Today, as I'm sure any enthusiastic YuGiOh fan knows, is Yuugi's birthday. And I figured, as a Yuugi fan, I should have a little present to throw into the pile.
I was so pleased with the reception of my other (and first) YuGiOh fic, "Birds" (thank you SO much to all who read and all who reviewed!), and that encouraged me to keep up my YuGiOh writing. This is yet another oneshot, but I've got a very lengthy fic in the mental works at the moment. Let's see what becomes of it… until then, I hope to be back with a few more little oneshots.
For those of you who have read "Birds," this will be little like it. I tried to throw in my own version of wit and humor when I could, but this is somewhat more serious, and much less based on stated canon events. Although, how many anime/manga characters regularly seem to celebrate their own birthdays, anyway?
You may notice this is based on the Japanese anime. Why? you ask, as some of you may know that "Birds" was pretty much dub. Well, partially as a challenge (writing for the dub is somehow still easier for me, despite watching the Japanese version all the time—I grew up with the dub), and partially because it just sort of felt right, with the more contemplative aspect of this story and Yami's "younger" side. Though I hope I didn't get too serious on you. I tried to put in a little fluffy cuteness (friendship-fluff only), when I could.
Nothing in this story is meant to imply romance, of any sort, between any characters, at all. You are the reader, and you are free to read things however you like. But there was nothing intended, however shippy my writing apparently tends to seem.
Anyway, hope you all enjoy. Please leave a review! That's what helps me grow as a writer!
Happy Birthday, Yuugi-kun! And a happy birthday to a very dear friend of mine, as well.
Boku no Kioku
Yami did not sleep.
At least, he didn't sleep properly. This was normal to him, and he had been taken aback by Aibou's disbelief when he had first informed him of it. He was dead. He didn't know much about himself aside from his country of origin, his former status as royalty, his approximate age, and the apparent fact that he really did share Aibou's unusual hair and it wasn't just because he shared his body. But he knew he was dead, and dead people did not sleep.
But he supposed someone as living—and as young—as Aibou would have some trouble coming to terms with that.
He rested, though, from time and time and on an extremely irregular schedule. He just laid down on the floor—which wasn't nearly as uncomfortable when you had so long to get used to it—and closed his eyes and thought for a while, and to him, that was as close to proper sleeping as he needed. The only time he had truly slept was those days after he had dueled Raphael, when he had been left alone in …
Yami pursed his lips and clenched his intangible fists. He shook his head and willed those thoughts away.
He pushed himself up on the cold stone floors that made up the space of his mind and stretched the muscles that did not exist. He rolled his shoulders and adjusted the navy jacket he was well used to manifesting in. As he unrolled one of the sleeves that had scrunched itself around his wrist, he felt the vague, familiar sense of another waking presence enter the back of his mind.
'Morning, Aibou.
He continued to brush himself off as he was met with only silence for a few moments, filled with what he imagined was a yawn in the physical world.
…mm? Oh! Good morning, mou hitori no boku!
Yami paused and quirked an eyebrow, wondering vaguely if Aibou could sense gestures through their link. You seem especially … happy today, Aibou. Do we have something planned?
He was always cheered up when Aibou woke in a good mood. Whether it was because their emotional states tended to parallel one another or simply because of the friendship they had forged, he was never quite sure. And if it had been a weekend, he would have expected the happier demeanor. But today was a school day. And Aibou usually woke up drowsy and annoyed on school days.
He felt a twinge of surprise across the link. And almost … panic? Oh, uh, no. Just school. The usual.
What is today?
Hm? Oh, Wednesday.
Aibou, are you hiding something?
Yami didn't really need Aibou to tell him that something was unusual. His emotional makeup was too … off for today to just be a normal day. And besides, Aibou was very bad at lying. He also hadn't seemed to realize the fact that flat-out lying to an ancient spirit that lived inside his mind was just about impossible.
He thought he heard a nervous chuckle in the back of his mind. N-nothing, mou hitori no boku. Really!
Yami sighed, loud enough that he wondered if Aibou could hear it even though he wasn't using the mind link, but he just shook his head and grinned. If Aibou wanted to keep secrets, just let him try.
Yami loved a good game.
It took Aibou about half as long as it usually did to get ready. A minute to get dressed, half a minute to make his bed—though that part of the job was done so hastily Yami had a feeling it wasn't really made. He left the Puzzle in his room when he went to take a shower, which gave Yami a moment to come out and assess the situation proper.
He closed his eyes in his soul room and reopened them, projected in his own perfected manner in the middle of Aibou's bedroom.
He did a quick sweep of the room with his crimson-tinted amethyst eyes, smirking as he saw the covers thrown onto the bed and the pillow out of place. Aibou may not have been the neatest person in the world, but from what Yami could tell, he had better cleanliness skills than most his age—and he didn't usually leave his bed so messy. Yami wished he could move objects with his mind so he could at least fix the bed. But he just crossed his arms and let it go.
Other than the clothes from yesterday strewn on the floor, nothing else was out of place, and Yami really couldn't blame him for that one falter. There had been no end to the dueling challenges from random amateurs since their victory at KaibaCorp Grand Prix. Yami had offered every time to take over, but every time, Aibou insisted that Yami had been through enough recently, and it was about time that he rest and let him take the annoyingly easy opponents.
Yami felt a twinge of guilt at that thought. Yes, perhaps he had been through a lot. But after what he had put Aibou through …
The shower shut off across the hall, and Yami shook his head again. He could almost hear Aibou telling him to quit beating himself up. And he supposed it was about time he listened.
He pushed the discomforting thoughts aside as he walked about the bedroom, checking for any possible sign as to what could be so different about today. Of course, he couldn't move anything for a thorough search, given his lack of a physical presence. Even his spiritual presence was weak when Aibou was out of the room. And he was running low on time.
Aibou had told him as much as he could about the modern world, and little bits he had absorbed simply by being connected with Aibou's mind for as long as he had. He knew about computers—he couldn't for the existence of him explain them, but he could use them—food, culture, and of course, language. And he knew a bit about the calendar system. Based on the annual calendar used in this world, it was the sixth month of the year—June, was it? Somewhere in early June. Was there something important about early June?
The doorknob turned. Yami closed his eyes, sighed, and rammed his nonexistent palm into his nonexistent forehead.
"Mou hitori no boku?" He opened his eyes to see Aibou in his school uniform with dripping hair staring at him curiously. Yami felt his presence grow a bit more stable with his return, but he didn't smile. "Is everything okay?"
Yami wanted to reach over and grab Aibou by the shoulders and shake the information out of him. But he just let out another long breath and swept his gaze around the room, knowing he would find nothing amiss.
"No, Aibou. Everything's fine."
As usual, Yami had retreated to the Puzzle by the time Aibou got downstairs, but he did not stop watching for even a moment. He was glad for once that he had no need to blink.
There was nothing different about the kitchen, or so it seemed at first glance. Aibou's grandfather was at the stove finishing breakfast. Same as always. Aibou greeted him as he always did and took a seat at the table. All familiar, all everything Yami had come to expect.
Then Aibou's grandfather turned around with a huge grin stretched across his wrinkled face and a plate held in his hands.
A plate with an exceptionally large pancake that looked round on one side and spiked on the other, with two raspberries placed near the center and maple syrup dripping about on the edges of the spikes.
Yami blinked, even though he didn't need to.
The pancake looked like Aibou.
Yami projected his image next to the table, not caring if Aibou noticed.
Aibou's face grew surprised, eyebrows raised, violet eyes wide. His grandfather's grin grew. "It's a special day, Yuugi, and that calls for a special breakfast!"
"T-thank you, Jii-chan!" Aibou began as he reached for the fork on the table. "But … aren't I a little old for …?"
"You're never too old for pancakes, young man, now eat up, I worked hard on that."
Aibou merely smiled, big and genuine, before he dug into that pancake in a way that reminded Yami very much of Jounouchi-kun when someone presented him with a free double sundae—which had only happened once, and Anzu was certain not to make that mistake again.
Er … Aibou?
Aibou continued his gorging.
Aibou.
He looked up, just as he was picking up a syrup-coated raspberry with his bare fingers and popping it past his lips. He opened his mouth as if to speak, but closed it as soon as he realized his cheeks were still stuffed with pancake. He just raised his eyebrows a bit at Yami, and Yami settled down in the empty chair no one ever used while Aibou's grandfather took the other seat for his own morning meal.
What are you eating, Aibou?
Aibou swallowed, and this time only just managed to keep himself from answering aloud upon realizing that his grandfather was still present. And though Aibou's grandfather knew of Yami's existence, seeing his grandson talk to invisible people was likely still strange for anyone.
A pancake. Didn't I tell you about pancakes, mou hitori no boku?
Yami lowered his eyebrows in a way that would have been dangerous had he been looking at anyone else. Not pancakes, Aibou, that pancake. It's shaped like your head!
I know. Aibou grinned like someone much younger than himself and chewed on the second raspberry. Jii-chan likes doing this on special occas—
He stopped quickly there, but not quickly enough. Yami's face pulled into an almost evil smirk.
Gotcha.
Aibou swallowed, and he broke Yami's gaze, if only for a few seconds. It's nothing, mou hitori no boku, really.
Stop lying, Aibou. It really doesn't suit you.
Aibou was silent for a very long time. He continued eating his strange pancake as if he had forgotten that Yami was there, but Yami had been with Aibou far too long to fall for that. He waited, and after nearly a minute, Aibou sighed. His grandfather didn't look up from the newspaper.
Yami waited. Eager. Curious. He leaned forward in his seat, sure that if he had a physical form the chair would have been knocked over by now.
Aibou turned to him and smiled.
We'd better hurry up and get to school, mou hitori no boku! I have way too many tardy notes already!
And as Aibou went about cleaning his plate in the sink and saying his goodbyes to his grandfather, Yami sat in that same chair, dumbfounded, and only this far away from yanking out his own hair.
"Yuugi!"
"Hey, Yuugi!"
"How's it going, Yuugi!"
Yami peered at the three familiar faces from his normal spot behind Aibou. He wasn't sure if Aibou was aware he was watching. Then again, knowing Aibou, he probably did. Knowing Aibou, the only reason he wasn't asking about Yami's unusual behavior was because he would look like he was talking to himself.
Of course, Yami was perfectly familiar with a greeting from friends at the beginning of a new school day. But he was perfectly familiar with waves and quick words and talks about duels and homework and next week's exam. He was not familiar with the utter enthusiasm the three familiar classmates wore on their faces as they rushed to greet Aibou in the hallway of the school.
"Hey, it's your big day, pal!" came the ever-joking voice of Honda-kun. Yami's eyebrows furrowed. Aibou blushed and rubbed the back of his head.
Jounouchi-kun came quickly afterward to offer Aibou a shoulder nudge, though he had to lean down to do so. Even Anzu wrapped her arm very briefly around Aibou's shoulders in something resembling a half-hug, too quick for Aibou to even turn his usual beet red from the unexpected display.
Anzu was more prone to hugging than most of their group, but even she didn't offer hugs on a daily basis. Not even close. Not on what Aibou kept insisting was a "normal day at school."
Yami's eyes narrowed, much like he did when there was danger nearby. Even though he was sure Aibou couldn't have been safer.
Aibou smiled at the group around him, and that pinkish blush had yet to leave his face. "Thanks, guys … you mean you all remembered? I mean, Jounouchi-kun, Honda-kun, we've only been friends since—"
"And you think Anzu wouldn't mention it to us first chance she got?" Jounouchi-kun broke in. His lips were curled into a smirk.
Anzu crossed her arms over her chest and shook her head. "Yuugi, we've been friends since the sandbox days. Of course I know!"
Aibou blushed again, looking back and forth between all of them. Yami wasn't sure if Aibou was actually aware that he was still out of the Puzzle. Not until the group started off toward the classroom, and Aibou turned his head a bit to meet his transparent gaze.
Alright, alright, Aibou began, as Yami had made sure his gaze spoke volumes before he even had to. Today's not entirely normal.
Yami raised one eyebrow. Well, then? Are you going to tell me?
Aibou opened his mouth.
"Yuugi! Hurry up, man, I see Sensei heading this way!"
And Aibou turned away from Yami without a blink and raced down the hallway toward his friends, Yami being pulled along by the Puzzle and wishing so very badly he had a voice with which to scream.
Yami was silent for a very long portion of the walk home.
Usually, they made the walk with at least one of their friends, but this time, Aibou was alone, and Yami sat brooding in his soul room. He crossed his arms tight over his chest and stared at the ground, and after a while his emotions swirling around within him must have projected his image outside the Puzzle, for he looked up to find Aibou laughing at him.
He quirked an eyebrow and uncrossed his legs so it would look more like he was standing, though his feet did not touch the ground.
Aibou clamped a hand over his mouth for a moment before apparently deciding it was useless. "You look like an angry kid!" He didn't realize he had said it out loud, and thankfully also didn't seem to realize that one or two people passing by gave him the oddest of expressions.
Yami stuck out his bottom lip and put his arms to his sides, but for some reason that only made Aibou laugh harder.
Once the giggles had died down, Yami rolled his eyes and sighed.
You're really very bad at keeping secrets, Aibou. Why don't you just tell me what's going on?
Aibou smiled, which only made Yami frown more. Later, mou hitori no boku. Later. I promise.
Yami did not think it very unreasonable when he said he did not believe him.
But Aibou laughed anyway.
After dinner, when Aibou was doing his homework, Yami finally retreated to the Puzzle to lie back against the hard stone, arms crossed behind his head, and think.
He had little concrete concept of time from his early days as Aibou's protector—from before he was "Aibou," when he was just "Yuugi" or "Mou Hitori no Ore." All he knew then was anger and pain and a fierce, never-yielding desire to protect. Aibou had freed him, even if his memories of exactly what he had been freed from were clouded and scattered about like the clothes in Aibou's room on laundry day. He had to protect the one who had brought him into the light.
But he was not like Aibou's friends, that he knew. Aibou's friends were real, and they talked and supported him, and they were there as real human beings. Next to him. Knowing him.
Knowing what was so special about this day that Aibou had still neglected to tell him.
Yami was a spirit. A spirit clinging to Aibou like a lost puppy. Or a leech. Or a lost, leech-like, amnesiac puppy with multi-colored spiky hair and a rare tendency to lose his temper.
Yami was not like the others. He knew that, and he always had. But if he could have had one wish, only one, even ahead of recovering those memories he had lost, it would be that he could be to Aibou everything that Aibou had been to him.
He shifted onto his side and stared at the large metal door with the carved eye that stared back at him, inhuman and lifeless. He traced the form of it with his finger in the air, and he realized in that moment more than ever before that everything he was seeing wasn't real. He existed only here, and without Aibou to help him, he was nothing.
A protector, he had once been. Now he was beginning to wonder if that role had been traded in for someone who was only tying him down.
Yami sighed, pushed himself to his feet, and walked toward the door.
Aibou.
Aibou was quiet for an entire minute, staring in what seemed to be great interest at the strange, multi-colored cube he had taken to working on recently. He would make each side a solid color, and work sometimes minutes and sometimes hours to get it so, and then he would rotate pieces and mess it up yet again. Yami really did not get the purpose of solving the same puzzle over and over—should he not display it somewhere as a record of completion?—but he had not allowed himself to ask.
Aibou.
Aibou looked up.
"Yes, mou hitori no boku?"
He was talking aloud again. Luckily, this time, there was no one around to hear, but even still, Yami found it strange. He projected his image behind Aibou and crossed his arms over his chest. Are you going to tell me now?
"Tell you what?"
Yami twitched. About today, Aibou. Like you promised?
He imagined he sounded like a desperate child at this point, but in all honestly, he hardly cared, and Aibou didn't seem to notice.
But at last, Aibou put down the strange cube and grinned, though Yami could only feel the grin as Aibou was still turned away.
"Well, mou hitori no boku, today—"
"Yuugi!"
If Yami had really thought it might have made a difference, he would have smacked himself in the face.
Aibou turned around in full, and Yami stepped aside so as to avoid being run straight through by the boy as he scrambled to open his bedroom door. "Yes, Jii-chan!"
"Will you come help me with something in the kitchen?"
Yami felt something in him drop down low. Aibou turned, if only enough to meet Yami's gaze with his own violet. He smiled, but his eyes showed the faintest hints of regret.
"Right after, I promise."
He didn't answer. He nodded, in his own quiet way of acceptance, but he merely crossed his arms over his chest and let his image be pulled along behind Aibou as he left his bedroom and started down toward the stairs.
It took Yami longer than usual to notice that something was wrong. Normally, the sense of danger would have hit him before one should have been able to know such things—part of that innate instinct he had always possessed to protect his young charge. But his thoughts and swirling emotions distracted him, at least until Aibou reached the staircase, and Yami became suddenly aware of the difference.
The sun had yet to fully set, as indicated by Aibou's window, but it was dark enough outside to warrant lights to be turned on in the house. But there were no lights below the second story. From the hallway that led down to the first story and the store, Yami could see not a single flicker of light.
He tensed, though such a thing was not quite possible.
Aibou…
"Hm?" Aibou mumbled, but he had already started his eager descent down the steps.
Yami narrowed his eyes, and he could feel the powers of the Puzzle tingling his inexistent fingers. Aibou wasn't slowing down. And the darkness wasn't getting any better. Darker, darker. And Aibou was heading right into that darkness without even a second thought.
Aibou, wait a—
Aibou took the final step down into the silent, almost pitch black room, and in an instant, Yami could see them.
Figures. Crouched figures, all around. Hiding in the shadows, shrouded by the darkness. Just waiting for Aibou. Almost surrounding him. The boiling, familiar mixtures of heavy emotion churned within him.
One of the figures moved, quiet, right against the wall, so faint that Yami could only see it from his own long-time experience in the dark. Something in him sprung, and he leapt forward, willing the Puzzle to begin to glow as he prepared to take over, to protect his Aibou from whatever danger awaited them both in the—
"Surprise!"
The lights flicked on.
The Puzzle dulled.
Yami stood frozen still.
There in front of them, crowding around the walls of the room, were Aibou's friends. All of them. Anzu, Jounouchi-kun, Honda-kun, Aibou's grandfather … even Bakura, standing in the corner with that ever-innocent smile.
All of them grinning. All of them happy. And Aibou just standing there with an expression on his face quite akin to shock.
Though Yami was sure his own expression probably rivaled it.
"All you guys …" came the whispered response of Aibou, shaking his head, his lips turning upward into a smile. But still surprised. Still stunned.
Anzu's grin grew, her brown eyes twinkling more than usual. "Happy birthday, Yuugi!"
"Anzu …" Aibou began. "You were all planning this? Jii-chan, even you?"
All Aibou got from his grandfather was a chuckle and another smile. Jounouchi-kun stepped forward and gave Aibou yet another gentle punch in the shoulder. Yami blinked. Jounouchi-kun laughed.
"You didn't think we weren't gonna do anything for your big day, did ya?"
Aibou's silence was best interpreted by Yami as saying that he had.
Aibou remained just as silent—but smiling just the same—as both Anzu and Honda-kun reached out to take him by the shoulder and lead him into the kitchen. Yami followed, pulled along by the Millennium Puzzle around Aibou's neck, his eyes still wide and stunned.
… birthday?
He had learned about birthdays. They had been mentioned once or twice during his time in this world. Jounouchi-kun's in January, he had heard about that, even though the memory was vague.
But Aibou's? Aibou had never mentioned his own birthday. And Yami had never seen it fit to ask him about it. It had never really even crossed his mind that Aibou had a birthday, even though he knew everyone did.
Except himself. Obviously.
And apparently, everyone except himself had been kind enough as to know that today was Aibou's.
The kitchen was as shocking as the initial display of people in the game shop. Decorated with balloons of all colors and what looked like long strips of thin colored paper hanging from the ceiling. And a cake. Yami knew cake. A cake with thick white frosting spread over the top, the cake itself thick and smooth and almost crimson, much like the color of the edges of he and Aibou's spiky hair. And on the top, candles. Too many for Yami to count.
But Aibou had been sixteen before. So he was seventeen now.
Seventeen candles. For his Aibou. Who was now seventeen years old.
He backed away to the wall as much as his spirit would allow him to stray from the Puzzle. He watched from a distance, not only to better see the group, but to step away. This was Aibou's party. Aibou's birthday. He and Aibou had shared everything … but this, he felt, was the sort of thing Aibou deserved for himself.
So he just watched in silence as Anzu pulled out wrapped boxes with bows from under the kitchen table, and announced that everyone had something for him—even Mokuba, who had found his birthday on the KaibaCorp database and sent a little present, as long as everyone promised not to tell his brother. Yami watched the interesting practice of Aibou making a wish before blowing out his candles.
He did not listen to Aibou's wish. That was another thing in which he felt he should not interfere.
He looked around at all the happiness surrounding Aibou and his friends. And he was happy for him. This was what Aibou deserved, after all he had done for those around him. For all he had given, both to his friends, and to Yami. Aibou deserved a day all his own.
And he deserved a show of appreciation for all his great deeds.
Yami's eyebrows furrowed, and he took one last glance at Aibou and the others. Their smiles. Their laughter. Kindness and love surrounding them all. He nodded, only once, but definite.
Then he closed his eyes and let himself fade into the Puzzle once again.
If he had had tangible legs, he supposed they would have gone numb by now.
But he had no real legs, so it didn't affect him one bit to kneel for as long as he had on the rough stone of his soul room, scratching out markings on the wall with a small rock he had found lying around. He only vaguely wondered how drawing on his own soul room would affect his mind, perhaps if it would just make him even stranger than he already was, but he shook his head of the thought and continued his drawings.
He would reach out his mind every now and then to check on the party, but only for a moment. Last time he did, everything had been going on as normal. There was plenty of cake and plenty of time for chatting, and he thought it polite to give Aibou some privacy. After all, it was his birthday. He deserved to have a mind to himself for a while. It certainly couldn't be the most pleasant to have some omnipresent being in one's head all the time …
Yami paused in his markings, shook his head again, and started drawing once more.
Aibou's grandfather had bought a decent-sized block of wood sometime late last year, he remembered, however vaguely. He had wanted to try making his own game pieces. But he had gotten distracted by Jounouchi-kun's sudden interest in Duel Monsters and being kidnapped by Pegasus, and that block of wood had been long forgotten since.
He nodded. Yes, that would do quite well.
Yami marked one change on his drawing, then stopped at the familiar but unexpected sound of the door to his soul room creaking open.
He turned his head.
The little rock dropped from his hand, but it dropped out of his conscious decision instead of surprise. But he was surprised indeed to see several spikes of black and magenta hair poking in, followed by a child-like face and a far-too-often-worn blue uniform, both of the arms held not so discreetly behind their back.
Yami blinked.
"Aibou?"
Aibou stepped in in full, and he blinked to adjust to the somewhat dimmer light Yami hadn't bothered to brighten. Yami flicked his hand, and the lights grew, though there was no definite place from which they could have emanated. He stood. His eyebrows furrowed.
"What are you doing here, Aibou?" he asked, and he used the back of his boot to scoot the little rock out of sight before walking forward. Aibou still held both hands behind his back. "Shouldn't you … be back at your party?"
Aibou smiled, and it was a strange smile, but reassuring at the same time. "Everyone's still eating cake. They won't mind if I step out for a few minutes."
Yami nodded, but he said nothing. He shuffled his feet, and once or twice he looked away.
Aibou took a step toward, so there was only an arm's length between the two of them, and in that moment Yami was fully aware of how little a difference there really was in their height at this point. He could still look down at Aibou, but only just. Aibou was growing. Something he could never do.
Aibou took his hands from behind his back.
Yami's eyes grew wide.
The smile that spread across Aibou's face this time was different. It was soft, and caring, and as gentle as Yami had ever seen it. A few of Aibou's fingers reached out to pet the fur on the penguin doll likely about the size of his head. His smile grew, and he held the doll out with both hands.
"His name is Yume. Jii-chan gave him to me when I was five." Aibou stroked the fur one more time with his thumb, then met Yami's gaze. "He's for you."
For what felt like a very long time, Yami just stood there, eyes going back and forth between the penguin with fur that looked almost like down, with big blue eyes made from beads, and Aibou, who smiled at him still, patient as he had ever been.
Yami blinked, and his hands twitched at his sides. "But, Aibou …" He trailed off.
"That's why I wouldn't tell you what today was until now," Aibou muttered, and Yami wasn't sure if he could sense faint guilt or just general contemplative emotion dabbed onto the edges of his tone. "I wanted to surprise you."
This time, Yami took a step back, though he had little idea why. "But … Aibou, this is your birthday."
Aibou was quiet for a few moments, and as Yami had yet to take the penguin, he held it closer to pet its fur once again. Yami supposed that it would have looked strange to anyone else to see a sixteen—no, seventeen-year-old boy stroking a stuffed animal like a real pet, affectionate, loving, but to him it was like the most natural thing in the world. It was Aibou. It was how Aibou had always been, and how he hoped Aibou always would be.
"Yeah," he whispered. He looked down, and Yami thought he saw a flash of something painful cross his gaze. Then he looked up and grinned, though that grin felt sad. "But until we know what your real birthday is … it's yours, too."
He patted the penguin's head and knelt down to set it on the stone floor. He arranged it so it stood straight, its big bead eyes almost alive, and righted himself again. He did not meet Yami's gaze. Yami thought he saw him swallow.
"But someday, we'll know. And then …"
His voice trailed into silence.
For such a long time, there was not a single sound. They did not really breathe in this place, and they did not move. They just stood there, in the perfect silence of Yami's mind, Aibou not once looking up, and Yami not once looking away. Across the link—or maybe it was just within himself—Yami felt pain and dark and sad. Feelings of the future to come. The mystery that awaited them both in the not-so-distant future, the mysteries they were to uncover.
And when those mysteries were solved …
Yami drew in a breath that he did not need, and he wrung his hands when he realized they were shaking.
"But … I didn't get anything for you."
Aibou finally turned his head, and his violet eyes glimmered, and Yami almost thought there were tears somewhere in those big innocent orbs. Somewhere.
"You've already given me plenty," he whispered, and the emotion soaking those words was enough to make even a former Pharaoh break down. Yami held his composure, but only just.
He squeezed his hands. "Aibou … but I …"
"You've been here with me," Aibou added, and this time his voice was louder. Definite. And this time, his smile was real, even if it was still a little bit sad. "Today and … whenever I needed you. That's more than enough."
Yami swallowed hard, and he felt the lump in his throat as he did so. The tears that may or may not have been in Aibou's eyes remained, or perhaps those were just his own. Aibou smiled, big and true, one last time.
Then he stepped forward and hugged Yami right around his middle.
It took Yami several seconds to realize what Aibou had done. It was such an unfamiliar feeling that his mind simply didn't comprehend it at first; the feeling of another being clutching him tight, warm-hearted and affectionate. Aibou was more openly caring toward his friends than many people his age, certainly. Jounouchi-kun would slap him on the back or Honda-kun would give him a playful punch on the shoulder. When Aibou had been recovered from the Orichalcos, everyone had rushed to embrace him, as they had just gotten one of their best friends back from the darkness.
But a hug … a simple, real hug …
Yami had never been hugged, not in his memory. He was not a physical being. He was a spirit, and however much he and Aibou cared for each other, like friends, almost like something vaguely akin to brothers, even though their very souls were linked, Aibou had never hugged him.
Not before now.
Aibou stepped back after only a few more moments. He looked up and smiled at Yami with that same wide smile that made him look like the child he was at heart. Caring. Just like he always had before. Yami had just never managed to see it quite like this.
Then he turned around and walked quietly and happily back out the door of Yami's soul room, closing it behind him, and Yami felt his presence return to the body to rejoin his seventeenth birthday.
Yami stood there for a long time, frozen in the same position he had stood in before. His arms still at his sides. His eyes still staring down where Aibou had been. At last, he breathed out, and back in, and the tears that had been growing glimmered in his amethyst eyes, but did not fall.
He smiled, even though the smile was small. He reached down and picked up the penguin, smoothing its fur before clutching it under his arm.
Then he turned back to the wall where he had left his drawing.
Time to begin.
Yuugi was tired.
Of course, he was always tired waking up on school days to the incessant beeping of his alarm clock. But as he reached over and gave it a good hard smack to shut it off, he noticed that for whatever odd reason, he felt as if he had to use every bit of energy in his body just to sit up.
He rubbed his eyes and sighed. What a great way to start the morning.
He waited for a customary greeting from his other self, but none came. Only silence. And when he reached out with his mind, he could almost sense the spirit resting. Not asleep, but as close to sleeping as someone with no proper body could get.
Yuugi smiled. That was good. His other self needed his rest.
But so did he, apparently, and he realized that twice over as he yawned and stretched. No, he felt like he hadn't slept at all. But he had gotten to bed just fine, no worries or nightmares. His mind was rested. But his body … He shook his head and swung his legs off the bed.
Then he went still.
He had managed to pick up the few things littered on his bedroom floor before he went to sleep last night. He thought it only right that he begin this year of being seventeen by being somewhat cleaner—besides, his other self always seems to prefer the room clean. And Yuugi tried to do what he could to make things as comfortable as he could for him.
After all, he didn't know how much longer he was going to be around.
But even though he had put away his clothes and his new presents the night before, there was one thing left in the center of the floor. Something that definitely had not been there the night before, and something he had not seen before in his life.
A little wooden carving.
Yuugi sat on his bed for a very long time—or so it felt—staring at that little carving, unable to work out the details from a distance but also unable to quite make himself move to see it up close. When he finally shook himself from his trance, he pushed off of the bed and walked step by step across the carpet over the foreign object, knelt down next to it, and picked it up with his most tender touch.
There were still a few splinters, as he discovered when one poked his finger. But it had been carefully sanded, it seemed, and freshly carved of some strong, dark wood. Such intricate detail, as if it had been carved by a master.
And under the carving, a small piece of torn copy paper lay innocent and waiting on the floor. Words written in what looked like blue highlighter, in handwriting not terribly familiar, but familiar enough so that there was no doubt as to who had written it.
Sorry it's late.
In Yuugi's hands, he held a tiny carved sculpture of all of his friends standing on a thick wood base. Anzu in her favorite SPIRIT shirt. Jounouchi-kun with his Duel Disk. Honda-kun giving two thumbs up. Even Bakura-kun, smiling, so innocent even with the darkness that swirled around him every day.
And standing in the front, the taller with his hand on the shorter one's shoulder, were Yuugi and his other self. Yuugi, strong and confident, but still sweet and young, like everyone told him he was. And his other self, winking and smiling like he did after their very best of duels.
Yuugi ran a finger over the spiked hair of the two in the front, and a smile grew across his face that so clearly matched the expression on the carving of his other self.
Thank you … Mou hitori no boku.
Yuugi was met with only silence, but in the very back of his mind, he almost thought he could feel the warm and tingling sensation of the spirit laughing and smiling, ready to start a brand new day.
I want to be with you always, but even someday when I am not, the strength within you will shine, and you will show the world all the greatness you hold within. And I will always be watching and waiting to see your light. The light that pulled me out of the darkness.
Happy Birthday, Aibou.