I posted this because I realized that I hadn't posted anything in all of 2015, and I wanted to have at least one thing posted this year! :D So I found something I had written and spruced it up. And posted it like 1 minute before midnight. I've got to stop doing that... This takes place in ancient Egypt when Atem and Mana are little kids. It's short and random, but I think it's cute! Enjoy!

The Tale of Heba

When Atem was a child his friend Mana wrote a peculiar story. It wouldn't hit him that she was a psychic until 5000 years later.

It wasn't usual for Atem to go the whole day without seeing Mana. That usually meant she was in trouble with Mahad, either that or she was up to some mischief that would eventually get her in trouble with Mahad. It didn't matter to Atem which one it was today. He had so been looking forward to one of her daily spells-gone-wrong, which almost always involved magical explosions. It would've sent Siamon running to go figure out what the problem was, and Atem would have been free to do whatever he wanted for the rest of the day. The explosion never came, and Atem was forced to sit through an entire lecture on what to do in case of a giant monster attack. Atem didn't see the point of it.

When he was finally free from Siamon's lesson, Atem decided to go track her down. He looked in the gardens and the kitchen and all of her usual hiding places. He even checked in every single vase in the main hall, but she was nowhere to be found. Finally he checked in her room, the place he was least likely to find her. That's exactly where she was. She was over at her desk feverishly scribbling on a sheet of papyrus. She seemed to be grossly engaged in whatever she was doing.

"Is this what you've been doing all day?" Atem asked.

"Yep. You're just in time," Mana said, never once taking her eyes off of the page. "I'm almost finished."

"Finished with what?"

"You'll see."

Atem eyed the piles of papyrus stacked neatly at the corner of her desk. "You wrote all of this?"

Mana nodded eagerly. "It's my greatest work."

Atem chose not to mention that it was her only work. He sat in the stool beside her desk and waited patiently as she added the final words to whatever it was she was writing. A few moments of nonstop writing later, Mana lifted up her brush like it was her magic scepter. "I'm finally done! I can't wait for you to read it."

She gathered up the pages and offered them to Atem with so much enthusiasm that he couldn't have refused even if he wanted to. Atem lifted an eyebrow as he read the title at the top of the page. "'The Tale of Heba'?"

"Yeah," Mana said. "It's about a boy named Heba. He's really shy and everyone bullies him, but then one day he finds a magical puzzle and solves it. It turns out there was an ancient pharaoh's spirit inside, and he helps him be good at games."

"So it's a fantasy?" Atem asked.

"What? Just because there's magic in it?" Mana grabbed her magic scepter and waved it around like there wasn't any danger of a magical blast of energy shooting out of it at any moment. Atem resisted the urge to shrink back. "I use magic all the time."

"Yeah, but you can't bring someone back to life."

"The pharaoh doesn't come back to life," Mana said. "He put his spirit in the puzzle."

Atem blinked. "What? Why would he do that?"

Mana gestured vaguely. "It's complicated. You'll find out when you read it. So the pharaoh helps Heba get really good at games, and no one can beat him. Then one day he gets a challenge from Cairo, the undefeated master of senet."

Atem sat patiently through Mana's explanation of what her story would be about, and then he read every last word of the story, even though Mana had pretty much explained the whole thing. He enjoyed it, but it didn't seem at all realistic or likely to happen in any way, shape or form.

Wherever they were, the gods were laughing.

It isn't usual for Atem to laugh so hard that he cries. It occurs to Yugi that this isn't the first time he's seen an ancient Egyptian man crying at an exhibit about ancient Egypt. "What's so funny?" When Atem turns to face him, Yugi realizes that the tears aren't all from laughing. "Are the exhibits making you sad?" Yugi knew that coming here might stir up Atem's homesickness. Atem has never spoken a word about it, but Yugi knows about it all the same. "We can leave if you want."

Atem shakes his head and wipes his eyes. "It's fine." He gestures to the display and laughs again. "I never thought I would see this in a museum."

"You know it?"

Atem nods. "A good friend of mine wrote it."

"Wow. Was it famous?"

"It was to me."

Atem won't say anything more about it, not until they're back at home and Yugi has made him two cups of his favorite brand of hot chocolate.

Author's Note: My heart is melting...And I'm the one who wrote this... I always thought I would post this as part of a larger story, but I think I like it as a oneshot. Thanks for reading! And Happy New Year :)

btw that last part officially/unofficially takes place after "Deeper Duelist."