STORY SUMMERY: Nearly a year has passed since Ya-'Atem' passed on, and things are no easier for Yuugi. However, in Egypt, a truth emerges from the sand, and everyone discovers a mistake they made on that night a year ago. YxYY

STORY WARNINGS: Shonen-ai, Romance, Fluff, some Angst

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Hey! Happy Holidays and all that jazz! I bet some of you, those who read my YGOHP crossover, anyway, are confused about what this is. It started out as the back story to Yami's return to physical form that was going to be included in my YGONCIS crossover. However, I realized that it was kinda awesome all by itself, and I just went nuts. So, think of this as a Prequel/Stand-Alone fic. You don't even have to know NCIS to read this- it's all Yu-Gi-Oh!

Also: It's Puzzleshipping. I don't actually ship Puzzleshipping- I'm a Euroshipper, a Prideshipper, and a Replayshipper, really. That's right- box? Stepping out of it. So, please tell me how I did. I think it's cute. :)

Also: This story includes Awesome-Best Friend-Anzu, and some Yuugi-Angst. So there will be no Anzu bashing. 'Gaspeth!', right? The others make an appearance, too, but Anzu, Yuugi, Isis, and Yami are the ones that really hold the story. Kaiba, too, I guess, but only in that he is awesome, so he needs to be spoken of. XD Please enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh!

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CRAVING

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))Day: -7((

Yuugi sighed, leaning against the countertop of the Kame Game Shop, staring out at the street. It was mid-June, a few weeks after his seventeenth birthday. Almost a year since Yami… Atem had left them. Yuugi's chest tightened automatically and he inhaled sharply, tears prickling the corners of his eyes. The feeling, like always, passed after a few moments. He unclenched his fists and stepped back from the glass counter. Scrubbing at his violet eyes, Yuugi swept around the cash register and threw open the door to the back of the house.

"Jiichan!" Yuugi called, "I'm taking my lunch break now!"

"Oh?" came the response. "Well, put up the closed sign and lock the door."

Jiichan had the grace not to mention it was only ten-thirty in the morning. Yuugi closed the door softer than he'd opened it and marched to the front of the store, where he opened the door, flipped the sign to 'closed', and locked it. He then slipped out, closing the door behind him.

It had become somewhat of a ritual, Yuugi realized miserably. Something would trigger a memory of his departed other-half, and he'd spiral back into the darkness of depression, during which he'd go off on a long walk, possibly not to return for well over two hours. Jounouchi had joked on one of Yuugi's good days that he was starting to act as he dressed. Yuugi had laughed then, but now he saw how truthful it was. He'd kept up the leather, chains, and black look he had begun when Ya-Atem was still around, and adding kohl to his eyes a few months after he was gone. He'd eventually turned into the stereotypical goth-emo somewhere down the road, what with his suddenly reclusive habits and overall gloomy disposition.

Of course, Honda and Jounouchi had attempted to help him out of it by explaining how Atem wouldn't want him so sad over his death. And Yuugi would seethe on the inside, since their Yami wasn't that Atem, and why were they using that name?! But he'd kept that thought inside, for the one time he'd expressed it, Ryou had explained that Yami and Atem were the same, and forcing himself not to see that was where his depression was funneling from.

Yuugi had turned a deaf ear to that- they just didn't know. Didn't see. Yami wasn't Atem. They weren't the same. Not really. The only one to really understand what he meant had been-

"Yuugi!"

Anzu.

Yuugi looked up, blinking a few times. He smiled suddenly, but it never reached his eyes. The blue-eyed brunette was running across the street to catch up with him. Anzu's own feelings for Yuugi and his for her had passed on long ago, when they both realized they just worked better as friends. Romance complicated things, and Anzu would leave for America in a few years while Yuugi would stay in Japan. Their lives were swinging in totally different places, and it left little room for love. Yuugi paused, waving at her.

"Hello Anzu. What are you doing down here?" the wild-haired teen asked. Anzu smiled at him.

"Actually, I was heading down to the Game Shop to see you. How lucky to meet you here," she chirped, and took up an easy stride beside him when Yuugi began to move again. She sensed his darkening mood, and placed a hand on his shoulder, which was still several inches below her own. "What's wrong, Yuugi?"

Yuugi immediately thumped his chest, and he sighed. "It's another one of those days, Anzu…"

Anzu looked down at her best friend, her steps faltering for a moment. Her eyes narrowed and with a determined frown she strode to match his steps again.

"Can you explain what you feel?" Anzu asked, earning a confused and weary glance. Anzu smiled kindly at him. "I just want to help."

Yuugi had avoided that conversation for so long with everyone, only because he wasn't sure how to answer. How could you explain the raw, horrible sensation of being so alone, like you had been ripped in half and the wound had only festered and rotted instead of healing? Ryou might have understood, had his own spirit been less homicidal and more kind, but, as it were, the only one with his problem was himself.

He looked up helplessly at Anzu, who stopped walking immediately and placed her hands on the teen's shoulders. She looked deep into his sad, violet eyes and gave him a little shake. "Please, try? I miss my best friend."

Yuugi flushed slightly before he turned away, walking over to a nearby bench and plopping down on it. Anzu followed, seating herself with far more grace than Yuugi had, placing her hands in the denim skirt she wore, and turned her full attention to Yuugi.

"It's like…" he began, turning his own gaze skyward. "It always hurts," he said finally. He glanced at Anzu before turning his gaze to the ground. "Every time I think of Yami, it hurts worse. Like someone is crushing my heart in my chest." He had to stop, and he gripped the edge of the bench desperately, feeling his eyes watering again as his chest began to ache. "I miss him," he whispered desperately, as if the words were slinking out from behind a wall.

'Maybe they were,' Yuugi thought. 'Maybe they need to be said.'

Just like that, he opened the floodgates, tears rolling down his face and into his lap while Anzu wrapped an arm around his shoulder, holding him close as he wept and spoke through the sobs.

"I didn't want him to go," Yuugi admitted. "I wanted him to stay with us forever. But, he left. He passed on." He looked up at Anzu, as if his eyes would tell her everything. "I mean, he had to go," Yuugi reasoned. "He had to. He couldn't stay here with me. I couldn't make him stay just because I loved him."

And Yuugi stopped, eyes widening in shock. Suddenly his eyes snapped shut and he turned away from Anzu's soft, kind gaze. She rubbed his back, her face the image of understanding, and Yuugi couldn't take it. He moved to flee when Anzu gripped his shoulders, keeping him in his place. He shuddered, his breathing shaky, and Anzu pulled him close and into a hug. Giving in, Yuugi wrapped his arms around her and sobbed into her shoulder.

"Yuugi," she murmured, placing her chin on top of his head, "it's alright."

"No it's not," Yuugi moaned. "I didn't even know."

Anzu smiled bitterly, stroking his black-and-red hair. "How would you know? You and Yami were so close and together all the time. When would you have time to figure it out? On top of that, most of the time you had was spent saving the world, saving one of us, or doing both at the same time. Face it," she laughed softly, running her fingers through his hair, "you were too busy for love."

Yuugi shook his head, but his sobs were subsiding. "But what about us…? I knew there was something there for you…"

Anzu grinned wider. "That's true," she said, and Yuugi stiffened beneath her head. "But love isn't always the same, Yuugi."

Yuugi slowly pulled himself from Anzu's green tank top, smiling forlornly as he looked up into her eyes, black kohl leaking down his chin and smeared around his face. "What do I do now?" he asked.

In return, Anzu smiled at him sadly. "Move on, Yuugi," she murmured. "Mourn what you had, but don't let it consume you. You're too strong for that."

Yuugi wiped at his eyes, and looked down at his hands and then once more at Anzu's shirt before he gave a horrified squeak.

"Oh God, Anzu…! I got kohl all over you!"

Anzu looked down at her tank top, and sure enough there was a large black smudge on her shirt. She sighed, but smiled at him. "Don't worry, Yuugi," the teen soothed her emotionally-frayed friend, "I know how to get it out." She looked at Yuugi before smiling at him, trying not to giggle. "Unfortunately, you have the panda-eye look going on. Let's get you back to Jiichan's and fix you up, okay?"

Yuugi nodded, wiping the black eye liner on his shirt before rising to his feet with Anzu. She placed a hand onto his shoulder, and walked with him towards the Game Shop. A moment of silence passed.

"So, this makes you bisexual, right?" Anzu needled.

Yuugi flushed slightly. "Anzu…"

"That's great, 'cause I know a few guys who would love to meet you…"

"ANZU!" Yuugi laughed, elbowing her side. She laughed back at him before taking off down the street. Yuugi didn't even think twice before he tore off after her, laughing the whole way back.