FA/N) This story is based on the original manga, rather than the anime. It takes place after duelist kingdom, but before the Pharaoh and Tea's date. The original manga's names are used except for Yami because I felt calling him the other Yugi might make things a bit confusing and redundant.

Thanks for reading.

Yami couldn't refuse Yugi anything. All his Light had to do was whine and put on a cute face and Yami caved like an avalanche. Even a little pout and Yami would start making up the most absurd reasons why Yugi should have whatever he was asking for.

He was lucky Yugi rarely used this power against him.

This was one of those times.

"Please!" Yugi begged through their mind link. Yami had stubbornly refused to materialize beside him, knowing that one look at his little panda face would shatter his willpower. "You know I'm no good at this kinda stuff, Other Me."

"No."

"But, what if I fall behind and get lost, and-"

"Yugi, I'm not taking over just so you don't have to exercise," Yami said stubbornly. He was once again in the labyrinth of the puzzle, examining the carvings on one of the many walls. Though he was too distracted to make out any kind of meaning in them.

"It's more than just exercise, Spirit, it's a hike. A really long, really hard hike." Yugi pouted, not the pouting, Yami hated the pouting.

"Take the shorter one."

"But everyone else wants to go on the long one. I don't want to go by myself." Yami could feel Yugi's pleading in his heart, his Light was pulling out all the stops today.

"I'll be there." Yami tried, though he knew his own resolve was slipping.

"That's different." Yugi sighed, "you won't be able to catch me when I inevitably trip and fall on my face."

"Pessimistic today aren't we."

"I'm not pessimistic," he defended, Yami could just picture him crossing his arms and legs, cheeks red in an epic pout. Visual images like that didn't do much for his ability to refuse his parter's wishes. "I'm just realistic."

"Yugi-"

"Please!" Yugi pleaded again, Yami bristled a bit at the interuption, but he couldn't stay frustrated with his Light, no matter how hard he tried. "What if I have a heart attack and die. Then you'll be sorry."

"I promise if I feel your heart rate go into dangerous levels I will take over," he tried but it was no use. Yugi wanted to go with his friends on the longest and most grueling hike the campground offered, and he was determined to convince Yami to do it for him.

"That won't help me if I fall off a cliff."

"Don't be so dramatic, Yugi."

"If you go for me I'll buy Dark Magician Girl on eBay when we get home."

Yami blinked at the wall, forgetting every carving he'd half paid attention too in the last twenty minutes. "Dark Magician Girl?" he asked, "I've never-"

Yugi sent an image of a card through their mind link. "I saw it in a magazine yesterday. Pegasus apparently had a whole bunch of card artwork ready to go before he disapeared so they released a new set."

"Yugi, you can't bribe me-"

"She's got an effect..." he sang.

Yami thought of the picture Yugi had shown him. He could feel a tugging where his heart would be if he had a body, he wasn't sure why, but it felt like the card was calling to him.

"Yugi..."

"Dark Magician Girl, Yami. Just for one little hike."

Yami sighed and gave in. It was inevitable anyway and at least this way he got something out of it.

"Fine," he said putting all his frustration into his mental voice so that Yugi would know exactly how he felt about the whole situation.

Yugi cheered so loud Yami could hear Jonouchi yelp in fright at the sudden sound.

Yami heard Yugi give an apology just before they switched places.

Jonouchi stared half his pancake hanging from his mouth, "what was that about?"

Yami groaned and squeezed the bridge of his nose, "one of these days I really need to learn how to say no."

Anzu giggled, "he talked you into doing the hike for him, didn't he?"

Yami nodded.

"Ha! Told you so, you owe me ten bucks, Honda." Jonouchi held out his hand as Honda pulled out his wallet with a sigh.

"You really shouldn't spoil him like that, Yugi. If you let him walk all over you he'll never stop." Anzu scolded, though she still had a smile on her face.

"Eh, give the kid a break. It's just one hike, and Yugi needs the exercise anyway." Jonouchi stopped grinning at the ten bucks he'd just earned and skewed a sausage on his fork instead. "Guy's been cooped up ever since duelist kingdom. A hike'll be good for 'em."

"Maybe, but you know as well as I do that's not why Yugi's avoiding the hike."

"Well it is a really difficult hike," Bakura added as he set his own plate down beside them on the bench, it was alarmingly full. "I'm nervous about it too, I'd much rather have picked the shorter one."

"You're not allowed to ask for help," Jonouchi pointed at him with his fork.

Bakura didn't answer, he was too busy devouring his plate as though he hadn't eaten in months.

"Everyone else is taking the shorter one," Honda looked around, the picnic area looked just like the lunchroom at school. Groups of students huddled together in all their own little cliques.

"It'll be worth it," Jonouchi yawned, "I saw a picture of the place we're hiking to on the brochure."

"You actually read that thing?"

"I was looking for the price tag."

"Where are we going?" Bakura asked through a mouthful of food, at the rate he was eating he was going to finish the same time as the rest of them, though he'd only just sat down.

"You'll see when we get there," Jonouchi smirked with a wink. He liked knowing more than everyone else a little too much.

Yami finished off Yugi's plate, more for Yugi's sake than his own as he didn't feel hungry, and tossed out the trash. The others did the same as they finished, Bakura finishing off his last sausage just as Honda tossed out his own plate.

"Where on Earth do you stick all that food?" Jonouchi asked as they headed for the meeting place. "You're like a hundred pounds."

"One fourteen, actually," Bakura said with a smile of victory, "I've managed to gain about ten since our Monster World game."

"Congrats, you've gone from malnutrition to slightly less malnutrition. Do you just only eat while we're around or..."

"Or did the other spirit have better things to do." Yami finished for Jonouchi. He knew how easy it is to forget to feed yourself when you're only in control for a few hours at a time. He'd nearly done the same thing to Yugi for a while until Anzu had started worrying that Yugi was developing some sort of disorder when his small frame had lost five pounds in a month.

He, however, had done everything in his power to avoid becoming a burden to his host ever since. He doubted the other Bakura cared that much.

Bakura chuckled awkwardly. "Well I don't know about that, but it does seem like I'm always ravenous."

"Alright everyone, if you're going on the long hike get over on the left, the rest of you sissies on the right." The gym teacher called over all the conversation and there was some scrambling to obey, there were only ten on the left. He noticed Yami with them. "Don't pass out, Mutou, no one's going to carry you if you do."

Yami didn't grace him with an answer.

"Alright, let's go, you slackers," he said waving ahead the right group.

"Yeah, if they're only going on the short hike 'cuz they're lazy then why is he going with them," Jonouchi muttered to them, even Yami chuckled quietly to himself at his wisecrack. He tried to hide it, but it was too late. Jonouchi noticed, and as he always did when he managed to make Yugi's other self laugh, he took it too far. Dragging the joke out until even Bakura couldn't laugh at it anymore.

They followed another teacher into the woods after the larger group left, Jonouchi still trying to desperately save his joke, and Yami quickly realized why Yugi wanted to avoid the hike. It was almost entirely uphill, and the path wasn't well maintained. Poor Bakura looked ready to lose his breakfast within an hour.

"This was a bad idea," Honda said as they climbed, the difference between those who went on the hike because they were hikers and everyone else was apparent in the five-yard gap in between the two groups.

"C'mon you guys," the teacher called, "you're not even a quarter of the way there yet."

Bakura looked ready to cry.

"Thanks for that," Jonouchi glared giving Bakura a pat on the back. "You'll be fine just don't think about it."

"I would-" he stopped to breathe, "literally- let him- destroy you all- if I still had my ring right now."

"You don't mean that," Tristain replied climbing over a fallen tree as they tried to close the gap between them and the rest of the group.

"I mean every word."

"No complaining, we all agreed to this. So suck it up and start acting like men for once." Anzu shook her head, her breathing was heavy but she seemed to be holding up alright.

"Right, if anyone should be complaining it's Yuug, considering he got dragged into this against his will." Jonouchi gave Yami a thumbs up and stood straight up in an unnecessarily dramatic pose. "And I don't hear him whining like a sissy girl."

"Though he is certainly wheezing like one," Yugi teased in Yami's head.

"I will switch back, Aibou."

Yami heard an innocent whistling in his head.

"We'll be fine," Yami added hoping to encourage his friends, he was still getting used to the whole these-people-actually-know-I-exist thing. He was so used to retreating back into the puzzle every time the danger was over that sometimes he found it difficult to talk to them. His Light was so much better at that. "Just remember why we decided to take this hike."

Bakura tripped on a rock. "Why did we decide to take this hike?"

"It's a secret," Jonouchi gave a stupid grin. Yami thought he saw Jonouchi's eyes flicker towards him for a moment, but didn't give it much thought. He was focusing on making sure his Aibou's breakfast stayed where it was.

"That doesn't help much."

No amount of encouraging could convince Bakura that the destination was worth the trip, but he did manage to keep them distracted from their own exhaustion, so that was something. Yugi may have gotten out of the hike itself, but Yami was sure he'd feel the effects in the morning. But Yugi assured him it would be worth it in the end so he trekked on.

"You guys hear that?" Jonouchi said after the fifth time they had to pick Bakura up off the ground and there was silence as they tried to hear what he was hearing.

"Is that water?" Yami asked he knew there was a river nearby, but the sound was wrong for just a river. Yugi cheered from where he'd appeared at Yami's side.

"That means you're almost there."

"C'mon, let's pick it up." Jonouchi beamed, "I can't wait."

Yami turned to Yugi, trying to keep inconspicuous as it made the others uncomfortable when they looked like they were talking to thin air. "What is he so excited about? It's just a river?"

Yugi giggled but said nothing.

Yami was beginning to suspect a plot of some kind. With Yugi involved it was sure to be innocent, but he was pretty sure he was being set up.

The sound of rushing water grew louder as the walked on, yet they just kept walking until it was far too loud to just be the sound of a river.

The sounds of cheering from up ahead were the first sign that they'd arrived, and by then the roar of the river was deafening.

"Oh thank the Lord," Bakura collapsed on the bench everyone had stopped at. It seemed that they were going swimming, judging from the way everyone was striping down to bathing suits.

Was that why Yugi was wearing these strange shorts rather than his usual boxers?

Jonouchi interrupted his contemplation of Yugi's choice in undergarments by grabbing his hand and dragging him away from the group. The others followed, even Bakura.

He'd totally been set up.

"Ta-Da!" Jonouchi pushed him out of the ring of trees until he was standing at the edge of the river.

The waterfall they'd come to see was twice as tall as Jonouchi, rocks separated the water into three separate streams, one was separated again by the cliff face. The water pooled at its base was the green of the trees above it and danced as it ran down another smaller waterfall. The roaring of the falls might have been frightening if the sight hadn't been so peaceful.

"Surprise," Yugi said beside him but Yami didn't have a response.

He'd seen pictures of waterfalls before, of course, Yugi's mother had a 'waterfalls of Hawaii' calendar in the kitchen, but the pictures had never really interested him.

But this was nothing like the pictures showed.

The pictures were peace and elegance, this was power and strength. The speed that the water fell and the way it carried everything along its path. The noise that he could feel in his very bones. But the elegance was still there despite all that. It didn't need to sacrifice its strength for peace.

"It's beautiful," he whispered and reluctantly turned away from the sight to see his friends. They were all watching him, each with their own smiles, Jonouchi's was silly, Tristain's cocky, Anzu and Bakura's sweet, and Yami understood.

This hike had been for him.

All the trouble they'd gone through to get up the mountain, Bakura nearly making himself sick, Anzu putting up with all the complaining, Jonouchi's surprise, it had all been for him.

Not even for him as Yugi, either, but for him as... whoever he was.

He turned back to the waterfall, he wasn't sure what to say, for the first time in his short memory he had no idea what to say.

Several of the other students climbed into the pool, laughing as the force of the falls knocked each other over.

"Can I go in?" Yami asked Yugi without realizing he was talking out loud. Yugi nodded.

"Wait you're..." Jonouchi tried Yami didn't hear him until after he was in the water, "still in your clothes... Ah well. At least he ain't wearing leather." Jonouchi shrugged at Honda who responded in kind.

Yami was too interested in the falls to care about the shirt that was sticking to his chest.

"You can go under it," Yugi pointed at one of their classmates who'd done exactly that, he slipped almost immediately and the water dragged him back to where his friends were all laughing at him. "C'mon, I'll show you where to stand so it doesn't push you down too."

Yami followed, the water wasn't deep, it hardly made it to most of the student's waist, so naturally, it was about chest high for him, making it difficult to fight against the current, but the weariness from the hike had vanished in an excitement that he hadn't felt since his last shadow game... The one against Panik, rather than the one against Pegasus, there was nothing fun about the one against Pegasus.

"Stand here," Yugi pointed. Yami worried, he didn't want to cause any more damage for his Aibou to feel later.

But he did really want to stand under the waterfall.

He gave an uncharacteristic squeak as he stepped into the stream and Yugi laughed at him. He felt it more than heard it as there was now water rushing over his ears, and he could hardly squint to see that his friends had climbed in the water after him. They'd taken the time to undress. Anzu had a camera pointed right at him.

He saw Jonouchi climbing up beside him as he attempted to arrange Yugi's hair so it wasn't plastered onto his face, Jonouchi made a hand sign that Yugi had to tell him through their mind link that meant that Anzu wanted to take a picture. The others were following, Bakura slipping several times, until everyone but Anzu situated themselves under the waterfall.

His friends huddled around him, Jonouchi pulling him closer and bending so they were closer in height. Yami was trying to watch the camera as Yugi told him too until Anzu gave them a thumbs up.

Jonouchi let go of him just as his hair once again flopped in front of his face, causing his balance to falter just enough to send him sliding down the rock and splashing into the pool below.

He wasn't sure what was louder the waterfall, Yugi laughing at him in his head, or his own high pitched pre-pubescent scream.