Hello everyone, this is my second Yu-Gi-Oh! solo and is quite different to 'The Variety Show' as it's set in the present/a few years into the future. You should check out the warning below to find out if there's anything you won't like but apart from that, I won't mention the plot too much.

This was originally going to be 10 chapters but it started getting too long so I've split the whole story in two parts. This story is the first part (9/12 chapters done) and contains 13 chapters (including the prologue) while the second part will be written (title unknown as of yet) as I post up this one. If you're interested in finding out what the current status of these are, please check my profile. You can also e-mail me (again, check the profile for a link)!

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! as usual and for this part only, I also don't own the song "Hello" by Evanescence (I had to change all the "she's" to "he's" otherwise it wouldn't make sense) and the play "Macbeth" by William Shakespeare. I do own the story and the small OC in this chapter though.

Warning: This is a yaoi story (male x male) so if you don't like then please don't read and complain at me. It won't be too explicit though as I'm not that good at writing lemons. There will be swearing and homophobic behaviour too as well as some mild gore.

Notes: This is set in an AU where there are no ancient spirits, although the Millennium Items do exist. Some of the characters will be OOC and there will be one major OC although they do not appear until near the end.

This chapter is just a look back at how some of the people meet up in junior high. Just remember there is no Pharaoh etc. and the Millennium Items have been passed down the families. The whole flashback is at 12-14 years but it's further split into smaller ones.

"Blah" is speaking, #blah# is thinking and songs while /blah/ is emphasis. xxxxxx and xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx are dividers in a chapter.

Here we go!

Prologue: The Past

Yugi sat at the table eating his breakfast slowly, although he didn't really notice the taste, too nervous about school. Although he was twelve years old, he had mostly been tutored at home because he had been so ill over the last year or so. He had recovered but not without effect on his body: he wasn't going to get much taller. It got him down sometimes, especially as he was now going back to school, Domino Junior High to be precise. He just hoped that because there would be other new people (coming from various elementary schools) too, it wouldn't be very hard to make new friends.

"Are you ok Yugi?" He glanced up and saw his grandpa looking at him with concern.

"Yeah, just a bit nervous I suppose." He swallowed the last of his cereal before placing his bowl by the sink.

"Now Yugi, there's no need to be nervous. You'll do fine, I promise."

"What if they don't like me?"

"Why wouldn't they? You're a very nice boy."

"But I'm short…" Yugi looked down, closing his eyes so he wouldn't cry. He felt his grandpa lift his chin up so he could see him.

"If they're that shallow, they're not worth bothering with. I know that sometimes the Council put a lot of emphasis on physical appearance but even they admit it's not your fault." Yugi snorted at this.

"Yeah, like that counts for a lot. In their opinion, I'm short so I must be weak…" Yugi sighed and looked out of the window. "I hate this place some-"

"Right Yugi." Solomon interrupted quickly, drowning out the rest of Yugi's sentence. "Now come on, it's time for you to go to school. If it makes you feel better, I'll give you a lift there. You'll have to walk home though." He suggested and Yugi nodded his head, turning around to pick his bag up.

As they sat in the car, Solomon tried to get Yugi to talk but he remained silent, staring out of the window. The car eventually stopped in front of the school and Solomon turned to Yugi.

"We're here Yugi." Hearing his name, Yugi looked up at him. "Now don't be afraid, everything's going to be fine. Trust in the Millennium Puzzle if nothing else…" Yugi held it in his hand and smiled, feeling the reassuring warmth of it.

"Thank you grandpa." He smiled and got out of the car. "See you later." He shut the car door and turned around to face the school. "Well, here goes nothing…" He muttered, taking his first steps towards the building.

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"How pathetic…"

#Playground school bell rings again
Rain clouds come to play again
Has no one told you he's not breathing?
Hello I'm your mind giving you
Someone to talk to
Hello#

"Stand up and start acting like a man, you chickenshit."

#If I smile and don't believe
Soon I know I'll wake up from this dream
Don't try to fix me I'm not broken
Hello I'm the lie living for you so you can hide
Don't cry#

"You freakin' queer."

#Suddenly I know I'm not sleeping
Hello I'm still here
All that's left of yesterday#

"Why am I so weak?" Yugi screamed, covering his ears, trying to block out the voices. It was all in vain though as they continued to reverberate in his head.

"Nobody likes you…"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Hey shrimp, where d'ya think you're going?" Yugi sighed; he knew there was no point in trying to ignore them. That just made things worse. All he needed to do was remember the three golden rules: don't talk, don't move and whatever happens, however bad it gets, never /ever/ react. So he kept still, although he should have talked, should have moved, should have reacted, anything to get away from them. He felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Hey, we asked you a question." Then again, sometimes there were times it was dangerous /not/ to talk. His grandpa had always told him that he was supposed to speak when spoken to. It was rude if you didn't.

"I wasn't going anywhere." Yugi mumbled, turning around to face his tormentors. He looked up quickly, trying to get a glance of them. All he could see was shaped brown hair and a mess of blonde. He hoped they would be quick; his grandpa had threatened to ground him if he was late again.

"Well what do we have here?" They had grabbed the Puzzle that hung around his neck. His first instinct was to grab it back again, so he did, only for a hand to snake around his wrist, squeezing it slightly.

"I don't think you want to do that…" But Yugi felt daring today, he looked up and his eyes widened just slightly at the brunette. His hair was…indescribable. If Yugi hadn't been in the position he was in, he would have laughed. But he /was/ the one who was currently locked in a very painful grip so he didn't react, although he was laughing on the inside. It made him feel happy at least. "Now let go…" He did so, hoping they didn't want to steal it. They lifted it up over his head and looked at it, passing it from one to the other.

"This is an interesting little trinket…" It was lifted up to eye level. "D'ya think it's worth a lot?" There was silence until Yugi realised the question was aimed at him. Always speak when spoken to.

"I don't know. Can I have it back please?"

"Wrong answer. Now we get to keep it." They started to walk away.

"No, please don't take it!" Yugi ran after them as they started to speed up.

"Then you'll have to catch us!" Yugi sighed, they knew he was no good at running, his legs were too short. But he ran anyway, he couldn't afford to lose the Millennium Puzzle, his grandpa would kill him.

For once, Yugi managed to keep up with them, well keep them in his sight anyway. He suspected the reason was that they wanted him to see what was going to happen. Which only meant it was a bad thing. He saw them up ahead before realising what they were standing in front of…the swimming pool. Oh God, it was worse than he thought…

"Please don't tell me you're going to throw it in there?" The blonde one jumped in surprise, a plop sound soon appearing afterwards. He looked behind him and smiled, raising an eyebrow.

"Oops…" He shrugged his shoulders and they started to walk towards him. Once they reached him, he held the Millennium Puzzle out to him. "Next time, we won't be here to help you…" He muttered before walking away.

Yugi stood there, watching them walk away and once they had disappeared, he glanced at the Millennium Puzzle, now missing a piece, before looking to the pool.

"What?"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

#What did they mean? Helping me? How the hell did they think that breaking off a piece of the Millennium Puzzle would help me? Don't they realise how much trouble it's been trying to hide it from my grandpa, what he would do if he found out that I had let a part of it go missing?# There was a pause. #Mind you, I haven't really had many problems with bullies recently… Well, apart from them and they're not that bad really, they don't hit me as much as the others do… I wonder what they're trying to do-# Yugi's thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a shout. He wondered what somebody would be doing here in the corridors at lunchtime, most people were eating in the canteen, or they had gone outside.

He looked behind him to the other end of the hall and was surprised to find Joey and Tristan (he had finally learnt their names) on the floor, someone standing over them. Then he realised who it was…

"McManus…" The hall monitor that had a very…interesting way of dealing with bullies. In fact, if it wasn't for the yellow band around his arm, he would be considered one himself. As it were, he was using lunchtime as a chance for him to deal out his own form of justice and today, Joey and Tristan were the unfortunate victims. Yugi wasn't exactly sure about the politics of hall monitors but somehow, he had the feeling beating bullies to a pulp in order to teach them a lesson wasn't really the right way to go about things. The teachers did know about his bullying, but they couldn't do anything about it either because they were too scared or they never caught him at it. So in conclusion, if Yugi valued his life, he would keep out of the way. But he stayed anyway, moving a little closer to hear what they were saying.

"You little punks, picking on those smaller than yourselves! Think that's the right thing to do?" He obviously didn't expect them to answer this as he stepped closer, causing Joey and Tristan to of course step back. "You're in serious trouble, do you know that? And do you know what happens to people who are in 'serious trouble'?"

"N-No..." Joey stuttered, although he was actually fully aware what happened. After all, he had /seen/ the results of McManus' retribution.

"Well luckily you're about to find out now then, isn't it?" The two teens gulped at this as their backs hit the wall.

"What'll we do?" Tristan whispered.

"Shush!"

#Oh God, what's he going to do to them? I can't leave them now, something's telling me to help them...but how?# Yugi gripped the Millennium Puzzle unconsciously, taking in a deep breath to steady himself.

He took a few steps forward and Joey and Tristan spotted him. They shook their heads slightly, trying to tell him to turn around and walk away but he ignored them. McManus saw the looks in their eyes and turned around, spotting Yugi in the process. He grinned, eyes lighting up like an animal that's just spotted their prey.

"Well look what just showed up! It's little Yugi, just in time to watch me mop the floor with these guys." Joey and Tristan winced when they heard this and Yugi, suddenly feeling protective, ran around McManus and stood in front of them.

"Get back! Leave them alone!" He flung out his arms to cover them, staring at McManus, trying not to shake too much.

"Who's going to stop me? A little shrimp like you? I don't think so. Get lost." But Yugi was determined, it wasn't right to hurt Joey and Tristan like this. Only Yugi didn't realise that McManus merely used his position as a way of bullying without raising any suspicions.

"I won't let you, these guys are my friends." He wasn't quite sure why he had said 'friends' when they weren't and Joey seemed to think the same thing.

"Huh?" He lifted his head up to look at Yugi, puzzlement in his eyes. McManus however seemed to find this all extremely funny.

"Ok, tough guy. You jumped to the head of the line." He took a step forward while Yugi instinctively stepped backwards. "Say your prayers, you runt." He towered over Yugi and as he clenched his hand into a fist, Yugi wondered what he had done to deserve this.

The pain exploded in his stomach as the fist connected and he doubled over, only to feel agony in his face. He swore it wasn't supposed to hurt this much, people always managed to get back up on the TV. But then this was reality, completely different to the fake, unconvincing tales he had seen. Pale shadows of real life. He could feel the weakness increasing, his eyes slipping shut, although he tried to keep them open and all he could hope for as the darkness increased, was that the pain would stop.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Beep. Darkness. Beep. A voice. Beep. Numbness. Beep.

Yugi opened his eyes and automatically recognised the white walls. After all wasn't this where he had spent most of the last year, staring at, if not the same, then at least very similar white walls? The smell invaded his nose, overpowering and making him feel sick. Ironic, seeing as this place was supposed to make him better. Maybe this place made him ill because of all the memories he had of it, the blood tests, the medication, the food…

He shuddered; just the food on its own was enough to make him sick. He heard a deep voiced chuckle and looked over towards the window, only to see his grandpa sitting in a chair. He smiled gently, seeing his grandson was awake.

"Didn't think you'd be back in here so soon eh?" He suddenly frowned and sighed, looking out of the window. "Luckily they said that it would just be for two nights so you won't miss too much school."

"Not that it means much." Yugi broke the gaze between him and his grandpa, realising that he now knew everything that had happened, even after he had tried so hard to hide it.

"Now Yugi, that is not the attitude to have about your education. I know things have been a bit uneasy-" Yugi snorted at this. "/Uneasy/ for you recently but you'll be pleased to know that he's been expelled. And the others have now given back the piece of the Puzzle they took." Yugi blushed in embarrassment, looking at the Millennium Puzzle sitting on the table, glinting in the sunlight.

"I'm sorry I couldn't protect the Puzzle." He mumbled, his cheeks bright red. "But I was too weak…"

"No Yugi/they/ were weak. They took it from you, you didn't give it to them." Solomon walked over to the bed and took Yugi's hands in his. "I'm very proud of what you did. You stood up to McManus in order to defend people who had hurt you in the past." Yugi felt the warmth of his grandpa's hands travelling up his arms as his words reminded him of Joey and Tristan.

"Where are Joey and Tristan?" He asked, smiling for some strange reason at the thought of them.

"Tristan's still talking to the school about what happened but Joey's waiting outside. Do you want to talk to him?"

"Yes please." Yugi pushed himself up so he was in a sitting position, leaning against the pillows. He felt a twinge of pain as he did so, and wondered how much longer it would be before the drugs wore off. "How bad is my face?"

"Well luckily you didn't break anything but your left cheek is badly bruised. They've given you some painkillers but it would be better if you didn't lie on it anyway." He stood up and walked towards the door. "Try not to be too long, the doctor wants to come in and give you a check up."

"Ok."

His grandpa left the room and Yugi lightly touched the side of his cheek. He felt a dull ache, meaning that the analgesic was starting to wear off. Although he had told him about what had happened, his grandpa hadn't /actually/ said how bad it was. Maybe Joey would tell him.

Just as he was thinking this, the door opened again and Joey entered the room. He shut the door behind him, his smile fading slightly when he saw Yugi.

"God Yugi, you look awful!" He gasped as he sat down on the edge of the bed.

"Thanks." Yugi said sarcastically. "I'm thinking of getting rid of it though, I don't think the colours go with my eyes." He grinned as Joey laughed.

"I see what you mean!" He stopped and gazed at Yugi. "Really though, are you ok? You do look pretty bad."

"I'll be ok, it doesn't really hurt much. I think they stuffed me with painkillers so I won't feel it for a while. And anyway, I've been in hospital before so I'm used to it." He explained, looking around the room. "I just didn't think I'd be back in here so soon…"

"Why were you in here before?" Joey asked hesitantly, curiosity in his voice.

"I had this…thing. It's a bit difficult to explain; even I didn't really understand it. Basically I just felt weak all the time and my chest was pretty bad. I'm all right now but it's affected my growth because of all the drugs." Joey looked amazed as he heard this and Yugi shrugged his shoulders. "The Council were all right with it luckily so they let me go back to school."

"Things haven't been going well at school though…" Joey commented, blushing slightly because it had partially been his fault.

"Well, I sort of expected it to happen really." He shrugged his shoulders again. "But talking about that…why did you do…it?"

"You mean when we were playing keep away with the Millennium Puzzle? It was for you man." Joey followed Yugi's gaze to the Puzzle. "We just wanted to toughen you up so you could stand up to the real bullies. We were only teasing ya." Yugi raised his eyebrows at this.

"Teasing? You took a piece of the Millennium Puzzle and dropped it in the swimming pool!" Yugi replied, his voice full of indignation. "And /I/ was the one that tried to help you guys out when that bully picked on you." He didn't say his name, feeling uncomfortable thinking about him.

"He was a mean one all right." Joey stated, feeling himself go red as he was reminded that the person he had hurt had helped him out. He wasn't usually very good with emotions; the words always came out wrong. But, he felt that this was important and unlike most times, he couldn't just pretend it had never happened.

"You stood up for us Yugi. I'll never forget that. Because of you, we got that moron expelled." He grinned at the event, remembering the look on McManus' face when he heard this. And the reaction of his parents with them planning to send their son to a correction school. And although he had partially caused the problems, maybe he could change things. He had to be careful though; too much emotion might raise suspicion. Especially as Yugi was a member of an important family, one that had a Millennium Item in their possession. "And Tristan and I learned what it was like to have a true friend." Yugi didn't seem to react to this, his eyes merely lighting up slightly.

"Well at least you retrieved the lost Puzzle piece." He said grudgingly, smiling furtively. Joey looked at the Puzzle again before looking Yugi straight in the eyes.

"I want to apologise Yugi, I've been acting like a real jerk."

"Oh, were you /acting/?" Yugi grinned as Joey laughed, understanding that he wasn't angry.

"I guess I deserve that one." Joey paused. "If you ask me, I think Tristan and I may have underestimated you."

"Huh?" Yugi's eyes widened, was he trying to say what he thought he was saying? No one had ever said anything like that before.

"You know Yugi, you're a tougher kid than I ever gave you credit for." He stopped, frowning as he tried to phrase his next words. "Maybe we should hang out more often. What do you say?" Yugi's heart leapt for joy, he finally had a friend! But he couldn't get too excited, the pain in his face was starting to grow.

"Hmm." He nodded his head slightly but Joey knew how happy he really was. And he was glad he had made him happy.

"Anyway, I had better go now. Your grandpa said not to stay too long, the doctor's waiting outside to check up on you." He stood up and walked to the door.

"Hey Joey?" He stopped and turned back to him. "Say hi to Tristan for me ok?"

"Yeah, sure." He opened the door, holding it for the doctor who entered the room. "Bye Yugi, I'll see you in a couple of days' time."

"Yeah, see you then."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

A few weeks had passed since the incident with Bruce McManus and Yugi had settled down. Apart from the whole bullying issue, Yugi hadn't actually been to school for at least a year so he had to get used to regular homework as well as more structured lessons with other people. But he had kept on top of it all and the teachers were happy to help. The other students didn't tease him, because they saw him as a nice person. At least he hoped it was for that reason. It was more likely to be because they were afraid if they said or did anything, they would be expelled. But it didn't matter. The only thing that did was the fact he had two friends, Joey and Tristan, who he could spend time with.

Another school day had just ended and the three of them were walking home, complaining about a piece of homework they had been set in English on 'Macbeth'. Well Joey and Tristan were complaining anyway. Yugi actually liked English but maybe that was just because he liked reading. He saw it as a chance to escape from the outside world. There weren't many books he was allowed to read though, a lot seemed to have age restrictions placed on them by the Council. But when he turned twelve, which was only a couple of months away, he'd be allowed to read more. Until then, he had to just content himself with 'Macbeth'. Which, unlike Joey and Tristan, didn't bother him.

"I can't believe it! She's given us two days to do it! It's going to take me two /months/ just to understand what Shakespeare's actually trying to say!" Joey exclaimed as they exited out the school's front doors.

"I know the language style is different to ours, but it's not really that bad. And anyway it could be worse."

"How!"

"She could have asked it in for tomorrow." Yugi replied happily, causing Joey to yell.

"NO! Now that would be worse!"

"Exactly. Now stop moaning Joey, I'll help you with it tomorrow." Instantly Joey's face changed from that of a person who was facing the end of the world to that of someone who has just been told some great news.

"Really? Thanks Yugi!"

"Hey Yugi!"

The three of them turned around when they heard the shout to see that a girl was walking up to them. She was in their class but they didn't know much about her.

"Oh, hi Téa." Yugi said cheerfully as they slowed down so that she could catch up.

"Hi guys. I was wondering if it was ok to walk home with you." She asked once she was standing in front of them.

"Yeah, of course it is." They started walking again. "So then Téa, where you do you live?"

"Oh I live on Clive Road."

"Really? I live just around the corner from there." Yugi exclaimed.

"Cool." Téa paused for a moment and looked around, trying to think of something to talk about. "So then…what about that piece of English homework eh? Could be hard to do."

"Not /hard/, impossible! I just don't understand Shakespeare." Tristan replied, his sigh causing his shoulders to sag slightly.

"You can't /understand/ Shakespeare, he's a person! You shouldn't try to do that." Téa commented.

"Why not? If you can understand him then you can understand his work." Yugi replied.

"But maybe he didn't want people to understand his work…maybe he thought they might make assumptions about it. Wrong assumptions."

"Writing could have been his way of trying to get people to understand him. Maybe he couldn't express himself any other way."

"Well /maybe/ we shouldn't be questioning why he did what he did. All we can really say is that he wrote some stuff, people saw it and they liked it. End of story." Joey suddenly said, trying to change the conversation or at least steer it in a different direction.

"I think you're generalising it too much Joey…but maybe you have a point. We could be looking into it too deeply." Yugi said, understanding what Joey was trying to do and why he was doing it.

"/Way/ too deeply…" Tristan added, looking and sounding even more confused than Joey was.

"Well why do you like Shakespeare Yugi? You seem to be quite good at English…or at least you enjoy it." Téa asked, getting the hint it was time to move on.

"I enjoy reading so maybe that's why I'm good at it. I think the sort of things we have to think about I do anyway." Yugi said thoughtfully.

"What, including 'how does Shakespeare use rhyme here?' That's just weird!" Tristan exclaimed, earning a rolled eyes look from Téa.

"No, not that sort of stuff! I mean like general themes and how characters are portrayed. Things like that. I don't look at what is written /that/ closely." Yugi replied, grinning at Tristan's words.

"Well, whatever. All I know is that Macbeth is going to be horrible."

"It could be quite good. It's supposed to have madness and lots of death in it."

"Hmm, suddenly Macbeth seems a whole lot better…" Tristan commented, sounding more optimistic than before.

"Eh? If you like that sort of thing then I suppose it'll be ok…" Téa cast a strange glance at Tristan before stopping. "Well here's my road so I'll see you tomorrow ok?"

"Ok then, bye!" Yugi said, the three of them waving as she set off down her road.

Once she was gone, they continued walking. Joey and Tristan lived further away than Yugi did, whose house was down a side street. They were just reaching it when Joey said, "She seems like a nice person, Téa. Maybe we should talk to her more often." He suggested as they stopped.

"Yeah, good idea Joey." Yugi replied before saying goodbye to them and heading towards his house.

Well there you go, the prologue! Sorry it's a little bit long but originally it was over 25 000 words, which is a lot so I've split it into three. Anyway, hope you like it. Please review and give me lots of suggestions, mainly about whether this is a good introduction or not. Just giving me your support overall in fact would be great!

Thanks, love Chen xxx.