I'm back after another stupidly long time of not writing, for which I am very sorry about. As usual, I will not keep you all from reading this with long spiels about why I haven't been writing as I'm sure you would much rather be reading my story, so here it is!
The next day dawned bright, early – and far too busy for Yugi's tastes. He was awoken by the shouts of Seto's servants and security guards as they rushed around the mansion, putting the last preparations to his father's arrival. In fact it took Yugi several seconds to realize this, having had to think through a hazy fug of sleep to attempt to remember why his room had suddenly tripled in size. Yugi yawned and stretched, wondering if he would be able to go back to sleep.
All of a sudden there was a strange grinding noise and Yugi turned just in time to see a section of the wall peel away to reveal a rather tired looking Atemu. He looked at the door with something akin to disgust, shaking his head.
"Seto hangs around father too much," Atemu muttered, pushing the concealed door closed and crossing the room. "You were woken by that racket too?" Although it was phrased as a question it was more of a statement. Yugi just nodded.
"I would have slept much longer than this if I hadn't," he said, plucking at the bedcovers. A thought suddenly struck him. "What am I supposed to do when dad gets here?" It felt strange to give the label 'dad' to a still as yet unknown face. It would be stranger however to actually put a face to that elusive person in his life. Atemu gave Yugi a long searching look before sitting on the edge of the bed next to him.
"You do what you think is right. Father isn't a cruel man although he can sometimes be… harsh when the occasion calls for it. But he is normally kind and just despite his appearance." Yugi wondered what word Atemu would have used other than the word harsh. It was a scary thought. He wrapped his arms around himself, scared at what might happen today.
"I'm scared," he whispered and was suddenly enveloped in a hug from Atemu.
"Everything will be alright, you'll see. And on the bright side he's still-" Atemu broke off and Yugi felt him stiffen. Yugi frowned, twisting to look up at Atemu.
"Still what?" Atemu looked stricken, almost as if he were shocked at what eh had been about to say.
"I-It doesn't matter," Atemu said, his demeanour slipping for once. Once again, Yugi was reminded of a very small child trying to hide away. He wondered what had happened to Atemu to make him this way. However, before he could ask anything, they were interrupted by an annoying thief.
"Awww, isn't this sweet," a voice drawled from the doorway and Yugi turned to find Bakura lounging against the wall. He was dressed in a black suit with a white shirt, looking as if he could have come right out of Men in Black. Suddenly, Yugi felt as if he had come unprepared considering he had brought nothing smarter than jeans and t-shirts. Of course he had his school uniform for Monday but that was about as far as it went. And he was not wearing his school uniform for his. Atemu seemed to notice Bakura's dress and raised an eyebrow.
"A little smartly dressed for seeing no one Bakura," Atemu said an edge to his voice. He sounded strained again, as if he were wishing this was all over with. Bakura smirked.
"Nope. Seto's insisting on formalities. And he guessed that you wouldn't bother and Yugi wouldn't know so he put something in your wardrobes for you." If possible, Bakura's smirk widened. Yugi heard Atemu mutter something that sounded distinctly like "Sly bastard," although it could also have been something in his own language. However Atemu didn't argue which made Yugi's heart drop. What had he gotten himself into? What was going on now?
Atemu really wished that his father, or even Seto, would stop springing surprises on him as if he were a child that couldn't remember anything (other than perhaps his speeches but in Atemu's opinion, those things were impossible to learn). But it wasn't as if he were able to chew either of them out on it at the moment with Yugi in the room. That and Atemu wanted to ask (interrogate) Bakura about his behaviour the night before. He had a sneaking suspicion he knew what had triggered it but not as to why he had gotten so worked up over it. Bakura was still a mystery in some areas.
It took less than an hour to get ready, although Atemu was certain that he was never going to wear a suit ever again. With father on the way and Yugi still fiddling with his tie, Atemu was beginning to wonder where this day was going. Would his father be pleased to see him? Or, on a darker note, was his father still in one piece? For all Atemu knew the situation in Egypt was so dire that this was an attempt by the palace security to completely protect the royal family by evacuating them. But wouldn't that leave Egypt to Akhnadin? There were so many questions with so few answers.
Seto seemed just as agitated by the turn of events, unable to sit down. Atemu watched as he paced up and down the room they currently occupied, filled with the same nervous energy that they all were (apart from Bakura). Eventually, said annoying thief was sick of watching his cousin wear out the carpet.
"Oh, for the love of Ra!" Bakura shouted, throwing his hands in the air. Atemu didn't fail to notice Yugi's stare at Bakura's choice of words. "It's not like you're all going to fucking die! It's only Akhnankhamun!" Atemu had to stifle a laugh as Seto turned to give the thief an incredulous stare.
"Only Akhnankhamun? Only Akhnankhamun? Just because you don't give a damn about the laws of Egypt doesn't mean-" Seto was cut off by Mahad's arrival. He was struggling with his neckwear and Atemu got up off the couch to help him.
"Here," Atemu said, tying it into the perfect knot. He remembered fondly a moment of his childhood when he had found one in his father's wardrobe (still left over from his travels) and had asked his father what it was. It was one of the few times that Atemu had been given instruction of the outside world and these little titbits had never failed to leave his memory. He could remember his father's strong hands holding his own (once much smaller) hands, guiding them in knotting the piece of material around his father's neck, making a game out of it. Atemu let go of Mahad's tie as that memory came back, letting his hands fall to his sides. Mahad looked a little shocked but quickly covered it up.
"Thank you," he said quietly so only Atemu could hear. Seto and Bakura were really going at it now, having switched to Wesret* to make sure that Yugi understood nothing of it. Atemu wondered if this would be when all the carefully constructed lies around Yugi's precious life would begin to unravel, when all the walls would start to fall. It was a possibility that Atemu was afraid of what the outcome would be. With more and more of the ancient lore being uncovered by the palace magicians, things were taking a turn for the worse in everyone's lives.
"Well, at least I'm not hiding any kind of love affair from my own father!" Atemu got the feeling he should stop this conversation before it got any more out of hand. But before he could Seto had already shot back at Bakura, blushing furiously.
"At least I haven't lost her yet!" Bakura reeled back, looking very much as if Seto had actually reached out and struck him across the face. Even Atemu looked shocked. Ryou was something that they didn't bring up. He was the only thing that Bakura would refuse to talk about and refused point blank to talk to. It was cruel to even think to say what had just left Seto's mouth. Even Seto looked a little shocked at what he had just said. Yugi just looked between them anxiously, wondering what was so awful that had Bakura frozen in complete shock.
"Seto," Atemu began, eyes flickering between the two. "Apologize."
"I…" the CEO was speechless. "I'm sorry Bakura. I didn't mean that." Bakura seemed to unfreeze and just turned his back on everyone in the room. Only Atemu knew from the slight shake of his friend's shoulders that he was holding back tears. Only Atemu could ever be certain of the anguish that Bakura felt. Even so, no one saw the tear track its way silently down Bakura's face or how deep Seto's words had gone.
Yugi felt awkward. He was sitting in Kaiba's house, wearing clothes that Kaiba had bought him, listening in on a conversation that he couldn't understand. Atemu looked upset over something, Mahad looked a little shocked and uncomfortable over Atemu's help with his tie and now Bakura was refusing to react whenever someone spoke to him. He knew that he had missed a great deal of what happened but it still felt awkward that he was the only one that had no clue as to what had just occurred.
However none of them had much time to recover when Roland walked in without knocking.
"Your visitors are here Mr Kaiba. Should I let them in?" The security man was clearly oblivious to the tension in the room. Seto turned from Bakura, his usual cold mask slipping back onto his face and Yugi got the feeling that from now on he would see very little of the true Seto Kaiba. Then again, he hadn't seen very much of him to begin with.
"Yes, Roland. Show them in here." Silence descended as those standing (barring Bakura who sat on the windowsill, as far away from the door as possible) found their way to a seat. Atemu joined Yugi on the couch and Yugi slipped his hand into his brother's for comfort. Atemu squeezed his hand in support without speaking. Mahad and Seto had settled into opposite armchairs. Mokuba was absent from the room after his brother had forbidden him from coming to the meeting the night before. Yugi had at first wondered why but he now he got the feeling that he knew. Whoever these people were, they were certainly going to be different from the people that they were used to dealing with.
Ten minutes passed before Roland returned leading four people into the sitting room. All were of an average height, although two towered above the others, and shared the same skin tones as Atemu and Mahad. Three were men and the last figure was a woman. Two of the men were dressed in dark robes, while the woman was in complete contrast with a white dress with a pattern around the neckline. The last figure was an imposing man with broad shoulders and dressed in a suit, although he wore a white headdress which hid his hair. Yugi felt Atemu draw in a breath. Seto Kaiba rose from his seat.
"Welcome Uncle, to my home," Seto said simply, although surprisingly in Japanese. The broad shouldered man nodded his head before turning his eyes on Atemu. Yugi found himself staring, trying to work out how he was related to this man.
Atemu had been right, he supposed. The man did look rather frightening but there was a deep kindness and relief in the man's eyes. Yugi could see where he and Atemu were related. They both had slim eyes and darker skin although his eyes were more of Yugi's amethyst than Atemu's crimson. Yugi couldn't tell what colour his hair was but he supposed that it was dark considering the man's beard was a dark brown peppered with grey. Yugi wasn't sure what he was supposed to do. Get up and bow? Or run over and give the man who had ignored him most of his life a hug? He wasn't even looking at him! As if hearing this thought, the man turned his eyes on Yugi. Yugi blushed and averted his eyes, noticing for the first time the strange upside-down pyramid pendent around his father's neck.
"What is this?" the man said, speaking for the first time. Yugi noticed how his voice was deep, something else he and Atemu had in common. Yugi wished his own voice was as deep as that instead of high pitched and annoying. "I come all this way from Egypt to see my sons and they don't welcome me here?" Yugi could hear the teasing note in his father's voice and glanced up. The man's arms were open wide and Yugi watched as, without needing further encouragement, Atemu leapt up and rushed into his father's arms. There was something desperate about him, as if he were relieved over his father's presence here. Yugi followed a little slower, unsure about interrupting Atemu's moment. After all, he knew this man better than Yugi did. However the man just looked at Yugi expectantly and so he allowed himself to be taken into his father's warm enveloping hug. After a few moments he pulled away and Atemu followed. Their father- Akhnankhamun or whatever Seto had called him- was smiling and followed them to the sofa. The other three were still standing, looking either surprised, confused or awkward. Yugi wasn't sure. Perhaps it was all three.
"Yugi, these are some of my most trusted servants, Ischizu, Marik and Odion Ishtar," Akhnankhamun said, sweeping his arm out and gesturing to each in turn. Ischizu, Yugi thought, was actually quite pretty in an exotic kind of way. She was tall and curvy, with long dark hair that swept down to her shoulder-blades. Two thick locks of black hair were enshrouded in golden bands. She gave Yugi a friendly smile and Yugi could imagine her to be the friendly, motherly type if she didn't come across as quite so mysterious. The other two were taller than her; the one on the left slim, with pale blonde hair and the other was slightly taller, with broader shoulders and a serious face. Yugi noticed that this man was completely bald apart from a long black ponytail at the back of his head. Both men just nodded their heads in acknowledgement. Yugi got the feeling that the blonde guy really didn't want to be there. "Ischizu, Marik, Odion this is Atem's brother, Yugi."
"It is a pleasure to meet you, Yugi," the woman –Ischizu- said and gave him a small bow. Yugi blinked in surprise. That was new.
"It's nice to meet you too," Yugi said faintly, wondering whether or not he was dreaming. What was going on? Atemu was just looking at the floor for some reason when he turned to look at him. Akhnankhamun either hadn't noticed or was choosing to ignore this. Seto had re-taken his seat and also had his eyes diverted for some reason. Akhnankhamun was scanning the room and his eyes fell on Bakura and settled there a moment. Bakura just ignored him, choosing to stay by the window, gazing listlessly outside at the gardens. His mind was clearly elsewhere. Akhnankhamun then turned his attention to Mahad.
"It is a pleasure to see you feeling better Mahad," he said and Mahad gave an uncertain smile.
"Thank you, my lord." Yugi found himself blinking again, furiously trying to work things out. He noticed Atemu looking at him before his brother turned and murmured something in the strange language into their father's ear. Their father nodded and turned to the others.
"If you wouldn't mind I would like to speak to my sons alone." It was as if the magic word had been spoken. Everyone (except Bakura who didn't budge) got up and left the room. Akhnankhamun stood up and looked at Bakura a moment before speaking up. "I wasn't aware that you were a part of this family Bakura." For the first time since the man had walked n Bakura actually turned at him.
"I wasn't aware that you even left the palace," Bakura said with a sneer. Akhnankhamun narrowed his eyes.
"Out. Or you will find our hospitality to be a little lacking the next time you find yourself in our grounds." Bakura looked as if he wanted to snap something back but seemed to have second thoughts. Yugi glanced at Atemu to find him glaring at Bakura with something like 'say one more word and I'll throttle you' in his eyes. He wondered how Bakura could stand it.
When Bakura had left Akhnankhamun turned his gaze on them. Atemu had returned to looking at the floor and Yugi wasn't sure where to look. The floor, the window, the walls, his father… none of them seemed good options. In the end he just looked at his lap, wondering what was coming. Akhnankhamun seemed to be concentrating on Atemu.
"Something is troubling you my son. What is it?" While his father still spoke in Japanese, he might as well have been speaking another language for all that Yugi understood of that. Obviously something was troubling Atemu (he still didn't get why people left off the 'u' in Atemu's name) but he was certain that Atemu would never say. He wasn't that sort of a person.
"Why are you really here?" Atemu said quietly, his eyes still on the floor. Yugi looked at his brother who, while still sitting next to him, felt a thousand miles away. It was at times like this that Yugi began to realize how different their lives were, how much space had really come between them. Akhnankhamun just sighed.
"Because it was time to explain some things." Atemu looked up sharply and Yugi wondered what his father was going to say. Why did he always have to be the clueless one?
"You can't."
"I must." There was almost a contest between his father and brother, one their father clearly didn't want to go through. Atemu bit his lip and looked at Yugi and he was frightened to find anxiety in them. Atemu had never looked at him like that, not even when Ushio had been beating him to a pulp. This was something new and Yugi was almost certain that he wasn't going to like it.
"What do you know of Egypt, Yugi?" Akhnankhamun asked, turning from Atemu to him. Yugi blinked at the odd question.
"Um… which bit?" he asked. Akhnankhamun smiled.
"Anything." Yug frowned, thinking a bit.
"Well, Grandpa taught me the history of Egypt and that they used to play a game similar to Duel Monsters," Yugi said, wondering what his father was looking for. Akhnankhamun nodded, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.
"Has your Grandfather ever mentioned a place called New Thebes?" he asked. Yugi shook his head. "Hmm… I thought not. Well, New Thebes is a city that is like no other. In ancient times it was a settlement of nomadic tribesmen in Egypt by an oasis known as the Oasis of Osiris. When the Persians first invaded Egypt the last true descendants of the Egyptian pharaohs fled to this settlement and built a city there. They claimed it was the last true place of Egyptian culture and vowed that nobody within the city would change this. Thus, the city became isolated from the rest of the world and the royal family thought of as the last true pharaohs of Egypt. However as modern technology has grown, the memory of this city has been forgotten and so has been written off as nothing but myth."
"And is it?" Yugi asked curiously. Akhnankhamun smiled and shook his head.
"No, New Thebes is still very much thriving today. I would know as I grew up there." Yugi felt his mouth fall open but his father ignored this and carried on. "It is where Atem has spent much of his childhood as well. I hope that one day, you will see it too."
"You mean… you mean that there's been a city… in the desert… that no one knows about… and you're only telling me this now?" Yugi couldn't believe what he was hearing. Atemu had wandered over to the window, looking out over the gardens, his arms crossed over his chest. Yugi wondered what he was thinking about.
"Yes, my son there has. We would have told you before but things have been rather… difficult lately." Atemu snorted from the window.
"Difficult is one way of putting it," Atemu muttered and Yugi wondered what he meant. However his brother still wouldn't look at him and Yugi got the feeling that this wasn't all of it. But what else could their father say.
"I still don't understand what's going on though. What has any of this got to do with me?" Yugi asked. Akhnankhamun sighed and sat on the sofa, gesturing to the seat next to him for Yugi to sit. Yugi bit his lip and sat down wondering at the tension between their father and Atemu.
"This has everything to do with you son. You see the kings of old did not die out. There is still a pharaoh within New Thebes today. Still a people who speak the ancient language and know all the ancient secrets, even the ones that your archaeologists will never find," Akhnankhamun said seriously. Yugi nodded, still lost on what that had to do with him and his family.
"That pharaoh is me, my son. And you are a prince of Egypt alongside your brother." In that moment, it felt as if the world had stopped.
Does this count as a cliffhanger? I suppose it does, in this regard do yeah. Big reveal for Yugi that you've all been waiting for with some more emotional scarring for Bakura! So my reasons for late reviewing:
1) At the moment Sixth Form has pretty much taken over my life (that's the last two years of secondary school in Britain for those of you who don't know). I'm either busy with homework or revision at the moment and so am finding less and less time to write, even during the holidays which I am on now. So yeah, as you can tell my idea for updating has pretty much gone out of the window.
2) I am also currently in the middle of writing my EPQ. This is the Extended Project Qualification in Britain which is essentially a taster dissertation and will hopefully help me get into a good university. Therefore, mcuh of my time is spent writing/researching/generally tearing my hair out over that and so more time is taken up/wasted unfortunately.
3) Around about the last time I updated this our horse decided to go lame. We have spent the past four moths attempting to figure out what's wrong with her and have only now gotten conclusive results, so I have spent a lot of time trying to help my mother with her (not even going to mention my grandmother here).
So yeah, lots of things that I'm freaking out about and those are only my main concerns so I'm sorry that updates are going to be sporadic at the moment. I'm hoping that will improve but not for a while at the moment, so yeah. Sorry for the long waits (and yeah, I'm not flooded so I can't use that as an excuse).
So the long awaited answers to my reviews!
Magical Guest: Don't worry, I've been busy too as you can tell so you haven't missed any of it. I'm afraid this is where Mahad disappears again for a while but he will come back and he will feature more prominantly in the sequeal along with Mana (who is still waiting in Egypt :( ) But I'm glad your still enjoying this story and took the time to review so thank you for that. It really made my day.
xXWinterWhispersXx: I'm glad that your are enjoying this story, even if you have joined in late. Although I'm sorry you've had to learn the misery of waiting for my sporadic updating which I'm trying to improve on. As much as I love my Bakura and Ryou sub-plot I can't talk about it without giving away too much of what I'm planning for the sequel (which is as yet still un-named) but as you can see it's still there in my story for now and not going away any time soon. I hope you enjoy this little update and as for who went blind, I think I talked about that in one of my earlier review answers but still undecided. Again, you'll know when I do.
Aqua Girl 007: I couldn't resist the breaking-in scene so I hid it under the guise of character development. I'm glad you like the story so far and I love Bakura too (but I have that fangirl sense to feel sorry for characters with shitty backgrounds. And I kinda feel guilty for giving him an even worse one in this fic :( ) Bulding up for more theiving scenes later too!
