a Yu-Gi-Oh! Fiction
Pairing: Seto and Téa
Authoress: IluvsBakura
Date: April 10, 2005
Posted: May 1, 2005

Disclaimer: I do not own yu-gi-oh and am making no profits off this story. Damn.

A/N: Alright, so here's another story. I'm still working on "Anywhere" but I found this just sitting on the computer so I figured I might as well begin to post it. This one is steamy; different from my usual style but a good idea none the less. This idea isn't elaborate or very long- just a look at the power one person can have over another, and the chains that bind us all.

chapter One:

Never before.
Things have never spun so out of control
any time before.
Because reason has fallen away.
Sense has given into thoughtless need.
Want.
Lust.
Desire.
Call it whatever you will.
A dark, swallowing addiction took over everything.
And all control is gone.

It wasn't supposed to turn out that way. He had had a plan right from the start- a perfect way to keep things from getting out of hand. But somehow, all that had fallen apart- crumbled down, come to a crashing pile at his feet.

In all his endeavors, he liked to be in control. To have control of every aspect of as much as he could- the power trip helped keep him sane. But there was something that slipped out of his grasp. One thing that he couldn't seem to keep that treasured control over. The addiction had grown over time; he had told himself that he could quit whenever he wanted, but that was a foolish excuse- a lie. He couldn't get out of it, even if offered the wealth of all the world he couldn't stop the whirlwind of feeling and madness that he had become chained to.

And... That fact tormented him. If he was oblivious, he thought he that could easily live with his secret deviances. But he knew- oh, he was so aware that it physically ailed him. Every time he indulged his most despised cravings, he got that high that he never wanted to come down from. He longed for freedom, but that meant no more of that beautiful gratification. He wanted to escape, but to his addiction, he was eternally chained down.

Time after time he berated himself for being too weak to end it. Again and again he nearly beat himself up in frustration over his endless need. After all, shouldn't he have control over himself? Shouldn't his own body obey him? He could run a company, hold power over thousands of people, but he could not even stop himself from his stupid, stupid cravings. And as powerful as he was, he could never keep himself from indulging in what he had come to depend on; it was a crutch that he couldn't give away.

Where had he gone wrong? He had kept reasonably distant, he had been careful, and he had made sure not to get too involved. And yet even with all of that, he had become completely hooked- dependent. All his efforts had been for naught, because somewhere along the line, he had hit rock bottom. It was no longer an occasional fling, a sporadic relief- it had become a need, a consuming devotion to something that he could only deem as wrong.

Suddenly, everything had become more than a mere game. As reluctant as he was to admit it, eventually it reached a point where there could be no more hiding. No more lying- not even to himself. That principle assurance he had of himself was ripped out from under him, and that ever-present control placed in another's grasping hands. Was it wrong that he kept his need a secret? He was too angry and ashamed to admit that there was something far, far out of his reach. She held all the cards because even with all the barriers he had put around himself, he had fallen completely in love.

Things started out as another good time- an easy release from all the stress that they both built up over the course of the days. Yet, for him at least- because he would never condescend to ask her about her feelings- it became so much more. Because he couldn't deny that he wanted her, and after a long while he couldn't even deny that he needed her. Though he came from a vast experience of unyielding, confident control, there was one thing that he was totally prisoner to.

Téa Gardner was his one, and only addiction.

End A/N: This is an edited re-post; Nov. 6, 2005.