A/N: You people out there are really evil and unfair, do you realize that? Putting this on your alert list and not even leaving me a single line of feedback! :( A few words aren't THAT hard to type, come on please please please? I need some support here, guys!

~ Mariahime-who-is-very-sad

Chapter 2

A few days ago, the summer holidays had started, and nothing indicated that the sunny, warm afternoon was to become one of the worst days in several people's lives.

Having no homework to do, duelist and high school student Yugi Mutou had exhausted his pool of distractions, and the peace and quiet was giving him room to think as he lay on his bed, staring at the ceiling.

Too much room to think. As the day wore on and the sky turned orange, the only thing left on his mind was Atem. He tried reading, doing a complicated new puzzle, looking at new cards and figuring out new strategies...

Suddenly, the room seemed too small, his clothes too tight, the summer heat too unbearable, and his chest ached and constricted. His eyes fell on the digital clock on his bedside table and he realized it was exactly two years ago that he had been left alone – figuratively speaking, of course. Yugi knew he wasn't alone in the literal sense, he still had grandpa, Joey, Tristan, Téa, Ryou...

He closed his eyes and fought down a sob. It was like the picture of those eyes was printed into his mind forever. Why should he keep living like this? Hurting like this? Why should he study and go to what Kaiba called his 'Duties as the King of Games' – stupid gala dinners and duels with so-called champions that never beat him anyway – and eat and sleep and go on and on and on, perfect to cameras and teachers, but wretched and hurting on the inside?

His grandpa was downstairs in the game shop, his friends off somewhere … nobody would notice, and nobody would find out. And he could distract himself from this. No room to think was left in his mind. He took off the leather handcuff he still wore often as his feet carried him to the bathroom almost automatically, where he pulled that wonderful piece of gleaming silver metal off the underside of his favorite shampoo. For several seconds, he just stared at the blade, watching it reflect the pale light of the moisture-proof lamp.

'Do you really want to do this again? He wouldn't like you doing this...'

These two sentences were old news to Yugi.

They always entered his mind when he was about to do this, and were, as usual, followed by 'Who fucking cares. He's not here to say 'Aibou, this is not a way to deal with problems. Lets just send whoever hurt you to the shadow realm.''

There was no pharaoh, and nobody to send to the shadow realm.

'Here we go again. You are so pathetically weak.'

The silver gleaming of the blade was almost hypnotizing, enchanting, promising him relief from the ache in his heart.

'I'm weak? So what? I do not. Fucking. Care.'

Abruptly, he felt a burning hot anger surge through him. In no time, his wrist was free of handcuff and gauze, and then there was only pain.

It was Téa who found him, having wanted to say hello on her way home from her dancing lesson. Solomon just sent her upstairs, trying to ignore the nagging feeling he had in his chest. He was still trying to convince himself that everything was fine, when he heard Téa's scream.

Within seconds, the ambulance was called and the bleeding in Yugi's wrist stilled. Solomon and Téa called Joey and Tristan, and someone informed Kaiba, too, for some reason. Yugi had gone too far this time, and it looked like he'd almost died of blood loss.

It was almost midnight when they got permission to see him. Yugi was fast asleep, looking tiny and vulnerable and pale in his seemingly huge hospital bed. The doctor, a severe blonde woman in her mid-thirties, stood beside his bed when Solomon, Joey, Téa, Tristan and – god only knew why – Kaiba walked in. The second she saw them, she began her explanations, foregoing greetings as she saw the anxious expressions before her.

"We had to give him blood transfusions, and he's still very weak. That's why I decided to give him sleeping medication for the time being. He's also much too thin, so he's being fed through that tube you can see on his arm. You have ten minutes, and then I would like you to go home and let him rest. We will know more tomorrow morning, but I'm pretty sure he'll be fine again soon."

She seemed to want to say something else, but then her beeper sounded and she excused herself and left after glancing at the small black device.

Nobody spoke for a long time, and the group exited the hospital reluctantly about fifteen minutes later. Yugi's friends went home with Solomon, since none of them wanted to leave him alone, no matter for how long.

They reassembled in the living room and, after making coffee for everyone, Téa finally broke the heavy silence. "I can't believe we let it come to this."

"Me neither" Tristan agreed. "We have to do something, I don't care if he doesn't want us to, he can't go on like this."

Joey sighed. "Does anyone have an idea? Because my mind is blank. I mean, haven't we been through everything that could be done in a situation like this?"

"A situation like this?", Kaiba hissed "What are you talking about? There is no situation like this. But I agree that we have to do something drastic, and soon. He's the King of Games, and I can't take him to that championship in a month if he's a wreck like this. You've supposedly been his best friends for years, don't you have any ideas what could be done?"

"You're such a heartless bastard! You're only here because you need him to advertise your games!", Joey shot back furiously. He bantered with the company director for a few moments, but Solomon quickly got tired of it. He was out of his mind with worry, and these kids were not helping. His grandson was in the hospital because he was too useless to find a way to help him. The owner of the Kame Game shop felt terribly guilty and angry with himself.

"Will you be quiet! I really don't feel like listening to your childish dispute now! Yugi is in the hospital and I did nothing to prevent it. It's all my fault, I was supposed to take care of him...", he half-yelled, almost choking up. He hated the feeling of being useless, like he was too old to be of any help to anybody.

"That's not true!", Joey immediately disagreed "You tried your best, but it just didn't work, and that's not your fault. He's our best friend, and we will work something out. I don't know why, but...I have a feeling that he'll be really happy again very soon. I might not know how yet, but trust me, he will be fine."

This short speech gave everyone some hope and, after talking for a while, resolved to meet again in the hospital the following morning. That night, even Seto Kaiba went to bed with a heavy heart, but a determination to make Yugi laugh again. Sure, they had not formed an exact plan yet, but they were sure it was close.

~Meanwhile in the Realm of the Egyptian Gods~

Isis smiled at the picture that floated in the air in front of her. Her plan was working perfectly. It hurt her heart a bit that she hadn't been able to save Yugi the hospital stay, but she knew – just like his friend – that he'd be happy again soon. One last thing had to be done.

She entered a certain blonde doctor's Mind Room and planted a tiny little thought in there. And that was it. Then she went looking for Osiris. As expected, she found him with Anubis and Thoth in one of the nicer sitting rooms their palace had. The three gods were currently arguing about something. It seemed that Thoth didn't want to send back Atem and he was angry that nobody really cared about his opinion anyway.

The goddess of motherhood resolved to step in. This was no time to argue, it was a time to act. Yugi could kill himself anytime, and these gods didn't have the right kind of authority to bring back someone who was no pharaoh. Sure, they were allowed to meddle a bit, but bring him back from a death he had chosen himself? No way.

"Hello everyone.", she nodded her greetings to Anubis and presented Thoth with a wide, flirtatious smile.

"Hi there", he said, smiling back.

Osiris barely held back a snort. He knew exactly what she was doing, that manipulative woman.

"Thoth, it's so nice to see you around! You should really come see us more often. I always miss you so fast!" The god of wisdom practically preened when he heard her words, not noticing that she was using his feelings to get him to do what she wanted. "Well, I am quite busy all the time. You know, being the god of wisdom and all. But I promise to look in more often, if it makes you so happy."

At that, Anubis exchanged a look with Osiris as if to say 'Seriously? He still hasn't gotten it?'

Osiris just grinned at his companion, glad not to have to fight Thoth again.

"That's great! So.", Isis began, getting to serious business now. "I hope you have decided you want to help, Thoth. I don't think Osiris and Anubis could do this without you, and it is so very important to me. I would be sad forever if Atem couldn't go back to his little Yugi. They make such a wonderful couple, don't you think? A Yami and his Hikari, together! How I love the idea. Also, they're soulmates, did you know?"

The three males gaped at her openly for a split second, before Anubis got it together again and asked, "We allowed a pharaoh to stay apart like that from his soulmate? This long? No fucking way!"

Isis gave the men a solemn look. "We did. It looks like a few millennia of having next to nothing to do made us lazy and unobservant."

And the rest is history, as they say. Thoth agreed to help, claiming that he wished to have done this much, much earlier and getting to work swiftly and with no complains at all.

~Domino City, late morning after the day Yugi Mutou was hospitalized due to severe blood loss~

"Good morning Mr. Mutou. I'm happy to tell you that your grandson is doing much better. He'll be up again in no time! I'm sorry to have told you so little last night, I was very stressed because I'd had a long shift behind me. Yugi lost much less blood than it first looked like. He only fainted because he hasn't been eating well and his body was weak. He'll have to eat and drink lots of healthy food, but I'm confident that we can release him by the end of this or next week if he follows my orders.", the blonde doctor said the next morning, sounding almost giddy with relief. She'd obviously taken a liking to him.

At the end of her speech, Téa, Joey and Tristan started talking all at the same time.

"That's such a relief!", "It's okay, we understand that you were under lots of stress.", "Can we see him now?"

The doctor's face fell a little. "Not yet, there is still something I would like to discuss with you all for a bit."

In their expressions, she could see that they expected her next words already, since she had always prided herself on being very good at reading people. "See, I want to help you prevent something like this from happening again. I won't ask what brought this sweet boy so far as to hurt himself, because I feel that it isn't my place to do so. However, have you thought about letting him see a mind healer for a while?"

It was Téa who replied in a surprisingly calm voice. "Yes. We all tried to talk to him about it a lot, but no matter what any of us say, the topic just makes him angry. It really is no use at all even though we still try at intervals.", she decided not to mention the anti-depressants, seeing as the doctor had probably read about that in his medical record anyway.

"Well", the woman continued, seeming to have anticipated Téa's answer "how about going away for a while? The holidays have started, you can take him somewhere for a while. Let him choose. Just get away from Domino City for some time. Relax in an Onsen or something like that. It will help him clear his mind and think about nicer things. What do you think, is it worth a try?"

As she spoke, an overwhelming sense of rightness flooded through Yugi's friends. This was it, the perfect solution. The doctor left to let them think after mentioning that they could go in to Yugi now. The moment she was out of earshot, Joey said "I think it's clear where we're going to take him, right? It's so obvious, I can't believe I didn't think of it!"

"I don't know about you guys, but I don't really have the money to fly to Egypt just like that.", Téa muttered. At that, Seto almost cracked a smile. "Don't worry about that. We're taking my jet. As soon as he's allowed to leave the hospital, we're all leaving together."

"What if he doesn't want to?", Solomon asked worriedly. "Or it doesn't help?", Tristan added.

Joey had the answers to their questions immediately. "Well, we'll have to persuade him, won't we? And it can hardly be worse than doing nothing."

Shortly after that, they were all in Yugi's hospital room for the second time in as many days.

"So what do you think, Yugi? Would you like to go somewhere for a while?", Téa asked when she felt it was the right moment.

"Go somewhere? Like a vacation?", he asked. She nodded, trying not to notice the paleness of his skin.

"We can go anywhere you want. I'm providing the jet. Heaven only knows I need some peace and quiet at a beach for a while.", Kaiba chimed in.

Yugi seemed to think about it for a minute. Then his face seemed to light up "Can we go to Egypt?", he asked in that excited voice they'd all missed so much. Tristan and Joey exchanged a meaningful look. Téa smiled at him. "Sure we can. The day your doctor gives her okay, we're leaving. How does that sound to you?"

"Awesome! I'll have to make sure I get better real fast!"

Solomon gave him a tired smile, "You know that means to do as the doctor says, right?"

"Yeah, of course.", Yugi replied instantly, nodding enthusiastically.

Ten days later, Yugi looked much better. He was still pale, but the new scars on his wrist were healing and he had gained some weight. Nurses fawned over him all the time – not that he really noticed, but his friends did and they found it hilarious. Finally, the doctor told him he could leave the hospital, under strict orders to eat healthily and not overexert himself.

As soon as he got home, he started packing a few things to take with him. He had no idea what made him so giddy and excited about going to Egypt, but he assumed that it couldn't do any harm.

EGYPT, of all the places to return to...

If the trip really didn't do him any good, Seto had told him, they could still visit the pyramids or something like that and then go straight back home. "I don't like that you're all so worried about me. You can stop it, I'm fine.", Yugi had answered.

In return, Seto had only said, "You brought it on yourself. People will worry about you and if you don't like it, then maybe you should have thought about what consequences your actions have before."

"Right. I'm sorry, for all that it's worth.", the smaller one had said quietly, not really knowing where to look and uncomfortably settling on his hands.

The brunette had only sighed. "It's okay. Just get better." He'd left just a short time later.

Now he was back in his room at home and couldn't decide whether to be happy or sad that his grandpa had too much to do in the game shop to go with them. As he threw another shirt into his suitcase, he realized he was alone with his thoughts for pretty much the first time since going to hospital. There had always been someone around in the past days, and the realization hit him that his friends were scared to leave him alone. They seemed absolutely convinced that he'd do something to himself if left alone for longer than half an hour.

What have I done? Another thing he didn't know. He knew nothing, it seemed.

No, I don't know nothing. I know that I need to get better and move on. That's the right thing to do...right?

"May I have your attention. Please put on your seat belts. We will be landing in Cairo, Egypt in about half an hour. The local time is ten thirty in the morning and the weather is warm and sunny. Thank you for flying with us, and have a nice stay!", a woman's voice said over the intercom. Kaiba rolled his eyes, muttering "I told her not to do that. We know where we're going to land."

The over nine-thousand kilometer distance from Domino City to the capital of Egypt had been boring and the silence kind of tense. Yugi could hardly wait to get out of the plane. His legs were stiff and he really wanted to get moving.

After taking a trip to the bathroom to wash his face, he sat down and put on his seat belt. Twenty minutes (that felt like a lifetime) later, he felt the strange tug in his stomach that meant they had landed. The feeling was weird and uncomfortable, but he ignored it as best as he could, took off his seat belt and practically leaped out of his seat as soon as he was allowed to.

There was something he had to do, and he would know what it was when he was out of this godforsaken plane, he was absolutely sure. If not, he was going to get out of this plane, spend some time in Egypt, realize it did little good, go back to Japan, get over it, forget Atem, live his life. Yugi would finish high school and go to university and get a job, help his grandpa in the shop and move on and learn to be happy again. He was determined not to make his friends worry again.

In the airport, a familiar, Egyptian woman was waiting for the group.

"Ishizu!", Yugi yelled as soon as he recognized her. "I was going to contact you anyway and now I don't need to! That's great! What are you doing here?"

"You were?", Joey asked, confused. None of them had spoken to Ishizu a very long time, and Yugi had certainly not mentioned her. At the moment, though, he was nodding enthusiastically. "I was. I just didn't know yet, but now I do."

"You do?", Téa inquired with a worried look on her face. Yugi sighed in exasperation. "Stop looking at me like that. I'm not crazy."

"Sure you aren't.", said Tristan drily.

Ishizu decided to speak up before the teenagers started to fight. "Why were you planning to contact me? Is there anything you need? I came here today because I felt that I really should, and it looks like my feeling was right. Why didn't you call me? What's going on and why are you even here?"

"I'm here because I need to go to the door." At her confused expression, he elaborated "The place where the ceremonial duel was...remember? I have to go there quickly."

"The place you dueled the Pharaoh? What business do you have there?", she asked, dumbfounded.

"I don't know. Just...please...can you take me there? Or tell me how to get there? I'll know the answers to your questions then, I'm positive.", at his pleading look, she relented. She was a sucker for this boy's pout.

"Yugi, I can't imagine what could be urging you to go there, or why, but I'll take you. I think this is why I felt the pull to come here today – because you needed my help. Will your friends accompany you?"

"Will...what?", only now did Yugi seem to remember that Joey, Téa, Tristan and Seto were looking at him like he'd gone absolutely mental. "Right. Guys...do you mind if I go with Ishizu alone?"

"Are you sure? Yugi, I don't think it's a good idea for you to go there. Won't it, like, stir up memories you'd rather forget?", Téa asked, concerned.

He shook his head, "No, I mean, yes...I...I'm sure I want to go. I need to. Just trust me please."

"If he's so sure then he can go. Let's wait for him in the hotel, I'm dead tired anyway. Couldn't sleep on that plane.", Joey said, earning a grateful smile from Yugi.

"Well, I guess you're right. We'll see you later then, Yugi?", Tristan asked uncertainly. Yugi just nodded again with a distracted expression on his face.

Ishizu promised to bring Yugi back safely and, after Seto gave her the name of the hotel and Yugi the key to his hotel room, they left. The duelist was very edgy and could hardly sit still for the whole car ride, but Ishizu managed to keep her calm demeanor through her confusion. She still couldn't imagine what on earth Yugi could have to do there.

They'd almost reached their destination when she finally spoke. "Yugi, what do you expect to see when we get there? You know he's long gone, right?"

He flinched at her words, but then shrugged weakly. "I really don't know, Ishizu. I can't believe I'm even here. I … I feel like I need to go there just this once and...I haven't really thought about what comes afterwards. But I've done nothing long enough, and even if it doesn't make me feel better at all, at least it means I tried. You know what I mean?"

She nodded, and halted the car at a traffic light that seemed out of place in this calm area.

He managed not to flinch this time as she looked at him and asked, "You love him, is that right?" Making it sound as if Atem was just on a quick business trip and would be back in a few days...

He didn't answer, but his expression seemed to be enough for her, as she nodded again and turned her eyes back to the road, sighing. "I wondered, after you dueled, you know? But knowing it wouldn't change anything, so I pushed the thought away. And it was true all the time. It's why you look so horrible, isn't it? Like you haven't slept or eaten in weeks." Yugi cast his eyes downwards, somehow feeling ashamed of his own weakness. The tomb-keeper didn't seem to notice as she went on. "Do you not wonder what he'd say if he knew how you have been handling his absence? You knew him better than I, so please tell me, what would he say if he saw you now?"

"Ishizu...", he started to say, but she cut him off.

"Forget it. We're here."

I'm sorry this was kind of a filler and sad and depressed but it'll get better soon I promise!