"Yep, thirty-eight degrees Celsius. You definitely have a fever." Yugi sighed as he took the thermometer out of Atem's mouth.
"I feel fine. That device must be off-" Atem started to say but was then cut off by a fit of coughing. Yugi shook his head. Only three days out of the hospital and Atem had already pushed himself to his limit by staying up late at night and hardly eating. Add on his insistence that his friends shouldn't help him with his mission. It was only natural that he would be bedridden once again. The cold weather also didn't help.
"The doctor warned you that your immune system would be weak. Here are just the consequences of not listening to someone who literally trained for more than a decade to keep you healthy."
"I said I was fine, this is just a cough from the weather. I have been through worse-" Another coughing fit. Yugi gently pushed Atem back into bed and covered him with a blanket. Soon AJ came running up the stairs with a bucket of ice.
"I got it, Dad." He smiled as he lugged the bucket into Atem's room.
"You got the whole bucket by yourself? You're becoming so strong AJ. " Yugi smiled as he patted his son's head. He then took out some ice and put it into a plastic bag. He attempted to put it on Atem's head by the teen pushed him away.
"I'm fine, I do not need the ice bag!"
"Yes, you do unless you want to cook your brains!"
"I am not sick!"
"Thirty-eight degrees!"
Rebecca came up the stairs and looked into Atem's room. She covered her mouth to hide her giggle as Atem fought to get out of bed and Yugi adamantly keep him in it.
"Ha ha! That should do it!" Rebecca turned at Yugi's evil laugh. Yugi had managed to use Atem's blankets to tie the pharaoh down in a great blanket cocoon. The most Atem could do was squirm in his new blanket prison.
"I'll get out of here eventually," Atem growled.
"And when you do, I'll just tie you up again. I'll do it all night if I have too. You are, resting." Yugi ordered as he pulled up one of Atem's clothes chest to use as a chair.
"Hmm? I thought you two were going out tonight." Atem asked, finally giving up on fighting the blanket menace.
"Not with you like this. Besides someone has to watch AJ and Chell. We aren't going to call a babysitter with you sick." Yugi said. Atem nodded but couldn't help feeling a little bad for Yugi. While they were originally going to work on Marik's building tonight, it was also the unofficial goodbye Joey celebration. He had to get back to pro dueling and this was his last day off. The gang had planned to go drinking later, the first time for the entire group in over a decade.
"You know I can watch them, honey. I really don't mind." Rebecca said.
"It's fine, someone has to watch this royal pain and I think I'm the only one that can do it," Yugi said as he gestured to Atem. Rebecca looked like she was going to argue but a buzzer went off. That meant someone was at the gate and the facial recognition identified it as a friend.
"I got it," Rebecca said as she walked away with AJ
Yugi reached down and picked up the ice pack once again. This time Atem grudgingly let it rest on his forehead. It actually felt very nice to have there, not because he was sick though. Because it was simply nice to have something cold, or that's what Atem told himself.
"Hey, remember when I got sick after Battle City? We played games for hours in my mind room just to pass the time." Yugi smiled. "You were trying so hard to keep me comfortable and my mind occupied with games." Atem nodded, He remembered that week well. He had been silently panicking over the little flu, of course, he never showed it. What if his partner's disease had got worse? He had no duel monsters strategies to fix that. Those many games were more healing for him then for Yugi.
"Looks like our roles have reversed." Yugi chuckled.
"If that is the case then I would be a lot more comfortable if I was not tied down," Atem said. Yugi laughed.
"And let you make a break for it?" He then got up and looked at the stack of games AJ and Rebecca brought in earlier "Maybe I'll free your hands up though. What do you feel like playing? We have all night-" Yugi was cut off by a phone call. He looked at the phone and sighed. "I'm sorry, I have to take this." Yugi then walked out of the room without another word. Atem sunk deeper into his pillow out of boredom. His ears then perked up, he could almost hear Yugi's call.
"…Yes, I was planning on changing up my deck. There is going to be some old and new cards in it. This is going to be my last official battle, better make it count right? …Yes, I'll keep that in mind, thank you… Gandora has just about been bouncing off the walls for this battle. She's most excited to see one of the male Blue Eyes of yours… Err...you really still don't believe in duel spirits? You have a school full of graduates that can testify to them…Fine, what I'm trying to say is that I'm excited to see… Oh… that… is a shame." Atem tried to sit up but found Yugi's cocoon too well made. When he finally gave up Yugi had already ended his call and started back into the room.
"Was that Kaiba?" Atem asked. Yugi freed Atem's hands. He then picked up Atem's ice bag and started filling it with fresher ice.
"Hm-hm. He was checking to make sure I was actually preparing for the tournament. Oh, what faith he has in me." Yugi said with a roll of his eyes. "It's not like I've been doing these kinds of things for the last two decades."
"When do you think it's going to be?"
"Seto's guessing a month or so."
"A month?! Didn't he just find out about your plans a few weeks ago? Doesn't take much longer to plan an event like this?" Atem asked before starting another coughing fit. Yugi helped him sit up and then went back to refill the ice.
"That's what I asked but apparently a month was all Seto needed. He said he was even disappointed in himself for not being able to get it together faster."
"Really? He truly wants that title." Atem chuckled. Yugi then replaced the bag on Atem's forehead, hesitating a bit before pulling away.
"He said I could borrow any of his cards for this tournament, even his Blue Eyes." Yugi nearly mumbled. Atem's eyes widened.
"If you do that how is he going to participate in the tournament without his ace monsters?"
"He's not. He's just putting it together."
Atem's surprise caused another coughing fit to start. "Is this like the Kaiba Land tournament? He just has more things to focus on?" Atem asked after he could get a breath in.
Yugi sadly shrugged. "I don't know. He was pretty evasive about it. The answer I did get from him was that when he won the King of Games title, and he would if he tried. His words, not mine. He would be in the same situation as me. His company takes too much of his time to adequately be the King of Games."
"But you do not believe that?" Atem asked. Yugi remained quiet for a few moments then leaned back.
"What would I know? I've been gone too long."
Atem looked to Yugi with a raised eyebrow. Yugi noticed his confusion and simply shook his head.
"I come back after ten months to find Joey brawling again and Seto being warmer to people yet colder to the things he loves. Just feels like I've missed a lot..." Yugi sighed. He then turned to Atem. "It must be even weirder for you. With things like everyone's new lives or me retiring." Atem remained silent for a few moments.
"I do not think of it as weird, it is actually quite a relief to see you all living your ordinary lives. I remember existing in the back of your mind, listening in to you all dreaming together about your futures on the roof of the school or at the arcade. You would not understand how amazing it is to see you all actually achieve your dreams." Another cough, but it did not slow Atem down this time. "And get new dreams." This made Yugi smile.
"I'm glad. Just, whatever happens, know that you'll always be important to us. You were never a footnote." The teen recognized that wording Yugi used in his last sentence. Atem had used those very words right before Gandora gained a body. There had been a lot on Atem's mind lately. How to deal with Goodwin, the Immortals, his mission, yet there was one worry he was not able to get rid of. The things he had yelled at Yugi….
"Back in the yard, before I gave Gandora a body… I said some horrible things then."
"Huh? Are you still worried about that? Yes, those words kind of stung, but I know you weren't yourself then. I don't blame you, fights are bound to happen when you have South American monsters trying to control you." Yugi said.
"I know but… I did not have time to say this back then thanks to Gandora and the construction site attack…" Atem tried to say but kept being cut off by coughs.
"What's bringing this confession on? Its ancient history at this point, no need to worry." Yugi asked as he helped Atem get a drink of water.
"Probably the fever, but nonetheless, everything I said back in the yard is absolutely false, I know it and you know it. I am not hurt by you giving up the King of Games title. It's just a title, we have much more to represent our partnership." This made Yugi grin, then another coughing fit shook Atem's body.
"Wow, this fever is affecting you worse than I thought. Look at you getting all feely on me." Yugi laughed, yet he still felt warmth from Atem's sincere words.
"Maybe so. Ugh, I am glad Mana or Mahad are not here to see me like this. They would react worse to me becoming sick then I when you became ill. They especially would not like this flu, it's nothing like the sickness we had in Egypt." Atem said offhandedly. Yugi sat back on his makeshift chair and crossed his arms in thought.
"Have you had any contact with them?"
"No, then again I have not tried in a while. I doubt it would work now, however. That is just how the afterlife is." Atem took another drink of water.
"The afterlife that we both came from and that I was alive in?"
"Are you still testing whether or not we can talk about the afterlife?" Atem asked.
"Yes because… I want to tell our friends and family everything. How I wasn't saving the world, how we thought I was dead." This caused Atem to choke on his water. Yugi had to pat him on the back just to stop him coughing.
"Why? The story we told was not a complete lie. It might make things more confusing to explain it to them."
"I know, I know. It's just I hate lying to them. They would understand if we explained." Yugi said. Atem nodded, he had also felt bad about lying to them about where they were those ten months but what was there to do? They had enough to be concerned about with the Earthbound Immortals.
The Immortals were starting to worry Atem more. If the Higher ups had to focus their power elsewhere those demons must be causing a great deal of trouble in the afterlife. The Immortals were only barely seeping into the afterlife last Atem had been there. If they had enough power to be attacking him up in the living world then they must be everywhere in the afterlife. Atem looked down at his reflection in his cup of water. Here he was stuck in a blanket cocoon while his family was probably fighting for their very souls. If only he could contact them, but the Higher ups most likely would keep him from that too…
"Wait! They have to focus their power elsewhere!" Atem gasped. This made his throat feel even worse but he didn't care.
"What are you talking about?" Yugi asked but Atem didn't answer, he was thinking too deeply. This fixed many of Atem's problems, Goodwin couldn't arrest them for looking this up, his friends wouldn't be putting themselves in direct danger, and they would get all the information they needed at once.
"The Higher ups are not putting their power into stopping us from talking, I would bet that their barrier against contacting the afterlife is weaker now too," Atem said.
Yugi titled his head and raised an eyebrow. "What are you-"
"Think about it, we wouldn't have to find information piece by piece anymore or wait for you to have an epiphany. We would just pool our resources into finding a way to contact the afterlife. Talk to my family or even that paradise leader for the People of the Stars and we have our information." Atem said, then immediately felt drained and fell back into his pillow.
"You're getting too excited for someone with a fever. Now lay down and explain to me how contacting the afterlife is easier than searching for information the old fashion way?"
"It will be, just trust me. First things first, we have to tell everyone what actually happened. When the next time we can get everyone together-"
"You really, REALLY don't have to do this!" Both boys turned as they heard Rebecca's voice coming up the stairs with two more sets of footsteps beside her's. Whoever was beside her had much longer legs and was taking every other step.
Téa came around the corner and walked into Atem's room, AJ right beside her.
"Yay! Aunt Téa's babysitting!" AJ cheered.
"What?!" Yugi gasped.
"I got your text about not coming. You guys are not staying here tonight. Joey would never forgive me if I let you guys do this. So, I'm watching these scoundrels tonight! No, if, ands, or buts about it." She then strode into the room and started to push Yugi out.
"You don't have to do this Téa. Your vacation is ending soon too! Don't you want to say goodbye to Joey?" Yugi tried.
"We two have had enough quality time together the months we thought you were gone. He'll understand why I'll be missing the party if you two get to go. Add on I've barely spent any of this vacation time with my favorite kids in the world. So, you guys get out so I can have them to myself." She demanded.
"But Atem's sick!"
"I can deal with it. Atem's going to be a cakewalk compared to the times I've had to deal with you when you were sick. Remember the three witches? I've got this guys, now out of this house and have a splendid evening!"
"But!" Atem heard the door slam shut. This, of course, started Chell crying but she was quickly quieted by Téa, her fourth favorite person in the world if you didn't count Bakura's hair.
AJ came running up the steps to Atem's room.
"This is going to be awesome! Téa never gets to watch us, ever! She even brought her her strongest monster team. We are going to play Dad's game all night! And there will be popcorn and movies and-" Atem cut AJ off with another coughing fit. "Oh right, you're sick… Well, it will still be awesome! Just more the healing type of awesome!" He then scampered away to prepare for the "awesome" night. Atem took this time to try and undo his blanket cocoon. Even with his hands now free he was surprised at how well it was made with only a blanket.
"Oh no, you don't." Téa came in with Chell waddling beside her. She took one look at Atem trying to get out of bed and immediately went into action. Before Atem could blink she had redone the blanket cocoon, refilled the ice bag, and forced him back in a laying position.
"How?! This blanket is even tighter than when Yugi did it!" Atem growled in frustration.
"That's because I am the Sick Cocoon's original creator. How do you think I managed to keep Yugi or Rebecca in bed all the times in the past they were sick? I swear the entire Muto family just want to make themselves worse by overworking." Téa sighed. She then put down her bag and looked over the games stacked in the room. "Good choices, what do you feel like playing Atem?" She smiled. Atem stared dumbfounded.
"Oh, I'm sorry, it must hurt for you to talk," Téa said.
"No, no it's just. Why are you here?"
"Didn't you hear me announcing it up and down the hallway as I forced those two out? I'm here to hang out with you guys. I don't have a lot of time left before I have to go back to work so I thought I should seize the day while I still had time." Téa smiled as she patted Chell's forehead. Chell looked up to Atem with her big black eyes. Ever since Atem had gotten back from the hospital she has never cried in his presences. In fact, she has learned that Atem equals fun if you throw stuff at him. She was about to start more fun by throwing her binky when AJ came crashing back in.
"I got more games!" AJ announced as he nearly slid over the wooden floor.
"Watch it now. Running in socks on this kind of floor will only lead to more people bedridden." Téa smiled as AJ quickly collected himself and came into the room. Atem looked at the mountain of games on the floor and in AJ's arms. He was not getting out of this anytime soon.