Disclaimer: Genius Kazuki Takahashi owns Yu-Gi-Oh. Joss Whedon (also a genius) owns Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The lyrics to the songs Welcome to My Life and I'm Just a Kid by Simple Plan, The Thunder Rolls by Garth Brooks and others belong to their respective owners. I own the fanfics I cook up from time to time.

No, you don't know what it's like
When nothing feels alright
You don't know what it's like
To be like me

To be hurt, to feel lost
To be left out in the dark
To be kicked when you're down
To feel like you've been pushed around
To be on the edge of breaking down
And no one's there to save you
No, you don't know what it's like
Welcome to my life

~Simple Plan, Welcome to My Life

I woke up, it was seven, I waited 'til eleven
Just to figure out that no one would call
I think I've got a lot of friends, but I don't hear from them
What's another night all alone?
When you're spending every day on your own
And here it goes

I'm just a kid and life is a nightmare
I'm just a kid, I know that it's not fair
Nobody cares, 'cause I'm alone and the world is
Having more fun than me
Tonight

And maybe when the night is dead, I'll crawl into my bed
I'm staring at these four walls again
I'll try to think about the last time I had a good time
Everyone's got somewhere to go
And they're gonna leave me here on my own
And here it goes

I'm just a kid and life is a nightmare
I'm just a kid, I know that it's not fair
Nobody cares, 'cause I'm alone and the world is
Having more fun than me

~Simple Plan, I'm Just a Kid

Dawn had expected the Spring Fling to be great. She had beautiful jewelry and a new, fantastic dress, along with her crush, the immensely popular sophomore football player Jack Noble, asking her out. She had worked so hard, so friggin' hard, only for the whole time to be ruined by him getting seventy dollars from his actual girlfriend. She hadn't felt so betrayed in her life.

Now she was sitting on a swing in the park, her beautiful dress, which happened to be teal and silk, all hunched over. Her matching slippers were still on her feet;  as she ran to this very park, she wondered how they stayed on her feet and not slipped off. Maybe all those months of biking in the afternoons with Buffy and walking to the park sometimes with Tara had built up a sense of balance in her that she hadn't even noticed until now. Now that she thought about it, maybe it was a great reward after months of hard work to build it up on her part. She smiled at the thought. Who knew that all that biking and walking was good for her and would come in handy sometime?

But then, her smile transfigured into a frown as her thoughts changed, and she recalled what had happened earlier...

Dawn couldn't believe what had happened. One minute she was dancing with Jack Noble, who not only played football (and did a great job with it as well), but was also one of the hugely popular sophomore guys. He was wearing a tuxedo, and from Dawn's perspective, looked absolutely handsome in it. They were at the Bronze, which was a favorite hangout not only to her and her sister Buffy, but also Buffy's friends Xander Harris, Willow Rosenberg, Anya Jenkins and Tara Maclay.

But then the next thing she knew, Dawn felt two hands against her back, and their owner meanly giving her a catty smile as Dawn landed on her side — but luckily, not too painfully.

"I'm sorry, Dawn. But you've just been played for a fool like the naive, undeserving and unpopular little girl that you really are," said Megan Rothman, who was wearing a spring-green dress made of silk material. She was also popular, and she had awapuhi-scented blonde hair and green eyes. Also, from Dawn's perspective, Megan was quite mean and manipulative; rumor had it she could buy her way out of anything.

Dawn picked herself up off the dance floor and glared at Megan.

"What are you talking about, Megan?" she replied, her eyes narrowed.

To her puzzlement, Megan reached into her gold purse and pulled out seventy dollars, which she then gave to Jack, who accepted them. He then turned to Dawn, and his eyes seemed to be laughing. However, he wasn't laughing with her. He was laughing at her.

"I'm sorry, Dawn," he said, but although he said the words, his expression clearly communicated he didn't really mean it at all. He didn't feel even one tinge or bite from the fangs of the rattlesnake known as remorse. If there ever was an animal to personify the feeling of guilt or remorse, a rattlesnake would play the part perfectly, and Dawn knew that for sure.

That did it.

Dawn closed her eyes, trying hard not to let the tears come and overflow down her cheeks, turned and fled from the Bronze.

So that was why he had asked her to the Bronze for the Spring Fling Dance. It was all a dare, a ploy, a bet, a plot — against her. Her!

Dawn sighed unhappily. She felt that at this rate, she would never find her true love, her soul mate, her Prince Charming.

"That was so embarrassing and humiliating! I feel as though I am destined to be alone for all time — for maybe, possibly forever," she then spoke out loud, not realizing that a certain someone could hear her. "Maybe nobody will love me. They will just reject me. Overlook me. Pass me over for somebody else. Pretend as though I'm invisible, or as though I'm not even there. Worse, I will probably even leave this life alone — which is just as I lived it as well."

Then a voice suddenly said, "Now why would you think like that, Dawn?"

Dawn turned her head, and her cobalt eyes widened with surprise as he suddenly appeared and the moonlight lit up his features.

It was none other than Yami Bakura himself. He was wearing his usual outfit — a blue-and-white striped shirt covered by a black trenchcoat that swished around his ankles, blue jeans that seemed to fit him quite well and blue-and-white striped converses on his feet. She had to admit, he looked kind of handsome himself — actually, he was even more handsome than that awful Jack. Speaking of whom, all thoughts of Jack then left her head as she continued to gaze at Yami Bakura as though he was the most handsome man ever to walk the Earth.

Yami Bakura had been spying on Dawn for a while now, memorizing her looks, how she dressed, and what she did at school and on the weekends (and sometimes on holidays when school was closed). He was quite intrigued by her. When he heard about the gathering called the "Spring Fling Dance" (which he thought sounded kind of neat, and kind of coolly titled as well), he decided to go as well, as he wanted to see if the girl he had chosen to love for all time would be there. The reason he knew all this was because he had what was called "male intuition", which was kind of like "female intuition" except it was exclusive to males. Females, on the other hand, did have female intuition, after all.

His eyes then narrowed when he saw the girl — the woman he loved — dancing with that filthy boy, only to be rudely shoved away by the boy's real girlfriend and meanly spoken to. Then he saw the blonde girl — that filthy rich witch, in his view — turn to the boy and hand him money. He then had just came to the realization that his chosen one had been brought to this place as part of a bet or a dare when he saw his girl turn and run out the door, her tears calling out to him. Seeing the blue aura — which was of sadness and betrayal — all around her, Yami Bakura then turned and vanished into the shadows so quickly that no one noticed he had been there. If they did, they would've said later that he was quite an enigmatic one — very cryptic and mysterious.

He then followed her trail as she ran to the park and then waited for the right moment to make his entrance as he watched her sit down on one of the swings.

Now, after she had made her speech about never being loved and always being passed over, he then replied by asking her why she would think that way, and then stepping into the moonlight so Dawn — as that was his woman's name, which he thought was a lovely one as well — could get a good look at him.

He knew that he looked handsome — gorgeous, even — so it was no surprise that a startled look suddenly came upon that beautiful face of hers, and he smirked to himself.

He usually had that kind of effect on females. Actually, any two-legged female — whether they were blonde, brunette or a redhead — would always fall for his killer good looks. And from their pretty little throats would come what most mortals called the "breathy little sigh of desire and/or longing".

That was understandable, of course. And why not? Sometimes it was the other way around — namely, he would lust after them.

"Now, Dawn," he said, walking up to Dawn and then holding out a hand to her (which he'd read most vampires in stories would do with their female victims sometimes), "why would you think such unflattering things about you that way? It's very unbecoming of you, if I may say so myself."

Dawn blinked, puzzled, and then looked up at Yami Bakura's outstretched hand. Finally, after thinking it over some more for a bit, she then reached up and placed her hand in his.

"Besides," he went on as he pulled her to her feet, "I think you're beautiful, and you always will be."

Dawn blushed. "Really?"

He nodded.

Dawn wanted to be sure — just in case, to be exact. "Did you say I was beautiful?"

Again Yami Bakura nodded. "Of course you are. After all, you are someone special — not to just anyone, but especially me. I see you, Dawn, as — how should I put this — my cosmic soulmate."

Dawn then smiled at those words. Someone wanted "invisible", "plain" and "undeserving" Dawn Summers as a girlfriend.

With that, and smiling still, Dawn looked at Yami Bakura, her eyes filled with happiness, as he then turned and led her out of the park.

"Now," he said, breaking the silence after a few minutes as they headed to Dawn's home, "tell me your side of the story about why you were so upset before."

Dawn took a deep breath and began by saying, "Therein lies the tale," which made Yami Bakura smile. He always liked that line, and thought it'd make a good opening line for a story or a novella.

Then Dawn launched into the story of how she came to be sitting on the swings at the park when he found her. Yami Bakura, she found out, was a good listener as well as a great audience. Sometimes he looked angry, and sometimes shocked, in all the right parts.

When Dawn finished her tale, he turned to her and said, "Well, look at it this way, Dawn — something good did happen to you tonight. You found someone who loves you regardless of your flaws — namely, me."

Dawn though this over and then smiled. Apparently, Yami Bakura was right. This night most definitely was, to her, a blessing in disguise.