The afterlife had not been what the Yamis expected of it, as soon as Atem had crossed the threshold into the afterlife, instead of being able to go to his family and friends of Ancient Egypt; he had found himself in a dark hallway, Bakura and Malik on either side of him.

The three Yamis had looked at each other, a frown on all their faces, this was not how they expected the afterlife to look like, especially not since they were all dressed in the atelier of the time they, two of them at least, had grown up with, and Atem had been sure he had seen his family and friends when he entered.

Atem was the one who spoke, "let's follow this hallway and see where it leads, I just want this to be over with. We have all suffered enough."

The other two nodded, while they had had their difficulties in their past life and even more recent, they had come to a truce after Malik's defeat, a special bond had formed between them and their Hikaris, something they had in common, and strangle enough, the thing that bonded them together. They only had each other to talk to about those strange feelings that had accompanied the affection they felt for the lighter side of their soul. A truce had developed into a friendship, one that they were going to need now they were separated with their Hikaris.

Bakura lead the way, with his experience in thieving and traps he wanted to go first, as to search the hallway for any traps that might be hidden, you never know, and this hallway looks good enough like one found in a tomb that none of them wanted to risk it.

After a walk of 30 minutes, they entered a room which was lit by a soft light, candles and oil lamps lining the walls. In the middle of the room, two figures were standing; the Gods Anubis and Ra were standing in front of them, both Gods looking at them with a soul piercing look. The two deities finally gestured to the stone bench in front of them, gesturing for the three men to take a seat.

It was Ra that started his tale, about the mistake they had made, how Atem should have never crossed, that they were too late to right it, so when they discovered it the Pharaoh had already crossed. And with him the two other Yamis, they should have never left their Hikaris, their lights in a long time of darkness.

Than Anubis spoke, he gave them the chance to go back, they would be able to join their Hikaris again, the three young men that meant so much to them. They accepted as soon as the words left the God's mouth, they hadn't wanted to leave, but as they had thought that was what the prophesy had said, they had accepted that. Before the two Gods send them back, they did warn them, a year had passed since the duel between Atem and Yugi, and their Hikaris had been through a hard time.

-YGO-

In the real world, Yugi had been having the hardest time to comprehend that he was forever without Atem, that he would have to do things alone from now on. As a result of the duel, and the loss of their Yamis, Yugi, Ryou and Marik had grown closer, after they had woken from their catatonic state that was. All three of them had hardly eaten, slept or left their rooms the first three months after the duel.

This worried their friends and family, Kaiba even let a specialist fly over from America to look over the three, when the man didn't find anything, he almost kicked him back.

So when after those three months, all three of the youngsters had shown their faces on the first day of school, they were caught in a group hug, something most other students of Domino High School hadn't gotten. They hadn't understood what had happened, still didn't as a matter of fact.

It was a regular sight, as soon as school was in session, to see Marik, Ryou and Yugi, together, just sitting or lately, talking quietly, leaning on each other. Some times Jonouchi and Honda would accompany them; sometime it would just be Anzu, sitting next to them.

As Yugi was teased before for him height, that had lessened somewhat, with his title of King of Games, but it still didn't stop the worse bullies for picking on the three men who were so down in that time.

As it was, today marked the exact day the duel had taken place, only a year after the actual event, meaning that the three were in a state like the year before, catatonic. Only for this time, they weren't at home and it wasn't a holiday, they were on the last week of school. All their friends were in class, or in Kaiba's case, in a meeting, so they were alone at recess, almost the end of the day, yet still alone. And bullies were taking advantage of it, Marik had snapped out of his state long enough to make sure it was three against three, but still, on this day, none of them were up to this.

As the bullies prepared to strike again, a low baritone spoke from behind them, a voice that made Yugi snap out of it as well, "you do that and I'll show you why people feared us so much."

There, in the late afternoon sun, stood three figures, who at first sight looked like older versions of the teens before them. They smirked, thinking this would be a piece of cake.

How wrong they were, as the bullies turned and prepared to hit the closest to them, the one who looked like the King of Games, they were met with a fist to the stomach and then one to the head, dizzy as they were, they ran away, bumping into each other.

The three young men looked at their Yamis, these men, for they were older than them, were their world, and they had feared never to see them again. The look in those red eyes, was one they knew all too good, it was the same one the three before them had had a year ago when they left.

It was Yugi, who was the first to act, with tears in his eyes he stormed at Atem and had wrapped him arms around the former Pharaoh, by the looks of it, he wasn't going to let go for a long time. Ryou and Marik followed their friend's example, racing towards their Yamis, even though theirs had been slightly more psychotic than the Pharaoh, they had lost their hearts to them and it showed as they were encased in tanned arms, a firm grip on their waists.

As classes let out, the three couples were seated just outside the school, the Hikaris on the laps of their Yamis, a smile on all their faces. As Jonouchi, Honda and Anzu walked towards the school gates, a group had started to form around the six men, who were lost in their own world. As the three made their way towards the centre of the group, Anzu almost cooed at the sight in front of them, she was also quick to send a text to Ishizu, telling her to come to the school as soon as possible.

Jonouchi and Honda were already making sure the group around their friends was chased away, no explanation was given.

When they were the only ones on the streets, they could only look at the 3 couples, who after a year apart, were back together. Times would look up again, and it would give them some adventure, the Yamis after all were a bit darker than their Hikaris and were prone to cause problems.

There you have it, a short one shot.
Maybe I'll continue it, if I feel like it.
Tell me how you find it!