Title: First love

Pairing: Yami x Yugi

Warning: yaoi (boyxboy) and eventually mature content, don't read if you don't like!

Plot: After Dark Side of Dimensions, Yami tries to get back into contact with Yugi by visiting Yugi's world with his spirit, but is apparently invisible to the common human eye. Desperate to see each other again, Yugi knocks on Kaiba's door to use his time portal and visit Yami in the past. But not everyone in the palace agrees of these innocent visits.

Chapter 1: first contact

Yugi was sleeping soundly in bed, his bright eyes now completely shut as he had fallen into a deep slumber, unaware of the other presence in his room. His soft breathing filled the dark room with a light, rhythmical humming. He turned around in his sleep, sighing deeply when his left side of his body finally reached the embrace of his warm bed, and returned to his dreamworld again far away from Domino.

The dark room was slightly led up by the moon's light, yet the light was also interfered by the other presence in the room, sitting on the window-sill with one leg dangling next to him, the other also resting on the window-sill. Yami arched his back, stretching it against the wall and gazed with a soft smile upon the boy. It's been a few days since he's come to this place, and he always sat on the window-sill, looking from afar at his other self, intensely watching how the boy slept at night, only to sometimes be ignored when Yugi got up to get some water and go back to sleep, without acknowledging the other presence. Yami smiled as he sighed again, Yugi mildly smiling too as he was probably having another dream again. At the action, the pharaoh's smile turned into worry again and he bit his bottom lip, raising his other leg up and wrapping his arms around them, his feelings of happiness and warmth suddenly turning into worry and pain. It's been a few days, but he couldn't keep this up, he thought. Only to sit here, look at his other self, gaze at him the entire night and being ignored when the boy looked straight through him. He was just a spirit, a ghost, unable to show himself to Yugi, unable to touch him, to talk to him, to smell him… He couldn't keep doing this torturous travelling any longer. And yet, he wanted to every night.

The pharaoh got up from the window, his transparent feet touching the floor without any sound. In this form, he had a pale skin and always wore the clothes that he usually wore when he had still been entwined in Yugi's body. The belts around his waist jingled with every incoherent step he made, although no one except for him would hear it. Yami had an idea all of a sudden, and it was worth a try. He walked over to Yugi's desk, scanning the table, his eyes wandering over his deck, then the golden Egyptian box, and then over a pen and some paper, which seemed like homework about history. He reached out for the pen, but his hand went straight through it. In fact, it went straight through the paper and the desk too. Yami grunted and withdrew his arm immediately, rubbing his wrist like he was hurting while he actually hadn't felt a thing. When he realized how hopeless the situation was, he rolled his eyes and turned his gaze to Yugi again, who was still sleeping soundly with his blanket firmly wrapped around him like a cocoon.

Yami dropped down on the floor next to Yugi, not even trying to effortlessly sit on the side of his bed. He hung his head for a while and combed through his hair with the same hand that had tried to pick up the pen. The situation seemed more hopeless than he had feared. He looked up again at his other self, watching how his breathing escaped his small lips, counting it, reassuring himself with the reflexive sound. His hand reached for his face, this time going straight through the boy. Yami looked away in agony.

The pharaoh startled when he heard a soft noise coming from the boy and looked at his left, staring into sleepy, purple eyes. He held his breath when he realized Yugi was looking right at him. His other self made another sound, obviously confused from his slumber but slightly awake, carefully stirring in his cocoon of blankets, before completely opening his eyes. Yugi used his arm to get up a bit from his bed, rubbing his eyes when he thought he saw something. When he looked around in his room however, he saw nothing. And yet, he couldn't help but stare to the emptiness in front of him next to his bed. Yugi waited for a while, trying to listen as if he would perhaps hear what he was looking at, yet nothing came. So the boy looked away disappointed and rolled over again in his bed, trying to catch some more sleep before he had to get up in the morning again for school.

Yami only gazed forward with a hurt expression on his face as he realized Yugi couldn't see him at all. He dropped his eyes to the floor again and decided to go back to his own world again. His body evaporating in the moonlight along with his clothes.

When the pharaoh woke up again from his trip to the future, his dark purple eyes stared at his ceiling in his own bedroom. His skin was now tanned again, still wearing his royal garment and crown, realizing he hadn't changed to go to sleep again. He rose from his bed, his legs still feeling featherlike from his spiritual travelling, opening the gigantic door to the main hall. Outside, his servant Akili, was sitting on the floor, waiting for her master to tell her he wished to go to sleep. She looked up at her pharaoh, confusion written all over her face as she noticed he was hurting, sadness written all over his face. He turned around again to walk into his room, leaving the door open, implying her to follow him and prepare him for bed.

"Say, have you thought about college already, Yugi?"

After staring for fifteen minutes at his bento, Yugi was met with bright blue eyes and a cheery smile. Tea took another bite from her lunch and eagerly waited for Yugi to answer. The boy looked around at his friends, all enjoying their lunch on the rooftop. He pouted his lips when he realized school had almost finished.

"Can't say I have."

"What?!" All four of them said in unison and looked at their friend.

Yugi raised his brow. "I don't feel like studying anymore. Besides, I'll probably take over Grandpa's shop anyway…" He felt slightly awkward when his friends were still looking in shock at him.

"Wow Yugi", Bakura smiled away in his usual, way too positive attitude, "I always thought you would be the one to go study something super difficult and out of our leagues."

"Why?" Yugi asked.

"'You're pretty smart, Yug'," Joey spoke as he, in a very unappealing manner, sucked a piece of squid down his mouth, "if there's anyone who shouldn't be thinking about going to college, it's probably me."

"You're not stupid, Joey," Yugi spoke sincerely, followed by Tristan's snickering. Joey heard that and hit Tristan on the head before both of them started quarrelling again.

Tea sighed at the scene and focussed back on Yugi. "You should just do what you like, Yugi! No matter what, I'm sure you'll end up just fine."

Yugi blushed at Tea's comment. He had given up on Tea after he figured she'd had a huge crush on Yami, or rather Atem, as that later appeared to be his name. But that wouldn't stop him from turning red once in a while in these situations. It had been a few weeks since all that chaos had happened, and a few weeks since he had, for one last time, seen Atem again. He had been so caught up with the fact that school was almost over, that he had completely forgotten about the fact that this time, he would probably never see the pharaoh again. Or it was rather about denying that fact than 'forgetting' it. Even thinking about it now lowered his spirit.

"You okay, Yugi?" Bakura asked with a smile. Yugi nodded and then got up from his seat when the bell rang, glad lunchtime was over.

The same appearance was sitting on the window-sill again, on leg dangling next to him. Yami's head was resting in his hand, staring unbothered out of the window. He saw a cat passing by in the moonlight, and after that a young couple walking to their house. He was bored till death (ironically) sitting in this room and yet, he never even considered leaving.

When there was nothing 'interesting' to watch outside anymore, he turned his gaze upon his other self again. This time, the boy used his blanket as a body pillow instead, since summer was at the door and it was pretty hot in Domino. The pharaoh smiled, it wasn't nearly as warm as in Egypt. It still was a sight to see though, Yugi holding tightly his blanket, his shirt half exposing his stomach and one of his hands nonchalantly dangling in the air. He seemed in a much deeper sleep than last times he had visited him, maybe because of the warmth. Yami got up when he heard his other self whisper something in his sleep, arching over to his bed and resting his ear near the boy's face. He whispered something intelligible and made soft, weary noises. Yami smirked and sat next to his partner on the ground again with legs crossed, listening to the reassuring sounds Yugi made in his sleep, before he finally whispered in a dreary, careful way "Yami." It was so warm, so fragile and silent that Yami had barely heard it. Yami's face turned into a caring smile when he heard Yugi whisper his name and nuzzle deeper into his blanket.

"I'm right here," he whispered and tried touching his cheek, much to his disappointment of course not being able to, but pretending at least for a moment that he was. "I'm right here…"

"Hey Yugi," Tristan whispered. "Yuuuugiiiii."

Yugi turned his head annoyingly and snatched a rather mean glare at his friends. For once he was trying to pay attention in history class since it was about ancient Egypt, a subject that somehow, interested him at least somewhat more than all the other boring subjects they've dealt with this year. "What?"

"Look at page 112." Joey whispered and Tristan, again, had to refrain himself from laughing out loud.

Yugi turned his book to page 112 in a very aggressive way, annoyed by his friends, and scanned the page quickly with his eyes when he saw a small column in their history book with the title 'did you know…'. When he read the section, his face turned as red as a tomato and he closed his book with a loud smack, making the teacher look in his direction.

"Something wrong, Mr. Motou?"

"No Miss," he replied and puffed when his teacher turned around again to continue the lesson.

"Speaking of the Egyptian Pharaohs, Yugi, would you be so kind as to read the small paragraph on page 112?"

Yugi was about to faint when he heard his teacher say that. Hesitantly, he replied a quivering yes and opened his book on page 112, hearing Joey and Tristan laugh behind his back while Tea was shooting them angry glares. With a trembling voice Yugi began reading the paragraph one page 112.

"Did y-you know that, in a-ancient Egypt, common people could not look at the p-pharaoh's face without permission from the pharaoh himself. Only a f-few selected could look at the pharaoh's face, and no one but the maids could touch the p-p-pharaoh, except for the pharaoh's children and –" and with that last word, Yugi held in all of his breath to practically vomit the last word out, "wife."

Joey and Tristan were by now laughing out loud in class, the other pupils having no idea what was so funny and the teacher telling both of them they could meet her after class. Although Joey and Tristan would probably get detention, they continued snickering nevertheless without even considering the threat from their teacher. Yugi slumped down in his chair in embarrassment.

"Don't worry about it Yugi, no one in class knew what was going on, and Joey and Tristan got what they deserve." With that said, Tea flipped back her hair in contempt and drank from her juice box, almost crushing the cardboard in her hand. Joey and Tristan were still in class writing an essay about why not to laugh with ancient Egyptian traditions.

"Say, what was so funny about it anyway?" Bakura looked at Yugi with questioning eyes. "Did it have something to do with that spirit inside your millennium puzzle?"

"Well, err…" Yugi hesitated to respond when Tea got in between. "So what if you looked Yami – I mean – Atem, straight in the eyes like, literally every time you saw him, we all did that back then! It was completely different, it's not like we knew those traditions in the first place! And because you sometimes 'touched' him doesn't make you his –," Tea waited awkwardly before deciding not to finish that. She looked at Yugi and Bakura who were looking at her with confused eyes. She crossed her arms and said 'nevermind' before looking away with pouting lips. It didn't really matter to Yugi, it's not like he really took that 'fact' as something personal. Tea was right about the fact that back then, things were a lot more different and complicated, so it wasn't like they were sticking to ancient traditions. Still, it left him feeling somewhat confused.

Back in Egypt, after a tiring day, Atem decided to retreat in his chambers, explicitly telling his guards to let no one in. It was sometime in the afternoon. The entire day he had travelled from one place to another in the city, around the city, as was his duty as pharaoh, when he all of a sudden decided he wanted to try and visit Yugi again. However, he didn't feel like waiting until the sun had left, he was much too stubborn for that.

He laid on his back in his bed, watching the tops of the poles of his golden four-poster bed, slowly closing his eyes and concentrating on the silence in his room. He had never done this during daylight, which made it a lot more difficult for him to concentrate than he had hoped. He forced his eyes closed and imagined his spirit away from his body, travelling to an unknown time.

Back in class, the last period to be more precise, Yugi was resting his head on his desk while the teacher was busy writing an extra long math exercise on the blackboard. His head rested on his arms and he closed his eyes for a while, trying to catch some lost sleep from last night. He'd been sleeping restlessly lately. For some reason, he always felt like someone was watching him in his sleep. He didn't know who, and strangely enough it didn't feel threatening. Instead, it felt warm and safe, like he was being watched over.

And even stranger, he felt those eyes at this very moment.

He hastily looked up from his desk, gazing in front of him at the incomprehensible energy he felt before him. Just like when he was sleeping, he didn't see it, but he was certain it was there. Unbeknownst, he reached out with his hand to the entity in front of him of which he was so certain existed, only to claw at emptiness.

Tristan nodded his head towards Joey, implying him to look at the other direction. Both looked with arched eyebrows at Yugi whom was reaching for something imaginary with his hand. Joey tapped Tea on the back and she looked too, also with a puzzled and confused look on her face.

"Yugi," Joey whispered loud enough to wake him up, but it was only Bakura who now also watched as Yugi was still reaching to the nothingness in front of him. It almost seemed like Yugi was sleepwalking… with his eyes open?

"Yugi!" Joey spoke in a stage whisper, worrying that the teacher might hear him. "Damn it, Yugi!"

But Yugi didn't hear it, he was drawn to the mysterious darkness in front of him, desperately trying to reach out for something tangible, yet he did not feel anything. He wanted to see it so bad, he would do anything to see it, it felt so warm, so caring, so familiar. He just knew…

He touched the tip of a finger with his own and shrieked, almost breaking contact but not yet. He watched the hand he was touching intensely and reached for it, now holding it tightly, without looking at the face of the entity yet. To his surprise however, he felt that the entity was burning in pain by the touch but wouldn't refrain either. When Yugi decided to look up, his eyes locked on his other self, betraying a feeling of loving and happiness, but he also saw a twitch of pain from the burning feeling in his hand that Yugi somehow did not feel. Yami looked at his partner with glazy eyes, gasping as he realized that with all his might and strength he was able to hold his other half. He felt the loving gaze of his aibou watching him and he wouldn't, no matter the burning pain in his hand and heart, let go of his hand.

Yugi arched up from his seat, his chair falling to the ground as he tried to reach closer to Yami before he vanished into thin air. "YAMI!" He yelled out and saw the last glimpse of his smiling face burning away before he was completely gone. When he realized what had happened, he looked around in class to see all faces around him muttering and gossiping, not even realizing his hand was still reaching in front of him.

"What is the meaning of this, Mr. Motou?!" Their teacher crossed his arms and waited with the chalk in his hand for a somewhat meaningful explanation to his actions. Yugi doubted he could take any more embarrassments today.

"It's my fault," Joey stood up, "I made spooky sounds while he was sleeping and he probably freaked out."

"I'll be seeing both of you after class," the teacher said before turning around and continuing the lesson. Yugi picked up his chair from the ground.

Atem gasped for air when he woke up from his journey again, arching up in bed trying to regain his breath. He stared in front of him, processing what had just happened.

"Pharaoh, I am sorry to disturb you," Isis, one of his servants walked in, head down as to minimalize eye-contact with the pharaoh. "There's an emergency for which your presence is required."

Yami's breathing became more steady as he calmed down. He looked at his hand and noticed the burn marks on his skin had turned red and swollen.

"Pharaoh!" Isis spoke out, looking at the hand Yami was holding up. She urged his maid Akili to attend his wounds and told the guards the emergency would have to wait.

"You didn't have to do that, Joey," Yugi spoke as they were both walking home from school. It was already 8 o'clock, but the teacher had made them stay to clean the entire classroom. Both of them were starving.

"You kiddin', anything for you, Yug'," Joey winked and placed his arms behind his head while walking. "Besides, it's better than an apology for Tristan and my behaviour this morning."

Yugi smiled at that remark. That was in fact true.

"So err, what exactly happened back there? Were you dreaming or something?"

"It was nothing," Yugi responded. "Wanna go to burger world? My treat!"

"I'd do anything for free food."

I really hoped you liked the chapter. Please review, it always helps! I don't update on regular intervals, I have a fulltime job so I just write when I feel like it, and after rewatching the entire series of Yugioh, I got inspired. I do predict however that it's going to be quite a long story...

See you soon!