Welcome! This monster has taken up countless hours of my time but I'm glad to be back and writing.
Firstly, this is an ATEM/Yami centered fic. There will be various POV from the OC, Kaiba and Yugi.
The pairings are the pairings, there is nothing else there. Read into it what you will, but this is not a yaoi/cest fic.
Rated M for references to alcohol, drugs, sex, violence and strong language.
No lemons here. Might get a little lime-y at times though.
This is pretty deeply rooted in the manga/tv show. I wouldn't consider it AU. However, my changes are my changes. There shouldn't be a crapload of anything too world shattering in terms of canon changes.
Flames will be used to roast marshmallows. I'm including a lot of modern day pop culture/trend/cultural references, brace yourselves.
Also, various song lyrics will make their way into the stories. Just a couple lines here and there. They will be credited, but if the lyrics are changed, I changed them. I know.
ONWARDS:
Atem opens his eyes, his limbs slowly drifting across the warm sand. Mana lies next to him, the soft breeze drifting through their hair. This is paradise, and the days never end here.
"Atem, you always seem so still here. It's...as if you are not at peace... Is it not for souls to cross over to the other side and be at rest, like we are now?"
The pharaoh sighed heavily, staring up into the blue sky and wispy clouds.
"It is Mana. This is a place of eternal rest. I have needed to rest. I just can't..."
"...Can't shake the other little Pharaoh, can you?"
Atem wasn't surprised Mana noticed. These people cared deeply for him, but did he really have a connection with them like he and Yugi had?"
"Atem, this is a place for spirits. It is right for you to be here. Yet you have all of this love in your heart and no one to truly give it to. Your heart still aches because it's empty. You're empty without your best friend. He has a place none of us can fill, Atem."
Atem sat up and looked out over the endless ocean in front of them. His eyes were wet. Without his friends, and the loss of a lot of his memory, his attachment to Egypt had been broken. There was only one other person he had needed to see when he passed over...and she wasn't here.
That shattered what little hope he had to heal the wounds of leaving Yugi, Anzu and the others.
"Mana, I've been trying to deny the sorrow in my heart, but it's still there, and all the eternities I could spend here will not replace the emptiness. I did what was right, a dead cannot stay amongst the living...so what did I do to suffer this?"
He tucked his head into his knees and Mana tried to comfort him.
"Atem, none of us will blame you if you think you made a mistake."
"How could I have made a mistake, Mana? Yugi and I could not share the same body forever. He deserves to be free of me...that's the last thing I could give him as a best friend."
"My Pharaoh, you are right that the dead cannot live amongst the living. I have always felt a little pity for you my king. Your sacrifice cut your life so short. You were so willing to hand over what little time you had. You commanded the gods of Egypt, Pharaoh. Offer your sorrow to them, you have done far more than taken penance for your suffering."
"Mana...are you suggesting that I leave the afterlife...and leave all of you here without me?"
"Atem...My king. My friend...you were trapped between the spirit world and the living world for thousands of years after sacrificing yourself. You deserve a second chance. Go be with Yugi and his friends. You love him like your own blood, Atem. He is the brother you didn't have and the sister you lost. He is the only friend and family you had for a long time. Please Pharaoh, we will meet again in this after life. Hopefully then, you'll bring with you all your joys and memories instead of your tears and sorrows. You'll await here peacefully with your friends and spend eternity with them. My friend. It pains me more to see your heart hurt here than to know you are back in the living world with people who love you."
"How long do you think has passed, Mana? Is -her- soul not here because it is among the living? What if I can't find her? What if Yugi and my friends have moved on without me?"
She hugged him tightly and kissed away the single tear on his cheek.
"Don't worry about that. Close your eyes, Pharaoh. Think of your little pharaoh's smiling face and the warmth of your friend's embrace. Like this one. Call out to them...Atemu. Beseech the gods your truly last request."
Atem felt more warm tears, knowing that if you could weep in paradise, that you had unfinished business. He saw Yugi's weeping form on the concrete floor of the tomb and his heart ached for the friendship and love he saw in their eyes. His heart ached and screamed for them.
The sorrow and tears kept coming, the memories kept flooding and the world spun with the voice of the gods overwhelming him.
Two halves of the same soul, incomplete without the other. While their personalities were different, while their souls reared differently, they were two best friends that could never be separated.
"But...but how?"
The dead cannot reside amongst the living.
The world stopped spinning and Atem heard the soft chirp of a bird. He was still reaching out, his embrace with Mana had broken and it was empty now. He was afraid to open his eyes and still be separated from his heart's desire.
His true heart's desire. To be among the living and to live amongst love and friends.
Atem opened his eyes, and the bare cherry trees swayed gently in the wind. The clouds were drifting a little more heavily by, and Atem realized how harsh the grass felt beneath him.
He sat up and stared right past the bushes into a city road. The Kame Game shop sat to his immediately left, and his heart could have exploded with joy.
The feeling was foreign, and he placed a hand over his heart to feel the beating of flesh and blood beneath it.
"The dead cannot reside amongst the living"
So he was alive.