AN: This was based on a chapter from an old fic I took down, The Game Archive. Decided to give myself another try on the time travel trope.

It takes him a few seconds to realize that something is wrong.

First is that he wasn't in his room. He didn't have old, almost retro-looking, game posters plastered on the walls nor shelves of board games and magazines, not for a long time. He had his own personal gaming room for that.

Second was that he could have sworn he slept with a pair of black jogging pants, not eerily familiar pajamas.

Third, there was the unsolved Puzzle on an equally eerily familiar desk.

His eye twitched.

Granted, he probably should have noticed the golden item first. But really, anything weird in his life was always related to something shiny and ancient (and often Egyptian, but he felt kind of racist for generalizing all the magical life-risking events that happened to him—sometimes it was Chinese, or Indian) that he tended to notice that last. It was always a given that some artifact was behind these kinds of things. What was important, he found through his painful wisdom and experience, was the who, the how, and what-the-heck-did-he-do-to-activate-the-thing.

The last he remembered was giving a kid one of his cards for good luck in his Duel Academy entrance exam.

It could have been him, maybe? He remembers a man named Paradox and two duelists who he teamed up with, one of them looked like the kid… except a little older, and that probably implied the kid had some potential in him. What with the time travel and all—

Wait.

Paradox.

Time travel.

Garishly nineties looking posters.

An eerily familiar room with familiar clothes.

An unfinished Puzzle.

Did he mention time travel yet?

He bolted up, looking for a mirror. He found one, he was not amused at what he saw.

He was especially unamused on how cute his teenage face looked like when he tried to look mad.

When he discerned that no, this wasn't an illusion, a weird fever dream, a prank concocted by the bored Duel Monsters creator, drugs, or a weird soul dream, then he took a minute to try to freak out.

Try is the key word here.

He was a twenty-six year old man who had seen and experienced a lot of supernatural things, usually in the form of games, and he was beginning to understand why his grandfather had been extremely unflappable at the soul stealing and a spirit living in his grandson. There's just a point in life where you appreciate that you didn't die, nobody was bleeding, and an apocalypse wasn't happening.

"So," he started, wincing at how high pitched his voice was. "Time travel, or more like soul travel—considering I'm in my younger body."

He picked up one piece of the Puzzle and frowned, if he was here then what happened to—well—the original owner of this body? Did he kick him out? Were they switched? Or did they merge?

He looked into his mind to find any clues about his conundrum. He could remember what he had been doing in the present, or future technically, but to his surprise,he could also remember what his younger self had been doing this week. Fresh and vibrant, like he had been there.

So, it was possible he had merged with his younger self. Or maybe he gained memories from the future and was the younger self. Or maybe he had experienced a ridiculously long dream and just woke up.

There were too many possibilities, he'd rather not think about it. No wonder his grandfather had just shrugged at the confession that a three thousand year old spirit lived in his body. It was not worth the stress to worry about it any longer.

"Well, when in Rome, do what the Romans do, I guess?" he shrugged, taking the pieces of the Puzzle. "Might as well keep the ball rolling."

He took a seat and began to work, telling himself he was solving the Puzzle to unseal shadow magic and perhaps get a clue on how to solve his problem.

(not because he missed a certain someone, definitely not)

After a long time being trapped in cold darkness, he was relieved to finally be able to hear, to smell, to move.

To wake up.

He opened his eyes to find a man staring down at him.

"Hello," the man said, smiling at him. It was a soft smile, and he felt no malice or hate from it (though he wondered why he felt it was a sad smile). "I'm Yuugi, the one who solved the Puzzle."

Memories were beginning to flow into his (emptyemptyemptywhycouldn'theremember) mind, two sets that made no sense. Older and younger. He tilted his head in confusion. "You solved it twice," he declared. "One now, and the other… tomorrow?"

"Yep," was the cheerful reply.

As he began to remember the solver's life, he also began to forget the pain of being imprisoned for three thousand years. His sanity slowly coming back to him bit by bit, a little faster than the other (what a weird concept to grasp) time.

"Oh, time travel, okay then," he said, the solver's personality beginning to bleed into him. "I suppose you want a way to get you back? I don't know how I'll help, considering I don't remember a single thing—at all."

The man blinked, the spirit found his violet eyes to be very pretty.

"You're… surprisingly calm about this," the man observed, raising an eyebrow. "I'd have thought you would be more, no offense, shadow game trigger happy insane."

"I'm still insane, I think," the spirit mused, one could never be completely sane after being trapped in a puzzle for thousands of years. "It's just that you're not any better, really. You have better coping mechanisms, but from what I'm seeing, a little insanity is inevitable with your life," he shrugged. "Yours is a more stable insanity, if that makes sense? And I'm getting that from you."

"… You're sucking things from me like osmosis?" the man asked in disbelief.

"I'm almost a complete blank slate, how else would I be able to function?" the spirit raised an eyebrow.

"That would mean last time you also, but how come you were-... wait, no that makes sense actually," the man groaned. "Younger me was a mess, of course you'd be a mess."

"You're not a mess, just… a little less mature," the spirit corrected. He supposed that the mind of an adult would help stabilize his mind faster than the mind of a hormonal teenager still confused about himself. He gains more memories of what might happen tomorrow. "Can I still punish Ushio? He doesn't seem very nice."

"No, maybe, I don't know," the man groaned, placing his hand over his face. "I like the Ushio in my time and I'd rather that not change, but I don't want you to hurt him, but not doing the penalty might change something. Doing anything different might change everything, maybe for the worse. I hate the butterfly effect, I hate time travel."

"Does it matter now? You already changed one thing," the spirit pointed out. "What's one more? I still want to do something to him if he threatens you again, like maybe a nightmare, he did pull a knife out."

"Stop suggesting to curse him, being trigger happy is not part of my personality."

"It's a part of mine, what's left of it anyways," the spirit said happily, and Yuugi twitched at that. The spirit sounded like him when he was annoying Kaiba, gods he was already being a bad influence by just being here. "And you're no better, really. You're more passive-aggressive, but you're still aggressive when pushed."

"Lies."

The spirit just raised an eyebrow. "I'm not the one who hit a man in the groin with a wrench once."

"Oh, god, I turned you to a sassy unflappable piece of shit, didn't I?" the man groaned again. "Because I know I grew into a sassy unflappable piece of shit, and you're osmosis-ing my shittiness. Granted, you were already a sassy little shit before—but now you'll be even worse because of me. Anzu had once bemoaned that her sweet angelic friend-"

The spirit snorted.

"Shush, you, where was I? Yeah, my own childhood friend had cried that my innocence and gentleness was gone," the man said. "There were tears and snot, and sparkles and dramatic music, it was very sad."

"I'm sure."

"Ugh, it's a good thing you're adorable," the man sneered, he managed to make it look gentle and nice. "You angry little smol, let me hug you."

That was a little random, but he supposed everyone needed a little controlled randomness once in a while. "Sure," he said, allowing the taller man to engulf him in a tight hug. It felt nice.

There was something different with Yuugi, but Anzu couldn't put her finger on what it was.

The day started like any other day. She and Yuugi met at the bus stop, and he had greeted him brightly just like any other day. He had talked excitedly about an upcoming game, and she had listened attentively.

Something was still different about him.

The way he walked, the way he talked, the way he looked at things—they were all different somehow. He looked… it was in the tip of her tongue.

More relaxed? No, that wasn't it.

Calmer? That wasn't wrong, but it still didn't fit.

Amused? A little, she didn't know why he was amused though.

"Hey, Yuugi!" one of their classmates called out, breaking her from her musings. "We're going to play some basketball, you wanna join?"

Yuugi looked up from the game he was playing, ducking his head to the right as the pirate's head from his Pop-Up Pirate set shot up.

"Nah, it's not really a sport I enjoy, have you seen my height?" Yuugi gestured at himself wryly, and their classmate snickered. "You all go and enjoy yourselves while I'll enjoy something that agrees to my stature."

"If you say so, maybe we can play one of those games you always bring!" their classmate laughed, walking out. "See you later!"

Yuugi waved and went back to playing, and that was when Anzu realized what was different.

Confidence, her friend had confidence when he barely had any before. The typical Yuugi would have said something self-depreciating, granted making jokes about his height was still self-depreciating, but it was less depressing like his usual comments. She imagined Yuugi would have said that any team he joined would lose, or maybe he would have said that he wasn't good at sports, or maybe both.

She walked to his seat and asked, "Did anything happen yesterday?"

Yuugi looked up again, eyes blinking.

"It's just that, you seem," less likely to insult yourself harshly, and then be droopy about it. "Different, happier."

"Oh! Yeah, I finally solved the Millennium Puzzle!" he exclaimed, shoving said item to her face. "It's the treasure I always bring to school, I was able to finish it last night!"

"That's great, Yuugi!" Anzu said, she knew he had been working hard on that puzzle. She blinked as some reflected light from the shiny golden pyramid hit her. "It's very pretty."

"It's cuter in the inside," Yuugi cooed, and before Anzu could muster her worry at that statement, Jounouchi decided to barge in and ruin her friend's happy moment.

"Anzu, that was a little harsh."

"He always bothers you," Anzu huffed, unrepentant of the whimpering heap on the floor. "This is the rare times I've seen you really happy and he almost ruins it."

"Still," Yuugi winced in second-hand pain as Jounouchi was rolling on the floor and covering his groin. "He's not that bad."

Anzu looked at him incredulously.

"Compared to the other students, anyways."

"That's…" Anzu had no words.

Yuugi's spirit did though, and he piped up, 'Really sad.'

The man-in-teen merely sent a feeling towards his other self that said his opinion wasn't appreciated. The spirit just laughs.

They still run into Ushio despite Jounouchi not being able to steal Yuugi's Puzzle, the older student still assumes Yuugi is being bullied and promised that he'd take care of it.

Yuugi's spirit asks if he can do a penalty to Ushio yet, Yuugi says no.

In the end, the spirit still plays a shadow game—because Ushio beat up Jounouchi and Honda, and that makes Yuugi enraged despite the fact that he knew this could happen. He gives the student a verbal beat down, lecturing him the same way his mother often did when he was in trouble. Ushio, Jounouchi, and Honda are all so baffled at the tiny student scolding a teen three times bigger than him that they don't do anything as Yuugi walks away.

The spirit asks again if he could play a shadow game with Ushio, and this time he agrees. He tells the spirit not to make the penalty too harsh.

The spirit makes it so that Ushio hugs a nearby tree, creating an illusion that makes the bully think it's gold. Yuugi supposed it was better than bathing in garbage.

He also became friends with Jounouchi again, which was great.

"So, we need a name for you," Yuugi stated to the (small, so very small) spirit. "I strangely do not remember yours, like it's been sealed," he scowled at this, he didn't like the irony of that statement. "And you deserve a better name than Other Me."

"I like being called your other self, though," the spirit said quietly, and Yuugi had to coo at that. Because that was sweet, and cute, very cute. How did he not realize what a softie his other self was?

"But that's my name for you," he explained, hugging his mini-me (and how the tables have turned, he was the taller one now). "You need one that everyone else can call you."

"Everyone…?"

"You'll have friends, and you need something better than being called the other Yuugi," he said determinedly. "Names are important, real or not," he hugged him again. "And you deserve one, until we figure out your true name."

There was silence.

"Could you… could you maybe," the spirit bit his lip, looking down at the stone floor. "Give me one?"

Yuugi wondered how his younger self thought the spirit was cool, calm, and collected. Selective memory? How was this cool? This was absolutely precious.

(maybe the spirit was more relaxed around him because he was the older one?)

He hummed. "How about Yami?" He had thought about maybe a brighter name like Hikaru or Haru, because he vaguely remembered that the spirit's real name had been related to light, or the sun, or something like that. But it didn't fit for him.

"Yami?" the spirit repeated, frowning as he got the meaning. That meant darkness in Yuugi's native tongue. "Why Yami?"

"Because you're dark, and there will be people who'll think darkness is bad," Yuugi said, remembering Dartz's obsession with the darkness of people, remembering his other self's fear of being evil that he had stopped using magic altogether, remembering the self-doubt his other self had. "And they'll accuse you of being bad, but you're not," he pressed. "You may be dark, but you're good—and you'll prove them wrong."

The spirit felt his face heat up and Yuugi had to hug him again, cooing at him.

AN: And it's done. This is like a break from Play, I guess? Eh, I felt like writing this. I might make more of it, this time with other characters time travelling. I dunno, I've read a lot of fics where character goes back in time and changes things, or trolls around, or both. And there have been only two fics in this fandom that I've found similar fics.

This Yuugi is the adult Yuugi you see in GX.

For the name thing, I'm kinda just guessing what Atem's name means? Based on googling Egyptian mythology and the like, Atem's name is probably based on Atum, a sun god or something. Which I find ironic since Yami Yuugi was all about shadows and darkness, yet his true name is probably related to light.