Same Sky

I climb to the top of the school building sometimes, the way he used to whenever he had something to think about, whenever he wanted to be alone. I do it usually after lessons are over, after I bid farewell to Anzu, Jounouchi, Honda, making an excuse that I had promised a teacher... something.

The first time I came up here, I finally understood why the other me enjoyed this place so much. It was a haven, a paradise of some sort- the school remained largely silent and there hung a air of serenity in and about the area. The busy, crowded, noisy spirit of the school had vanished, replaced by one calmer... Darker.

I'd sit down, leaning against the wall, facing the horizon, where the sun would slowly set. I could feel him, beside me, his eyes - like mine and yet so unlike mine - fixed on the glowing, dying sun. The sky is blue and orange and red and purple and I could swear, sometimes, that I see his eyes looking straight at me from the ends of the earth.

...I think I'm hallucinating.

Maybe, I used to think, maybe it was this view that drew the other me here so? The sight of the setting sun was one that would not be strange to the spirit, suddenly thrust in the modern world. The rise and fall of the sun, the changing of the moon, the night sky and the stars that shine down on us all... Maybe, I would think, maybe this was a place where he remembered what he could not remember, where he could be closest to the memories he'd forgotten in those millennia of slumber and entrapment inside the golden, millennium puzzle.

I wonder if he'd done the same, back when he was Pharaoh. Or even before- when he was a boy. I wondered if he had ran away from the palace, or found a secret spot he would linger in and watch the sun rise, the sun set, the moon rise, the moonfall, the twinkling of the stars and the ageless sky-

I've since lost the chance to ask. We've had many conversations between us but I had never remembered, never recalled, never bothered.

There were too many other things on his - my - our minds. Grandpa's capture by Pegasus, followed soon enough by Otogi's presence. Kaiba's Battle City, the time we spent on the Battle City blimp- the Battle Tower...

Malik. The Millennium Items. The Shadow Games, the game where he returned to Egypt and regained his memories and found his true name.

Atemu.

Even now, the name is unfamiliar on my lips. It's hard to remember him with another name, other than the one I called him by, my other me.

'I'm no longer another you, Yuugi. You are nobody but yourself.'

And yet, as he had left, we had called him just that. It was Jounouchi- Jounouchi who said that no matter who Atemu, the Pharaoh, the other me was, he would always, always be the other Yuugi.

The... other me.

It's been a year since he left. I keep and still use his deck in my duels but it's not my deck anymore. It's his- and he had left it to me. I cradle it to my chest sometimes, remembering him, remembering his eyes, remembering the way he would smile and my world would be alright-

And then I would remember his promises, sweet and believing.

- I was alone. For a long time, I was a piece of a puzzle that would not fit. I was the outcast, the loner, the weakling with no friends, nobody to turn to. I had Anzu but... It was not the same. She was busy with her job and her dreams, only I hadn't known back then. I hadn't known anything much back then.

When I was eight, grandpa gave me the puzzle. The shiny golden hue of the puzzle called to me, the pieces at home in my hands, as I tried to fix and place the pieces together. A jigsaw undone is a sad puzzle- to be alone, apart from the pieces that made it whole...

It took me eight years. Eight years, stress, a gift from a person I would have liked to call a friend and then-

My other me...

'It doesn't matter if you don't remember. You can... have my memories. All of them.'

I remember his eyes, so sorrowful, so sad.

'I just... don't want you to leave.'

'Aibou...'

He leaned in, his face just slightly above mine. His eyes sought mine out; our gazes met for a second, than two, than three. He whispered something, something I couldn't believe he could - would - say to me. He came closer, closer, closer and than our lips met and my first kiss was taken, stolen, given.

There's something about the sky and us. It was on the roof of the hospital that he first kissed me. It was on the roof of the shop that we sat, side by side, unspeaking as we counted the stars and watched as the sun rose and I remembered his gasp of awe, the light shining in his eyes... I would never forget the way he looked so majestic, so godly, so... So... beautiful.

He spoiled me.

There were letters of confessions, girls proclaiming their love and crushes for me, on me. I... turned them down. How could I learn to love another when my first was someone who had understood me, filled me, loved me so completely? I couldn't. I...

I miss him. I miss the nights he would keep me company, the days he would whisper in my ear, hold me close to him to reassure me that he would be here, always be here, always, always and forever. I miss how he would smile and laugh and try his best never to show me the weaker side of him. My poor other me who tried to be strong so he would never have to let me down.

I can almost hear him, that cocky smirk of his as he glances down at me. He would ask me why I was crying, what was so wrong, why was I so sad and he would hold me, hold my hands, wrap his arms around my shoulders and embrace me tight and then-

It is the cool evening breeze that always jerks me out of my thoughts.

The cool evening breeze, and the darkened sky. The sun has set, but the moon has not risen - but the stationary, solitary sky remains.

Like it has always been.

The past few millenia...

So I stand up, my back to the horizon and I leave, climbing downwards and away from the sanctuary that links me to the other me.

But the sky, starless, is above me. The same sky thousands of years ago. That very same sky that he had stood and watched the world revolve under.

And this is the same sky I'd walk and live and breath under for my entire lifetime.

fin.

notes; It's been really long since I've touched this fandom and, well, this is the first fic I've written upon re-entering it again. This fanfiction was inspired partially by the doujin Hiiduru. Critique and comments are wonderful!