His therapist had suggested an exercise that he wasn't too overly thrilled about at first. He had to learn breathing differently for it, trying to obtain a center that he wasn't sure he had. It took him a long time to be comfortable with sitting in the middle of his small room, lights turned off in the dead of night, and just breathe. He wasn't a child. Being scared of the dark was ridiculous. The darkness in his mind was even more frightening. It all swirled together and at times felt like it was suffocating him.

The first few times had been a bust. He gave up entirely too early into it for anything to happen. Over the next few days he got a bit better. It helped when he sat against the wall, rather than the middle of his room. A few times he found himself stuffed in a corner accidentally. He just needed something behind him. That was all. Those time it got better, the room felt like it melted around him and he was left in his own space. His mind. And it was dark.

So dark that it shook him hard enough to break him out of it. He couldn't keep it up. Next week was better. He could even walk around in the own space of his mind. Was this what Yuugi had meant by soul rooms? His seemed empty. Still dark.

It happened when he least expected it. Something grabbed at him and instead of waking in his room he found himself pinned against an unfamiliar wall. His throat tightened, like hands were gripping him. He choked. Called out for something- anyone. And what he got was what he was least expecting.

There was a sliver of gold light that had the darkness shrinking back and shrieking. The sound of echoing footsteps came closer. He tried to see past the contrasting overwhelming brightness and darkness. A figure stepped through and Malik found his breath catching.

"…you?" He tried to pull away from the wall but his body failed to respond. He was helpless as the figure known as the other Yuugi- …Atem (though he was not his Pharaoh self), now, stalked towards him. Confident in stride as he'd ever been. He was being saved by that man? Unbelievable. It wasn't that he bore the hard grudge he used to.

Malik had gotten better than that. Truly.

He strode forward, reaching for Malik's face, smirking when the other recoiled just slightly. "You're scared of me?" He had much bigger, worse things to be scared of. Surely.

"No." Confused, was more like it. What was this man doing in what was supposed to be his mind? Lurking like he belonged there? The audacity. It burned. But he found himself easing into the hands cupping his face. "What are you doing?" He felt a striking sense of warm helplessness.

Lips quirked devilishly and he leaned in. He was pleased with Malik didn't edge back, instead meeting his stare as an equal instead of a frightened child. "What you wanted." Why else would he really be here?

Malik was confounded and left gasping as Yuugi's other crushed against him in a brutal kiss. It was something he'd expect out of… perhaps his darkness, or maybe the darkness that Bakura toted around a long time ago. For some reason Malik realized he expected him to be softer. Comforting. …how could he hold a grudge and think that, too?

It didn't take long for him to sink into it, and once he did he found the use of his arms, using them to pull Yami closer. Name be damned. He didn't have time for it. Strangely the carvings on his back didn't burn like they had when Atem had been around. They were forgotten completely, even as his shirt was lifted so fingers could press against them. Scroll along them as if they were being read. Taken from him. It was a very relieving feeling.

"Wh-" He couldn't speak as the warmth of a much stronger body was pressed up against him. Had he not been paying attention? Had Atem disrobed him without him realizing it? Surely that was impossible. "What do you want me to call you?" The name impossibility. Yuugi's darkness felt like a mouthful. Yami wasn't right either, was it? How could he be darkness when he'd brought light with in this expanse of bleak blackness? But Atem… was he even allowed to speak that name after everything?

His hand gripped Malik's cock, delighting in the gasp and moan it drew from him. The shiver of his hips. Rolling forward. "Whatever you'd like." He complimented the slow stroking with a few nips to Malik's shoulders.

"I-…ngh…"

"Can't think?"

He felt like he was being taunted then. Like he'd been played right into the hands working him. He didn't want to stop it, either, regardless. A more nervous shudder escaped him when he felt Atem's hands working his backside again, over his back and lower. "What are you doing?" He tried his hardest to catch those enticing eyes in his line of sight. What he got was much more than he bargained for.

"Stop me." Atem's voice broke through him as he pressed a finger up inside him.

He lost sight of him, head tipping back. "I-I can't…"

"You won't." He corrected, glad for it either way. Not now. He delighted in how easy it was to get Malik's leg up, around him; his hips jerking almost violently. He slowed his pace to try and calm him, murmuring words he knew Malik couldn't hear. It only got soft breathy responses out of his partner but it was enough. Enough for him to heft Malik's hips in his hands, getting closer.

The light was blinding now. He could feel it inside of him, every time Atem's fingers moved. Every time they hooked deep up inside of him, drawing louder and louder noises. He couldn't think. All he knew was that he was warm. That he couldn't see but for once in it he wasn't scared. It wasn't darkness. It was the warmth of the sun. Even if it took his vision away now he thought he'd be happy for it. His legs wound around Atem's hips, begging now. "Atem…" He did. He deserved to speak it. The name of his sudden savior.

The one man he'd spent his entire life hating, and yet Atem didn't hate him. Had he ever? After everything… Atem was here. Holding him. And in one swift move, inside of him. It was such relief that Malik couldn't hold back the cry. Was this his apology? His guilt finally leaving?

Atem's hands slid up along his back again, using the wall to keep Malik in place. They went up into that dusty blond hair, pulling him back so he could nuzzle his neck with careful bites and swipes of his tongue. His thrusts were even, not desperate. "Malik." A quiet reprieve. "Open your eyes." He pressed his forehead to the one in front of him upon this insistence.

The light violet was dirtied with dark lust. He was equally as glazed in his own gaze. "Why?" Why was Atem doing this? Why was he allowing it?

"Because." It was firm and it sounded like an answer even when it wasn't. Malik accepted it regardless, leaning forward to catch him up in a kiss. One that covered the sound of his loud moan when he reached his climax without any warning. Just like how Atem had come with that piercing light, without notice, Malik lost his sense of composure in the same way. He shivered, writhed, begged for Atem to keep going in a language he was sure he didn't want to know anymore.

It was a sense of ease when he felt Atem continuing to move, quieter, softer, but still within him. He didn't want him to go. "Malik…" The way he said his name was perfect. Like it belonged on his lips.

"Atem." And that name to him. He'd earned it. After all this time. He'd earned it back, too. The cold of his real room seeped in, even as his hips continued to shudder, to draw upwards, trying to bring back a memory that had gone. If he closed his eyes hard enough he could almost see him. Even in the blackness of his room he felt it.

It was just enough.