Hello, everyone. How are you? Are you all safe and sane? I must say I haven't been in the best of moods this week and I haven't written a thing. Instead, I mostly sleep, play video games or work on video editing. However, I don't think of this as bad. Not being super productive during the quarantine shouldn't be seen as bad or being lazy, my friends. Take care of yourselves and do what you feel is best for you!

Are you ready for a new chapter? Are you ready to meet Atem's roommates and learn something new about them and this story? Let me first thank as always my dear friends, Demon Lionka, Kathy and Julia for their support, and whoever reviews/reads the story for always putting a smile on my face.

Enjoy!

Chapter 5:

Atem moved through the busy streets of Domino's center, pushing through people holding their shopping bags. He had a vague sense of where he was going so he allowed his feet to guide him while his mind was too busy to do anything else. He wasn't sure what had happened in the car but he knew he had felt a surge of power and his vision was extremely real-like. The boy looked so much like Yuugi and yet there was something about him that screamed different. Unfortunately, Atem couldn't put his finger on what exactly made that boy different. He didn't even want to know if he wanted to think of the vision boy. As if it wasn't enough that he found himself thinking of Yuugi and how he must have perceived his sudden departure. He had left as if the devil was after him.

"What the hell is wrong with me?" He groaned, as he cut a corner and moved towards one of the less fancy neighborhoods. "I am not interested in him!" He chastised himself, turning another corner and hurrying his steps as he reached his neighborhood. You didn't want to be seen strolling in that place even if it was broad daylight. "I am not!"

A man on a threshold gave him a funny look, but Atem ignored him. He took out of his pocket a small key and, after fighting to fit it in heavy metal door, he got in a condemned brick-built building and climbed the dirty stairs. When he reached the door to the apartment he lived in, also known as the hole, he took a deep breath to steady himself. Then, he shoved a second key into the door and pushed. The door always stuck but his roommates said that it worked as an anti-theft measurement. Not that they had much for anyone to steal.

He entered the apartment, which now seemed even more of a mess in compare to Yuugi's well-kept place. It was nothing more than three crumbled rooms but it was better than the streets. There was a small kitchen with a tiny table and a chair, a bathroom with a rusted shower, and the living room where the boys slept. A sofa and a mattress occupied most of the room. Since rarely more than two of the boys were in the apartment at the same time or at least at the same time to sleep, the arrangement worked for them. Two mismatched wooden drawers that seemed like they had come from a second-hand shop were stuck in a corner filled to the brim with the boys' belongings, and a coffee table were the only other furniture in the apartment.

However, the room would look packed no matter what since three boys lived in it. Atem knew his roommates were waiting for him so he wasn't surprised when he found Bakura on the sofa hitting the keys of his most prized possession, his laptop, and Marik sprawled on the old mattress like an oversized cat. And talking about a cat, an orange tabby cat came to greet Atem by rubbing herself on his legs. The boy placed his backpack on the coffee table and knelt to rub his cat behind the ears.

"Hey, Mana. How is my girl today?" he addressed the cat who purred in response and stayed still for some seconds before she decided she had enough of petting from her owner and moved towards her water bowl.

"A troublemaker as always." Bakura answered growling, his sharp brown eyes never leaving his computer screen.

Bakura King was slightly taller than Atem and had downwards pointed white hair which trailed half down his back. He'd never take care of it so it always pointed in all kind of directions and was stiff and rigid. His skin was fairer than the other two boys but still sun-kissed and a small scar beneath his right eye confirmed he was as dangerous as his sinister smile showed. He had acquired it when he was barely nine and had thought taking his father's motorbike for a spin would be fun. His drunk father had a different opinion. Bakura had walked away with a scar, but his father hadn't left unscathed either.

"You don't like her so she doesn't like you in return." Marik offered and pet Mana when she approached him. The cat threw Bakura an arrogant look but the white haired boy didn't even notice it.

Marik Namu was the third roommate and Atem's second best friend. He was taller than the other two boys by a good four inches and he was also more muscular than both of them. His skin proved his Egyptian origins and his hair was the color of a fainted papyrus. As crazed as his spiked hair was, its owner was crazier. His eyes were dark iris with more white than the average person. On the right side of his neck, he had a tattoo of the Eye of Wdjat.

"So, what happened?" Bakura asked, finally looking up from his work. He placed the laptop on the coffee table and watched the crimson eyed boy. "I thought you'd rush home and sleep the day away after your exam. Instead, I've received a text about some kind of investigation. So, what's up, Sherlock?"

"That was the plan, initially, but you see I had quite an interesting day today." Atem started, easing himself on the lone chair. "I met someone; someone quite special." Was there another word to describe Yuugi? Beautiful? Intelligent? Funny? Atem shook his head and focused on his roommates.

He expected some kind of surprised reaction, or at least a raised eyebrow. He had been so cold and suspicious towards strangers for the last years that he believed his friends would bomb him with questions about whom he met. He had never interacted with anyone outside work or ever mentioned meeting a new person so it wasn't like these were words they often heard from him.

"Was this someone short and cute?" Bakura asked with too much innocence to be an innocent question. Really, when Bakura was trying to play the innocent one, it was quite disturbing to watch.

"That could apply to way too many people." Atem hedged, carefully and shiftily.

"Did he have an interesting hairstyle with multi-colored layers much like yours?" Marik clarified as if he wanted to be helpful, but his tone was as innocuous as Bakura's.

Atem raised an eyebrow, his crimson eyes taking in his roommates. "That's quite more specific. Were you following me?" he asked casually, as if it was no big deal, but anyone knowing him knew that his tone meant nothing but trouble. He pulled his chair all the way back making it balance on its back feet and waited for a response.

The other two boys exchanged a look and then started laughing. "Wow. That ego of yours is growing again. Do you really think we have nothing better to do with our day off than to follow you?" Marik answered, his dark iris eyes full of mischief. He carefully unwrapped a candy he fished from his pocket and pushed it in his mouth.

"Then, how do you know about Yuugi?" Atem inquired, his voice slightly raised. Did his friends not notice how close he was to losing his temper?

"Oh, so it's Yuugi. Nice to put a name to the face. Quite nice." Marik licked his lips. "The Egyptian equivalent would be Heba, you know. Oh, the implications this name offers. Yuugi…game…" He caressed his tattoo, his eyes having a faraway look as he was lost in his thoughts for a moment. "I wonder if he's game for some company." He whispered, more to himself than to his friends.

Atem felt a vessel popping. How dared Marik lie claim on Yuugi? How dared he speak that way about the younger boy? He wasn't some kind of game for him to play. He wasn't there for his company, and Atem would make sure of it! How the hell did he even know Yuugi?

"How do you know Yuugi?" he repeated, his voice more forceful. His eyes turned a dark red and the temperature in the room went down, but the two other boys didn't seem to notice or care.

"It happens that we have eyes and we actually use them." The white haired boy offered as an answer. "By the way," he added, turning to the iris eyed boy, "you owe me twenty bucks." He opened his palm, waiting. "I told you he wasn't that dense."

Marik groaned, but didn't give up. "Why?" his voice was wary. "The semester is over. I won!"

"Did you notice him before your exam?" Bakura asked, ignoring the way Atem was looking at them. Finally, seeing that he wouldn't get answers before those two idiots settled whatever bet they had going, Atem nodded. Bakura turned to his friend, "Then the semester wasn't over. Pay up, bitch."

The taller boy pulled out his wallet and gave the twenty to the white haired boy. "It still took him months to notice him. That's pretty dense, if you want my opinion." He complained, unwrapping another candy.

Atem wanted to place his hands around his friends' necks and squeeze the answers out of them, but those two were too caught up in their conversation about how dense their tricolor haired friend was to notice. However, Atem wasn't in the mood to wait for them any longer. His chair gave a screeching sound as it fell on all four feet.

"You better start explaining how you know Yuugi or things may get ugly." He said in a low dangerous voice as he rubbed his hands, faint sparkles appearing.

"Don't use your parlor tricks on us, expecting to be amazed, your highness." Bakura yawned, bored, pocketing his money. "I guess little Yuugi was the reason you were late. A pair of such jewels could get one distracted."

He mentally started calculating how much money the boy's eyes would bring him if they were real jewels and chuckled seeing how they could indeed distract someone. Still, it gave Atem some time to get his anger under control, temporarily, and Marik to explain they had spotted the boy two weeks ago when they had to drive Bakura's beat up truck all the way to the university to give him a ride after attending a lecture of a guest archaeologist late that evening. It was one of those rare nights that they all worked the same shift and Atem would run late if he would take the bus.

"We were a bit early or you were a bit late. The details aren't that clear." Marik scratched the back of his head. He didn't like focusing on unimportant details, his attention often of a short span. "Suddenly, we spotted him. It was dark so we thought it was you at first but the boy was shorter than you and when he came closer we noticed he wouldn't pass for you with such a personality." Marik chuckled and sat up on the mattress, stretching his long limbs. "He was almost bouncing. He seemed quite excited about something. A tall blond guy was with him; he kept laughing seeing how excited Yuugi was."

"That was his adopted brother, Joey." Atem offered, frowning as he remembered the older boy. "He's quite protective of Yuugi."

"You don't say." Bakura's voice was full of sarcasm. "We were in the car but he must have felt someone looking at them and hurried the boy in their own car." It was kind of amusing, actually. The blonde should know that his brother wasn't a child.

"I mean, who would look at him?" Marik threw his hands to the air, dramatically. "He was so pseudo-macho, it hurt. And so ordinary looking. But his brother…" He didn't finish his sentence, but the way he licked his lips didn't leave much to the imagination about where his thoughts led him.

Atem grabbed the first thing he could reach, which was a thick book, and threw it on Marik. The other boy ducked just in time to avoid it and it hit the wall slipping on the mattress to rest by an annoyed Mina who meowed loudly, before leaving the room, offended.

"We need to work on your speed and strategy." Bakura commented, critically. "That was a heavy book that could probably do lots of damage but it wasn't hard for him to avoid. It moved way too slow to reach him before he saw it coming. Next time try to use something lighter and pointy and throw it with more speed. Small objects hitting the right spot can cause great damage, too." He instructed as he picked up his computer and placed it in a backpack, making sure any flying objects wouldn't cause any harm. He didn't care about broken bones, but a broken computer would be a disaster. As he resumed his spot on the sofa, he adopted a more serious expression. "So, you finally noticed the boy. It hardly seems as something that needed investigation. Honestly, I can't believe you two shared a class for so long and only today you noticed him."

The tricolor haired boy suddenly felt too tired to yell or throw any other objects. His friends' relaxed stance confused him. Was he being paranoid? If they knew about Yuugi, why were they so relaxed?

"You could have tipped me about him, you know, instead of turning this into another one of your stupid bets." Feeling his head hurting, Atem sighed. "What was the bet anyway?"

"I said since you hadn't noticed him for so long, you'd go on not noticing him until the end of the semester, maybe even longer." The iris eyed boy admitted, shamelessly. "Bakura was sure you'd notice him before that. He had more faith in you, I guess."

"I'm touched." Atem mockingly replied. "But if you'd told me about him, I'd have tried to approach him earlier. You'd think him being Solomon Mutou's grandson would have been something we should look into." That finally got a proper reaction from his friends as they snapped to attention. A cacophony of voices broke the silence as both boys started yelling, but Atem used to loud voices understood the gist of their questions. "You really didn't know his name was Yuugi or that he was Mutou's grandson." He realized, rubbing his temple. His headache had suddenly intensified. "You didn't think that finding a boy who looked so much like me was something that could be related to our case?" How was he stuck with those two idiots? Wasn't Bakura supposed to be smarter than that?

Atem explained to them how he met Yuugi and all he had discovered while being at his house. He told them about how he came to the conclusion that Yuugi didn't know anything but his brother and grandfather were a completely different case. The boys weren't really sold but Atem wasn't done.

"At some point, Joey left the room saying he wanted to talk to Solomon about something. I excused myself to Yuugi saying I needed to use the bathroom and followed him upstairs shortly after. Of course, I couldn't hear what the old man was saying but Joey was informing him about me, considering if he should scare me away or not. Then, there was silence so I guess his grandfather was telling him what to do." Atem paused to pull a glass and fill it with water. He drank it in one go, filling his throat dry from all the talking he had done. "I returned to Yuugi before he became suspicious and acted all normal while thinking how to confirm my suspicions."

He went on telling them how Joey reacted thinking Atem had been in the study and how he brought up the story of pharaoh Atemu gaging his reactions. That got a reaction since people weren't supposed to talk about the pharaoh. Then, he finished his recitation by telling them about the blonde's reaction to his 'princes' mention and how he tried to cover it up, even unsuccessfully.

"It confirms that he knows about the prince. That's not information that a lot of people know. Yuugi for example knew nothing." Atem hesitated for a moment but then he continued. "There is something more." His lips were dry so he licked them slowly. "I was about to leave the car after they dropped me off at the center as I requested when I was hit with something like a vision. Only it was I guess of the past."

Marik got really interested hearing this tidbit. He was the one who knew the most about illusions and visualizations. Bakura on the other hand wasn't ready to admit Atem may have really stumbled on a serious threat.

"It's not the first time you get glimpses of your past."

"They were always in the form of dreams." Atem argued. "I've never had one awake and I've never experienced seeing a live breathing boy being replaced by some illusion of…of whatever that boy was."

As he remembered the ethereal creature of his vision, Atem felt a great need to see Yuugi again. He didn't know what to make of it. Did he want to see Yuugi for him or because he hoped to get hit by another vision of the mysterious boy?

"You said he looked like Yuugi, right? But he was dressed in strange clothes and looked like he was glowing?" Marik questioned with interest. At some point during Atem's explaining, he had stood up and started pacing the room.

"His skin was like it reflected the moonlight." The crimson eyed boy tried to describe it.

Bakura intervened once again. "It could be irrelevant to Yuugi." He totally ignored the incredible looks he received from his friends and continued, "You could have been affected by being on overdrive with all the exhaustion of the past weeks and what you discovered today that your mind started playing tricks on you."

It was Marik who came to Atem's defense. "Bakura, we have magic!" He exclaimed, looking at his friend as if he had hit his head on something and he needed someone to break down the situation for him to remember. "We know it. So spare us the 'you probably imagined it because you were too tired' speech." Aloof as he was, Marik had noticed how unhinged Atem was and how Bakura's effort to rationalize what happened was pushing him towards the edge of a very dangerous cliff.

Magic was still a sensitive subject for all three of them for different reasons, but Marik had thought Bakura was the one who was most comfortable with his powers. They had all been having strange dreams since a very young age but real magic or however one would call their extraordinary abilities started appearing after they turned sixteen. Even though all of them knew the stories more or less, they had never believed magic was real or that they could ever wield it.

Bakura's magic was mostly one that could either get them out of trouble or cause trouble depending on how he used it. He could unlock any lock and render a person unconscious if they were in close range to him. He could also make things explode. Marik's magic focused on creating illusions and mind control. He was better at the former than the latter. Atem's magic, though, was a wild card and he hated it. They never knew what kind of form it would take but as far as they knew he couldn't create illusions or control someone's mind. He could make things move or even catch fire but such incidents were usually accidents.

For a while, the three boys remained silent, considering the situation. Their lives the last years hadn't been even close to ideal but constantly working to pay the bills and keep themselves from starving as well as trying to get an education to better their lives kept them from worrying too much about what fate could have planned for them. Being part of an ancient scheme wasn't what they wanted for their future. So, they had kept together and worked themselves to exhaustion, staying in the shadows, hoping that they could be themselves and never have to face a destiny they didn't care about.

What do you think of Bakura and Marik's bet? Those two can be impossible but aren't they so funny? Did you like the fact Atem has a cat named Mana? XD And what about magic? Oh…so this story is all about magic. Who would have thought? Tell me what you think of the story so far. Bye bye!