Disclaimer:Yu-Gi-Oh! and Yu-Gi-Oh!: Duel Monsters were created by Kazuki Takahashi. No profit is gained by the writer for the posting of this fan-fiction; it is for entertainment purposes only.
The light was warm. He could still hear the cries of his friends behind him, could almost feel their tears, but they knew. They knew that this was where he belonged. He didn't want to leave them either, but they all knew that this day would come. They had always known…and the light was warm.
He stepped forward. A flicker of something beyond the doors caught his eye; a familiar face?
Mahad…Mana…Father…
The flicker vanished.
"You don't get to leave, Pharaoh."
Pain exploded over his form. It felt like an unseen fire was burning through every cell, stripping away every nerve—how, how could fire touch spirit, burn flesh that wasn't there?
Atem fell to his knees, gasping.
"You don't get your happy ending. Your cursed soul will linger in this place. And you will die."
Who—how—what—
The scattered, frantic questions were seared away by that horrific, inexplicable pain. He hadn't realized he was screaming, but now he could feel his lungs burn with it.
The world pitched and tilted. The ground rushed up to meet him. Dimly, he thought he could hear the cries of his friends just before he was swallowed by the darkness.
Nothing. No light. Was he floating?
Whispers. Words of people he knew. Fragments of scattered memory, drifting in the dark.
Sound, but no light.
"Together…no matter what…"
Anzu.
"Oi…you okay…?"
Honda.
"May as well give it up…always gonna be with you…"
Jounouchi.
"My other self…"
Aibou. Yugi. Aibou.
The darkness began to dissipate.
He blinked, opening his eyes to a world that was nothing more than an obscured, colored blur. He blinked, blearily willing his eyes—and his mind—to focus.
A familiar face coalesced out of the haze above him.
"My other self…no…Atem…can you hear me?" That face and voice were so soaked with worry that even through the fog he could feel his heart clench.
"Ai…Aibou..." His answer came barely audible, but it came nonetheless.
"Are you alright? How are you feeling?" The relief that had lit up Yugi's kind, round eyes crinkled back into worry again as the boy felt Atem's forehead. The Pharaoh closed his eyes at the blessed coolness of that hand, then opened them again in wonder—was he really that feverish?
"Aibou. What…" Atem swallowed with difficulty, his brow furrowing at how inexplicably dry his mouth was. He tried to wet his lips, but to no avail. "What happened?"
"Ah…!" Yugi didn't answer, but scurried to the desk on the other side of his bedroom, returning at once with a glass and pitcher of water. "I'm sorry! You must be thirsty, huh?" He filled the glass, set the pitcher on the bedside table, and slid a hand under Atem's neck to help him upright. "Here you go." The teenager smiled apologetically.
The Pharaoh's first instinct was to protest that Yugi needn't trouble himself by helping him to sit up, but his eyes widened as he realized it—he really couldn't sit up on his own. He was entirely too weak to move. Confusion hammered even more intensely on his skull as he drank from the offered glass.
Once Yugi had set the glass down and placed himself at his friend's side, Atem tried again.
"What happened back there?" His eyes pinned his partner with bewilderment so intense that it demanded to be answered. "You won the ceremonial duel. So why am I back here…?" Atem's eyes drifted upwards, tracing the familiar arch of the sloped ceiling above Yugi's bedroom.
Yugi's face fell even further in its worry, and sadness joined the expression in his eyes. "I did win…and the doors opened…don't you remember? You were about to walk through…to pass on…but suddenly there was this voice from nowhere…and you started screaming…"
Atem's eyes widened. The pain. Yes, he remembered. He remembered a pain so startling and intense that it robbed him of his consciousness.
"Then…you just collapsed…and the doors to the Afterlife closed before they were all the way open…"
Atem grimaced, shutting his eyes again. His friends, his priests, his father…he had been denied reuniting with them, denied returning to his proper place…why?
"We got to you, and the doors shut…you were breathing, but…that's the thing, Atem. You were breathing."
His eyes snapped open again.
"You weren't just a spirit anymore. You were…are…solid. My other self…no…Atem…you have a body. You're alive."
The Pharaoh simply stared. Impossible. This is impossible.
"We don't know how it happened…we're sure it had something to do with that voice, though." The worry, sadness and apology evaporated from Yugi's face as a willful, determined expression took its place. His gaze drifted away from Atem's countenance. "We searched everywhere for that man…but there was no one else in the temple. There was another weird thing, too. As soon as the Doors closed, the Millennium Stone shattered and fell into the earth, taking the Millennium Items with it. We all thought that the voice was Bakura again—the evil one, of course—but that couldn't be, because you defeated Zorc already for one thing, and for another, the Millennium Ring was gone…"
Yugi trailed off, his confidence waning as worry and regret crept into his heart once more. His gaze returned to the bedridden Pharaoh. The aforementioned monarch was staring up at his partner in a flabbergasted silence.
"The…the Doors are closed…and I'm alive…"
The boy grimaced even more. "I'm sorry, Atem. I know you wanted to go back. I know you wanted to see your friends and family again…and…you deserve to. You've worked so hard." He bit his lip and dropped his eyes, looking as if he was suddenly holding back tears. "You deserve to rest after all this time. I'm sorry."
The astonished look on the Pharaoh's face melted with each word from Yugi. "Aibou…"
Yugi sniffed hard, refusing to show tears. His little round face worked itself into another stoic look. "We didn't know what to do at first. All of a sudden you had a body, and not just that, but you wouldn't wake up." His brow creased again with that ever-present worry, but he plowed on in his story. "You had an awful fever, and you kept moaning and turning in your sleep…you must have been in terrible pain…" The boy's stubbornly stony countenance cracked, soaking with pure empathy. He glanced at Atem's face, saw the Pharaoh's intensely curious, fixed look, and then abruptly looked, away, seeming desperate not to show weakness. "Kaiba offered to fly you to his hospital to make sure you were okay—"
"Kaiba?"
The sudden interruption in his narrative made Yugi blink, but he smiled slightly; surprise at Kaiba's charity was unsurprising. "Yeah…he said he wanted to make sure you were healthy enough for that rematch he's been waiting for."
A matching smile appeared on the Pharaoh's face. He would have shaken his head had he not been lying down. "Kaiba…"
The little smile faded away from Yugi's lips as he continued. "Kaiba owns a hospital, a special high-tech center for patients that baffle normal doctors…but even Kaiba's specialized doctors were baffled…They said you were in perfect health."
Atem had to raise an eyebrow at that one. "And how long have I been unconscious again?"
Yugi half-grimaced, half-smiled ruefully. "Almost a month, actually…Kaiba's doctors said—this was weird…" The boy chewed on his lip, his violet eyes falling to his feet. "They said it was as if your body was…brand-new. As if you had never suffered any of the normal wear-and-tear of just…living."
"Hm." The thoughtful noise from the Pharaoh brought Yugi's eyes shooting back up to his face. "That actually makes some amount of sense…assuming that, somehow, I now have a body of my own, and that this fact has something to do with that voice—and the pain—we might conclude that whoever the owner of that voice is somehow created a brand-new body and attached my soul to it…or materialized the container around my spirit…" He trailed off, exhaling deeply.
"But why?" Yugi's confusion was more than just that—he lurched forward with a sudden, grieved passion, his eyes holding a terrible hope for something selfish and a sorrow for that greed. "Who would want to keep you from seeing your friends and family that badly? And if they hate you that much, then why—"
Yugi cut off suddenly. He had just noticed that Atem's eyelids were starting to droop, and that the Pharaoh's breaths had already started to even out as his fever-wracked body prepared for sleep.
"I'm sorry," Yugi abruptly amended, the apology catching in his throat. "You still have a temperature. I should let you rest."
"Aibou…"
"Get well, okay?" That cool hand returned to the fevered forehead. Atem closed his eyes.
"I'm sorry, Aibou," the Pharaoh muttered. "You're suffering because of me…again."
Yugi shook his head, smiling ruefully even though his partner couldn't see the gesture. "Don't say that. I'll always be here for you. I promise."
Atem's consciousness drifted away. He knew he wasn't alone. He was never alone.
Silence settled over the room, save for the sound of breathing. Starlight filtered in through the skylight, the tiny shafts of radiance only adding to the stillness.
Yugi sat hunched over on the bedside chair, back bent and scrunched over the Pharaoh's sleeping form. The boy took his friend's hand between both of his own, clasping the pale fingers as if letting go would bring Atem's death.
"Who would want to keep you in this world so badly…besides Anzu, and Honda-kun, and Jounouchi-kun, and me…I feel like…" The small shoulders shook. Two tears dropped onto the sleeping one's hand. "I feel like it was our wishes that did this to you…because we…because I…was too afraid to lose you. I…I never wished for you to suffer so much…I would never want you to suffer. That's why I volunteered to duel you…because for you to be free…I had to let you go." Yugi sniffed as he dragged his wrist across his face.
"You shouldn't be sorry. It's me who's the sorry one. I've always held you back…but now…"
Yugi Mutou sniffed hard. He looked up, eyes suddenly filled with the light of determination, a light that was only made brighter by the tears lingering there. He squeezed his partner's hand.
"Whatever happened…whoever's responsible for putting you in pain like this…I'll make it right. For you, my other self. For you, Atem."
Under sleeping eyelids, violet eyes moved.
Aibou…
Author's Notes: I'm fairly new to the Yu-Gi-Oh fandom, just to let you know…please don't eat me…heh…Constructive criticism is always welcome, though!
As I'm sure you've noticed, for this fic I'm using the Japanese names of the characters, not the 4Kids English dub adaptations. Téa Gardner is Mazaki Anzu, Tristan Taylor is Honda Hiroto, and Joey Wheeler is Jounouchi Katsuya. Keep in mind that Japanese surnames are listed before given names, thus, everyone actually calls Jounouchi and Honda by their surnames. Jounouchi's given name is rarely even mentioned in the Japanese, and if it is, only by himself, and the only time I've seen Honda's given name was in Season 0 when his mother was yelling at him.
Also, in the Japanese version, Yugi calls Yami/Atem "Mou hitori no boku," which I believe translates to "another me," but I use the term "my other self" because (in my personal opinion) it sounds more eloquent in English. For the most part, Atem calls Yugi "Aibou," meaning "partner," in the Japanese version. To my knowledge, Atem only calls Yugi by his name once in the Japanese, during their fight with Pegasus, unlike the English version where he calls him by name all the time.
I wrote the rough draft of this whole first chapter in my NOTEBOOK. (Craziness. I never do that.) That means a hard copy actually exists of this whole 5-pages-in-Word document. It is so CRAZY that I actually had the time to WRITE it all out. I write at about one fifth the WPM that I type.
So would you, the readers, categorize this chapter as angst, or fluff? Heh. Seems like every time I try to write fluff it comes out as angst…'cept this time I wasn't really trying for either. The whole chapter just sorta spewed out of my fingers while I was helping to judge a Speech and Debate tournament yesterday. The OSCL league is disorganized enough that sometimes I had two hours between rounds…it's a darn good thing I bring my notebook with me everywhere, ne?
Oh yes, one more note: This is NOT intended to be Yaoi. I don't have a problem with yaoi and am actually a fan of several yaoi pairings, but I just don't see Yugi and Atem's relationship that way.
Yes, more chapters ARE coming! I'm toying with the notion of switching to Kaiba's POV for the next one…what IS it about attitude-ridden teenage boys that allows me to get inside their heads? Srsly. 'Course, if I narrate with Kaiba, that means eventually I'll HAVE to have him and Atem duel…which I'm nervous about, because I really DON'T know Duel Monsters well enough just yet to give that fight justice. Whaddyou think?
Thank you for reading!