Illustration: Coming Full Circle [Collab] by linkyiwakura
Deviantart fanfiction: A TASTE OF APPLE / Chapter 4: Coming Full Circle

Chapter 4: Coming Full Circle

Téa groaned as she let her chin fall to rest on her folded arms on the desk. It was the usual mundane Sunday routine—open the studio at nine-thirty in the morning, a half hour before the dance studio opened and a gaggle of tweens rush in for their weekend dance practice. Her boss, the head dance instructor, was warming up in the back room. The studio was dead silent—the kind of silence that made it hard to not get lost in your own head.

Téa couldn't remember the last time she felt so disappointed in herself.

She could have kissed him.

She could have touched him, held him, somehow communicated to him how badly she wanted him.

There were many things she could have done, all of which only occurred to her after the fact.

Those beautiful violet eyes—piercing her own and penetrating her internal soul—held her captive in her own mind, daring her to act on her feelings and intimidating her against it at the same time. It was like how he would seem to get a rush just from seeing his opponent step up their game in a duel to meet his challenge.

Whatever happened to the confident, risk-taking girl she had matured over the past few years? She was back to a scared little crush-stricken teenager who let fear of rejection and failure keep her from following her heart.

Téa spent the last few post-Atem years steeling herself, focusing on her dreams and goals, and re-possessing her heart. And it was astonishing, mind-blowing even, just how quickly and easily he was able to walk back into her life and take it right back.

But, of course, it wasn't his fault. Atem would never intentionally be an obstacle or a distraction. He never took what he believed wasn't his. He was just trying to be a good friend, supportive and honest and respectful. He was just so unaware of how desirable he was, just by being himself. It drove her wild. Damn him.

Two nine-year-old girls in tiny matching leotards walked through the door, giddy for their class. Téa pulled her hair back into a messy ponytail, took a long swig of her cold brew, and did her best to look lively.

After six long hours of handling office duties, greeting students and parents with a smile, and general administrative oversight, Téa was more than ready to head out of there. She jumped on the C train back to Manhattan, where she was to meet up with Atem at the venue. The train ride was just under forty minutes, giving her plenty of time for her nerves to wind up as she was shuttled to the very source of them.

What if Atem did not feel the same for Téa as she did for him? Maybe it was best that she did not make an advance. It was likely that just as he was oblivious of his own magnetism, he would be oblivious to modern interpretation of flirting, or what was considered platonic or… otherwise. A miscommunication could have ruined this whole week, or at least make it supremely uncomfortable. And deep down, she knew him as a good friend and wanted to be there for him as he re-integrated himself to this new time and place. Atem's friendship was the most precious to her, and she'd be damned if she let her silly crush sabotage it.

But even still, he wasn't allowed to be that handsome and kind and strong, and not suspect that he would attract the attention of at least a reasonable number of decent women…

"Hey…"

A strange man's voice entered her ears, dumping her back into the stuffy train. She turned her head to the right, and a tall thin man with taut pale skin and a black beanie towered over her seat, grinning.

"Hope you don't mind me saying, but you are just beautiful."

Téa kept her face stony. This was by far not the first time she'd been given unsolicited attention in the big city, on the train or elsewhere. She gave a simple 'thanks' and turned back to the window.

"You gotta number?"

Téa rolled her eyes before turning to the man again. "No, sorry."

He sat down in the empty seat next to her, causing Téa to inch away from that side. "Come on, I just want to take you out, 'cause you're really cute."

Téa took a deep, agitated breath. "Seriously, thank you, but I'm not interested."

The train stopped. '34th St., Penn Station' buzzed through the train speakers. The Gods couldn't have been kinder. Téa jumped up from her seat. "Good day," she said to the man, who was standing next to her. He easily reached past six feet tall. She looked away quickly and stepped off the railcar. Her breath hitched with fear as she realized the man was hot on her trail.

"Hey, where are you going?"

Téa's pulse quickened as she climbed the stairs out of the underground station.

"You know I don't like taking no for an answer."

She kept walking, accelerating her steps, facing forward and hands in her pockets, heart pounding like mad. From the way his voice and footsteps sounded, the man was maintaining about five feet of distance from her, and gaining.

"Hey, slow down!"

Téa had had it. No more running away from her problems. No more being a scared little girl.

She stopped dead in her tracks and spun around to face her stalker. "Leave me alone, creep!"

The man had a look of surprise on his face, which quickly hardened to anger. He advanced towards her. Téa readied herself to run or fight, trembling hands balling into tight fists in her pockets, heart racing out of control.

"You ungrateful bi—"

"Hello, darling," a warm, deep masculine voice called sweetly from behind her. Téa could've cried, she was so happy to hear that voice… his voice… coming to her rescue. The next thing she felt was her savior's warm hand on her shoulder and a slow, tender kiss on her temple from a pair of soft lips.

Atem smiled down at her, and it was the warmest smile Téa had ever seen, and it looked positively endearing on him. His eyes, two amethyst jewels sparkling in the late afternoon sun, regarded her with utmost adoration. She felt like she could melt into a puddle, right there in the middle of Penn Station.

He was really playing the part.

"Who is your friend?" he motioned to the man, but it was obvious he knew.

Téa glanced nervously at the man who followed her, who was frozen in shock. He took a step back.

Atem finally turned his eyes on the man as well, fixing them predatorily on his face like a cheetah watching a gazelle before springing for the hunt. He was at least a head shorter than the man, but his intense baritone voice, though calm and composed, bellowed as if he were the monumental Egyptian God Obelisk standing intimidatingly in the face of his mortal enemy.

"Listen to me carefully, sir, and we won't have a problem today."

Atem took two paces forward and one to the right, shielding Téa from the man but allowing her a distinct view of the action over his shoulder. He was protecting her—just like he had done so many times before—like that day at the pier, for example, when Johnny Steps intruded on their "date" to demand a rematch… she would never forget that day. He defended her honor without a moment's hesitation.

"You are going to turn around and leave the way you came, and you will not bother her again. Understand?"

Though Atem kept his tone even and controlled, just the way his voice simmered with restrained fury was enough to send a shiver down Téa's spine. Still, she couldn't help the satisfaction of watching this tower of a man, who just a minute ago was arrogant and aggressively persistent, withdraw and shrivel like a beaten dog.

The man raised his hands defensively. "Hey man, my bad, I didn't know—"

"Understand?" Atem pressed.

The man quickly turned on his heels and wordlessly scampered off with his tail between his legs. Téa gasped a sigh of relief.

Atem turned his gaze on her immediately, looking every bit as concerned for her as any time he had snatched her out of danger in the past. "Are you alright?"

Téa looked aghast. "I-I'm fine, thank you… but what did you just do to that guy?"

Atem blinked in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"You just looked so sure of yourself. Did you… use your powers on him or something?"

He shook his head, to Téa's surprise. "I am a normal human being now, Téa. I have no more magical powers than you do. The only power I used was confidence."

A shadow passed over his eyes. "And besides," he added, his jaw set tightly, "I am not that person anymore."

Uh oh. Sensitive spot. Moving on.

Téa looked back at where the man stood before. Her stressed heart was still gradually slowing down its beat. "Thank you for that, seriously."

Atem smiled, previous tension in his face gone. "You're very welcome. It's a shame that that man could not respect your wishes until he thought you belonged to someone else."

Téa sighed. "There are a bunch of guys like that out there."

He frowned. "That's unfortunate. I'm sorry you have to deal with that. Just know that as long as I'm here, you're safe."

Desperate to lighten the mood, Téa giggled a bit. "I guess out of most men, you would relate to that the most, right? I mean, haven't you spent most of your life having complete strangers accost you and demand something from you?"

Atem gazed into the distance, his face impassive. "I suppose," he said softly. "However, it doesn't change how… unpleasant it is for either of us, does it?"

Téa shook her head. She cleared her throat, sensing it was high time to move on from the subject. "Shall we?"

He nodded affirmatively, and they began their trek through the city.

He suddenly came to a dead halt at the entrance of the third floor gallery, causing Téa to nearly collide with him.

"Atem?"

The former pharaoh's stare was fixed on an object in the room, a display; he was entirely unresponsive to the visitors making their way in and out of his vision. His face showed an expressive mixture of wonder and faint disgust, and his body was visibly tense. His eyes were wide, uncomprehending, in the face of his newest opponent.

Téa tried again. "Is something wrong?"

Atem finally spoke, his tone even but uncertain. "The last time I visited a museum for the first time, I found answers to my mysterious past as a king of Egypt five thousand years ago. The last time I went to that same museum, I found a portal that took my spirit to that very same era of my past, forcing me to relive those events and nearly losing my life."

He drew in an audible breath; Téa could hear how uneasy he was. "In short, my general experience with museums is associated with finding things both terrifying and strange, sometimes leading to dangerous situations. And now that I'm here, at a new museum, I find… this."

Now very confused and quite curious, Téa joined his side and traced his line of sight until her eyes settled on the object he was staring at. Once she found it, she nearly collapsed in laughter, causing a nearby older couple to turn their heads as she howled. Centered on the light wood floor, displayed on a short white pedestal, was an average sized arm chair. And it was composed entirely of approximately four or five hundred grey and white stone phalluses.

It stared back at him arrogantly, as if issuing a challenge.

"Is… is this supposed to be funny?" Atem asked, trying with excruciating effort to be serious, but his mid-sentence chuckle gave him away.

Téa calmed down at last, wiping a loose tear from her cheek. "Your reaction to it is so much funnier than the chair will ever be on its own."

Atem shook his head, apparently unable to rescind the amused smile sitting stubbornly on his face. He stared at it again with rapt fascination. Téa watched his eyes narrow in revulsion, giggling behind her hand.

"What possessed someone to make this?" Atem asked to no one in particular.

"It's what Yayoi Kusama envisioned as 'art', I guess," she answered, reading the blurb at the foot of the pedestal. "Guess someone liked it, because it's on display at one of the most famous museums in the country!"

"Huh."

"Why don't you have a seat on it?" she suggested, quite enjoying the shocked reaction she received.

"I don't think so," Atem firmly refused. He was smiling, though he took a step back from the chair to further indicate his unwillingness.

"Oh come on," she contested, putting on her best pout, "No one's looking, it would be funny! Please?"

After a moment of contemplating, Atem rolled his eyes, vaguely indicating his agreement to indulge her. He assessed the floor, making sure no one was watching. He stepped up on the pedestal and gently lowered himself on the front edge chair, pinning his arms to his sides and looking plainly, hilariously uncomfortable.

He kept his head down. "I can't believe I flew all this way to be sitting in a chair made of… of…"

"Penises?" Téa finished for him, laughing. She reached into her pocket.

"Yes," he whispered lowly, still facing his lap. "I'm glad you are finding this so amusing."

Téa giggled some more. "So tell me, oh exalted King Atem of Egypt, how do you like your new throne?"

The moment he lifted his head to retort, a camera shutter clicked.

"Téa!"

The dancer had her phone positioned directly in front of Atem, who now sported a dark blush over the bridge of his nose. The camera on her phone had captured the priceless fraction of a second of Atem looking straight into the tiny lens just before he was aware of it, while his body curled into itself, as if trying to avoid being touched by as many of the protruding phalluses as possible.

Atem immediately leapt from the chair, nervously checking the room again to make sure no one else but Téa had witnessed their folly. "Please don't tell me you just—"

Téa grinned mischievously. "Don't worry, I'm not going to upload it or anything like that." Despite her reassurances, Téa's thumbs were still busily typing away on her phone's tiny keyboard.

"Téa, what on the Gods' green earth are you doing?" Atem asked, horrified.

An artificial whoosh sound buzzed on the phone speakers. Téa tucked her phone in the back pocket of her jeans, keeping her face as innocent and nonchalant as possible. "Nothing."

Atem eyed her skeptically, raising an eyebrow, though the betraying smile was creeping back to his lips again as he spoke. "That is a very compromising photograph, Téa. Please don't share it with anyone."

Téa's smirked, wordlessly re-entering the adjacent gallery without so much as a playful wink.

The sun soon descended below the skyscrapers, casting arms of orange rays reaching across the city. The streets were congested with rush hour traffic, accompanied by a chorus of car horns and its drivers shouting at each other from their windows—just another evening in New York City. The dancer and the duelist stopped at the front entrance to the lobby of the New Yorker Hotel, weary from the day's walking.

"Are you sure you would not like to come in?" Atem offered for the second time. Téa couldn't tell if he was being polite or insistent, but that did not stop her from desperately wanting to accept his invitation either way. Nevertheless, she went against her deepest wishes and declined again.

"I really would love to, but I've got a paper to finish tonight," Téa groaned. It was partially true. She only had to finish the conclusion of it, which she would be able to complete by bedtime, but she knew that going up to Atem's room, just he and her, could possibly result in the romantic night of her dreams—something she had fantasized about for so many years—a dangerous distraction of which would prevent her from finishing the paper and taking a severe penalty on her grade. Being responsible never felt so tormenting.

Atem nodded. "I understand, school comes first."

Her face fell. "Yeah. So… when am I going to see you again?"

"Well, my schedule will be changing starting tomorrow. I'm going to be at the venue for longer hours than before." He looked regretfully at her, his disappointment evident in his eyes. "It might be hard to see you before I leave, but I promise I will make time for you."

"But when?" Téa asked, trying to not sound too pressing or desperate. In truth, she truly appreciated how considerate he was. Did he even know how to be any other way?

"Would you like to come to Madison Square Garden on Friday? It will be the last day of the tournament, and I will be announcing the winner and dueling them. It should be exciting."

Téa perked up. "Wow, yes, that would be wonderful!" Then, as an afterthought, "It would be just like old times, wouldn't it?"

Atem nodded, smiling in recollection. "Yes. Although, thankfully, the stakes are not quite as high this time."

She giggled. "Yes, you're right. I'd love to come."

"I will make sure you're on the guest list. And thank you, again, for spending the day with me." The former pharaoh brought a gentle hand to her shoulder and pulled himself in close, letting his cheek rest against hers for a single heavenly moment. Téa's breath caught; he was so close to her she could smell his natural scent—indescribable in its unique musky formula, but intoxicating all the same, something she wanted to bottle up and take a whiff of on a bad day. The smell of it alone, something she once thought she'd never experience again, reminded her of the miracle of his reappearance and made her heart sing.

That enthralling connection she shared with him in Central Park… it was happening again. His warm breath grazed her ear before he pivoted his face inwards and bestowed a gentle kiss near the corner of her mouth. He let it linger, but not nearly as long as she wanted. It was delicate and fleeting like a butterfly, plucked from the fluttering chaos in her stomach.

"Goodnight, Téa." Atem's low melodic whisper resonated in her ear as if he were in a concert hall, even while standing outside. His hand departed from her shoulder, taking its warmth with it, and he went inside.

Téa didn't move or speak for a considerable amount of time, watching him saunter to the elevators with his hands in his pockets. Her heart ached for the longing for so much more of his touch, with the words stuck in her throat that never reached his ears.

"I can't help but still love you."

Exhaling her frustration, Téa began the journey back home, touching the spot on her sweltering cheek where he had kissed her. Her defender in the face of danger, the comic for her entertainment, a humble hero on a global scale, her friend and her secret beloved… how could they all possibly be in one man? She wondered if she would allow herself to let her precious limited time with him run out because she—like her younger self silently watching him leave on the day of his departure—was afraid to take a risk for the sake of her heart.

A chirp resounded from Atem's pocket as he entered his room. Puzzled, he pulled out his phone. A desire in the back of his mind encouraged a vision of a text message from Téa, deciding to come in after all. He reached for the card key to his room as he opened the text.

He read the screen. A long, exasperated sigh hissed through his nose. He tossed the key back on the nightstand.

[Text from YUGI MUTOU]:
Nice chair.

TO BE CONTINUED

Frustrated with these two yet? Because I am!

Let's play "What's real in this chapter?":

- C Train.
- 34th St. Penn Station.
- Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).
- Yes, even the penis chair is real. Look it up.
- The artist of aforementioned art piece, Yayoi Kusama.
- New Yorker Hotel.

Stay tuned for Chapter 5!