AN: Did this during midnight, will probably edited tomorrow. Anyways, a little reveal on Atem's way of spellcasting and speech in Play I guess.

I'm done with my academics at least, but no free time for me sadly. I got a job (yay?) and I'm still adjusting to its schedule. But hopefully it'll be a great job.

"You write music weirdly," Mana commented, peeking over her friend's shoulder. She observed how he drew strange shapes consisting of black ovals and lines, sometimes he would add the letters of the alien language he had taught her long ago. She couldn't understand them, much to her annoyance. "It looks boring."

It was nothing like the colorful dynamic circles she was familiar with. Most music sheets were like pretty artwork, filled with brightly painted dots of different sizes. The intensity of color and the shape of the circle signifying a certain sound.

This was like all the pigments were sucked out of it and were replaced by thorns.

Atem huffed, placing down his reed brush and flicking Mana's forehead with his finger. "If you're bored looking at it then stop reading over my shoulder," he said. "Actually, stop reading over my shoulder in general, it's an invasion of privacy."

Mana rubbed her forehead and looked at the (boring) music sheet her prince was writing. It was all in one color, filled with black dots with antennae swimming along five long lines. The only pretty thing was the loopy flower symbol at the start of each five lines. "You know how to write music normally, why do you do it like this?"

"It's less time-consuming, considering I only need one color," Atem explained with the air of having said this several times, he got his reed brush and continued writing. "And I can add more things to it, since there aren't any gigantic circles in the way."

"But it looks so dull!" Mana despaired, because music was supposed to be colorful and vibrant. "I bet nobody can read it, they'd fall asleep trying."

"Mahad knows how," Atem pointed out, quirking an eyebrow. "I tried teaching you, but you didn't like it."

"Because it's boring!"

Atem shrugged. "I'm used to it," he admitted. The ancient (or present, technically) way of writing music notations was something odd for him, but he learned. He understood Mana's preference to it, even Mahad liked reading music sheets the local way. The circles and colors could convey more accurate tones and emotions than a series of black and white notes in a scale. But it was a tedious thing to make, and Atem just wasn't used to measuring pitches the Ancient Egyptian way. He preferred A-B-C or Do-Re-Mi better.

"I find it frustrating to no end that you have such a pretty voice," Mana complained, not noticing the way her friend blushed at that. "And can make pretty songs but you write them in such a butt-fucking-ugly way," she growled the last words in English.

"Hey, that's a little harsh," Atem protested, he then tilted his head. "My voice is pretty?"

Mana gave him a look of pure judgment over his intelligence.

"It's not like people compliment me on that," he defended, which was true. Most people sang odes about his leadership and looks, it was borderline creepy at times – considering he'd only been king for half a year, and also he was thirteen. Adults complimenting his lovely lips and beautiful thighs in poetry was just gross. "Nobody says anything about my singing."

"That's because you're a fucking pussy when singing with an audience," Mana deadpanned, Atem sputtered.

"Where did you learn that?" he demanded, standing up and placing his hands on his hips. "Because I don't remember teaching that to you."

"Master has a broad vocabulary."

Oh, right, he did tend to be looser with his language around the older man. And contrary to popular belief, Mahad could be explosive in words when he was pushed too far. "Don't ever say that, or I'll feed you that bitter herbal soup Meryet used to give you when you said bad words," he scolded.

"There are only two people who know what that means," Mana complained.

"Yes, well, a little girl saying pussy or any vulgarity is unnerving," he said firmly. "You can swear with your heart's content once you're an adult."

Mana brightened up with that.

Atem felt like he changed canon in an insignificant, yet amusing, way.

"So," he started, wanting to change the subject before the girl could find a way to allow her to swear anytime she wanted. "My voice is pretty?"

"Who's voice is pretty?" a voice asked, and the two turned to find a familiar magician walking in the room. "Do you mean you, my lord?"

"Do you two know the meaning of personal space? Politeness? Indicating you're going to barge in as you please? Anything?" Atem complained, this was his study, they couldn't just waltz in! Actually, come to think of it, he was the goddamn pharaoh, they couldn't just waltz in either way! "And wasn't that door locked? Mana, did you magically unlock it? What the hell, why?"

"Yes, the prince's voice is pretty," Mana replied, ignoring her friend's whines.

"That makes sense," Mahad nodded seriously, and Atem twitched, they were ignoring his legitimate complaints. "If he wasn't bashful with performing, then I'm sure people would appreciate his singing."

That was more polite than saying he was a pussy in performing.

Also, what? His singing couldn't be that good, he only got enough music lessons to not warble off key and figure out how to slowly sing a song. In both lives.

"You make it sound like I'm phenomenal in it," he huffed, looking away. "While I know I'm decent, I'm sure the palace musicians and singers are better at it."

They were professionals after all.

There was a long silence, and Atem twitched as both his childhood friends said nothing. He slowly looked back and blushed at the two magicians looking at him in pure disbelief. "What?! You can't be serious!" he sputtered. "I am not better than professional singers, they practice more than me, why-"

"No they don't," Mana said quietly, realizing something. The prince was truly clueless about his skill. "You like singing for as long as I can remember," she continued. "You always sing in that language."

"I don't-… oh," Atem felt his whole body heat up. He did sing songs from his past life, he had done it as a kid so he wouldn't forget. Then it just became a habit. But he'd always been conscious at being seen singing a strange song in a strange language, so he always did it when he was alone. "Oh, right… I guess I do."

Or when he was with his father and his two friends.

"I'm pretty sure I was horrible in it," he said, remembering himself butchering Disney songs a lot. High pitched voice, subpar singing, and songs that demanded high and long notes? Not the best combination.

"You were, Mana was too young to remember, but I wasn't," Mahad snorted. "You got better, incredibly so," he raised an eyebrow at his prince's disbelief. "You never noticed, didn't you?"

"Not… not really," he said. This was a surprise for him, he had never been known for music in his past life. When she was still alive, she had no talent or interest with it beyond humming songs when it suited her fancy.

"You sang so many things every day, I would be more surprised if nothing changed," Mahad tilted his head. "It got to the point that even the way you spoke sounded rather… musical."

"You mean there was a time he talked normally?" Mana asked, having her own look of disbelief.

"What do you mean by that?" Atem demanded, feeling insulted. "I do talk normally!"

Mahad coughed.

"Not really, you kinda sing your words," Mana agreed with her teacher's non-word assessment.

"I what?"

"You're very sing-songy," she explained. "It should be weird, but it oddly suits you – your voice is pretty."

"… I sang myself to the point of changing my speech?" he asked.

"And voice," Mahad added.

"You mean he had a normal voice before?!"

"What the hell, my voice is plenty normal!" he sputtered. "I don't think singing can mutate my voice!"

"You voice is abnormally pretty! I told you that!"

"I couldn't have sang that much!"

"To be fair, you sang a lot," Mahad said, shrugging.

"Like a hundred times a day," Mana added.

"That is impossible, my throat would have died," he snorted, and he didn't know that much songs to sing a hundred of them in one day. "And singing wouldn't drastically change my voice, which is normal by the way."

… did he know more than a hundred songs?

(he did once live in a time where Spotify existed)

"It felt like a hundred times a day," Mahad admitted.

"You sang a lot," Mana emphasized. "You once made a song about wanting to see a giant woman tearfully beautiful."

"And I do believe you once nullified a siren's hypnotic song with your humming," Mahad recalled. "It was that trip to Greece."

What? He had thought his soldiers were sea sick, not under a lure.

"My voice went from sing-song to having mystic properties," he groaned. "What is it? Make up your mind."

"Both," Mahad and Mana declared.

"What."

"Definitely both," Mana said.

"Both sounds right," Mahad agreed.

He was so done with this, he'll just accept it for now. It seemed easier.

"Ugh, Ra, what am I? The music version of Saitama?" Atem rolled his eyes. "At least I didn't go bald or something."

His friends looked hilariously horrified at that thought.

AN: And done! I've imagined OC!Atem to have a more musical voice than canon, way before this chapter was written. It's more to do with preferences than any skills they have. Canon Atem is someone who I imagine was more into playing games to relax, or doing sports that time (horseback, hunting, archery, etc...). While OC!Atem prefers connecting with his past life when he de-stresses, such as binge reading or writing or even singing. Not that he doesn't like games, it's just not his first go-to when he wants to relax - it reminds him too much of canon.

Anyways, notes!

Songs mentioned: Giant Woman from Steven Universe, Disney songs in general.

Saitama - from One Punch Man, a man who became incredibly strong, fast, and invulnerable by doing a 100-everything workout everyday. 100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups, etc... to the point that he became bald.

Musical sheets - I googled and Ancient Egyptian musical sheets look like colorful line of circles, I think? And the one Atem was writing is the one we're familiar with, with the ABCDEFG and the flats and sharps and whatnot.

If anyone reads Play, they'd notice that I tend to make OC!Yami's voice his most noticeable feature (besides the eyes and mannerisms). This is why.