract him, one so hard that he'd not been able to solve it in eight years of on again, off again attempts.

It was, in fact, a kind of puzzle from ancient Egypt. Bits and pieces of angular, golden metal, meant to fit together in some way to create a whole whose shape was unknown. Inscribed on the outside of the box the pieces had been stored in had been some grandiose promises of a reward should anyone actually succeed in solving the puzzle. Pathetically, Yugi had wished for friends on the glinting pieces, even just one friend he could count on to be with him no matter what.

It was a ridiculous wish, of course. Absurdly childish to make wishes on anything, much less an old puzzle left to rest in some tomb halfway around the world.

In the end Yugi was just happy for the distraction the gold puzzle provided. It was incredibly difficult, and absorbed him completely when he worked on it. It took him out of himself; let him forget what a loser he was. It didn't matter if he couldn't solve the thing.

Except, against all his realistic expectations, he did solve it. The pieces came together, and the puzzle that had defeated him for nearly a decade lay complete in his hands, its cold golden eye graven in one side staring up at him.

And then everything had begun to change.

...

A/N2: Thanks for reading everyone!