Lighting a Torch

x.x.x

A confusing jumble of images- visions, or memories?- surfaced within Yami's mind, each slipping playfully away from him whenever he tried to get a good look at them. It was like standing in the center of a whirlwind, trying to catch grains of sand as they spun into nothingness. The darkness of his soul room had never been disturbed like this; Yami knew these thoughts were important, if he could only hold on to them long enough to tell…

Exhausted and frustrated from chasing these glittering motes of memory, Yami crouched on the floor of his soul room, clenching his eyes closed. And then… something came into focus. Or several somethings, flashes of memory that passed through him briefly, slowing down just enough that he could catch a glimpse of them. Teasing him. An ancient place, looking new and golden. Pyramids that scraped the sky, catching the light of the sun and scattering it all across the sandy desert. White dragons that descended from the heart of the sky god, carrying a single rider- three dragons, but four pairs of eyes, so blue and perfect Yami could have condemned his soul into their depths for eternity…

Yami awoke with a sudden jolt, his eyes adjusting to the dark of Yugi's bedroom. In the back of his mind, he could feel the soft weight of Yugi still asleep, perhaps dreaming of something more fantastic than blue eyes and Egyptian sunlight. Although Yami doubted there was anything more fantastic than that…

Blue eyes… Yami only knew of one person with true blue eyes like that. And though Yami could not recall the face from the darting vision-memories, he was almost certain it was him. Now the question was… could this wait until morning?

Yami lay back down, staring up at the ceiling for a moment, before closing his eyes. Second later, he opened his eyes again, leapt off the bed, and ran for the door.

No, this couldn't wait until morning!

x.x.x

Seto Nishimura was having a familiar dream, one he happened to like very much. A dream of bringing the whole family of Kaibas to their knees before him, and taking over everything they held dear. In his dream, he would find himself in the highest office of the Kaiba building, the hugest skyscraper in town, looking down at the city below that was suddenly all his. And then, each of the buildings below would shimmer, one by one changing into far older architecture. The light of the sun intensified, as a sprawling Egyptian empire sprawled out before him, pyramids rising up in the distance where the mountains once were. And all of it, the modern world, or the ancient world, all of it was his…

He hardly had any time to bask in the glory of his dream, however, because someone was murmuring his name. Someone calling him awake. Seto scowled, waking from his dream reluctantly, and opening his eyes.

Only to find a pair of eyes staring intensely down at him.

Seto let out a startled cry, shoving the intruder away from him before he realized who it was. "Yugi?" No, the eyes had been red, even in the darkness he could tell that. "Yami! What are you doing here?" He frowned at Yami, who hadn't even had the decency to go sprawling when Seto pushed him. Seto glanced at the clock on the bedside table. "It's two in the morning!"

"I know you…" Yami whispered, still watching Seto.

"Of course you know me, we did the introductions weeks ago," Seto muttered. He muffled a soft laugh when he realized Yami was still wearing Yugi's pajamas- light blue flannel with brightly colored chibi duel monsters depicted all over it. "Somehow, those suit Yugi better than you."

Yami blinked down at the pajamas, but didn't seem to find their silliness to be pressingly important.

"How did you even get up here?" Seto asked, finding himself to be rather disturbed by the intensity of Yami's gaze. Noa Kaiba looked at Seto that way too. Gods, was everyone going to start looking at him funny? If Joey Wheeler looked at him like that next, Seto was so going to move out of the country…

"I climbed up the drainpipe," Yami finally answered softly.

"Uh-huh. I can just see you doing that, too," Seto muttered. This entire thing was absurd… "Look, it's too early to be playing duel monsters… try coming back when the sun is up, alright?"

Yami shook his head. "I had a dream about you."

"You WHAT?"

"A dream," Yami repeated. "Or a vision. Or a memory, I guess. It was all very confusing. But you were in it. You have blue eyes."

Seto raised an eyebrow, reaching to turn on the lamp on his bedside table. "A lot of people have blue eyes."

"Name one."

Seto let out a soft huff. "My brother, for one. Is that the only reason you came here? Because you had a dream?"

Well if he was going to put it that way, it did sound pretty silly. Yami frowned at him, but wasn't entirely convinced. Maybe for mortals, dreams weren't all that significant, but Yami was dead. Shouldn't all of his dreams have special meaning or something?

"It was more than that," Yami insisted. "It was memories. About my past. And you were there."

"Yami, I was not in your past," Seto said. "You're talking about hundreds of years ago, aren't you? That is impossible."

You're trying to lecture a ghost on what's impossible? Yami thought, but decided that was getting too off topic. "You were there. And you were… important to me. I could tell that much."

"Yeah, well take a number. I've already got a stalker, you'll have to wait your turn." At Yami's irritated look, Seto sighed. "Look, if this is really important to you, could we please talk about it later? It's late and I'm tired, and I doubt that's conducive to a productive conversation."

Yami looked like he was considering arguing, then gave up on it. "Alright. I will talk to you later."

"Great. And take the door out this time, you might fall off that drainpipe and die," Seto told him.

That did manage to get Yami to smile. "I would not die."

"Fine, but Yugi might, and I thought you were supposed to be protecting him or something."

"Your concern is touching," Yami murmured. He lightly brushed his fingertips over Seto's cheek, then turned and left the room without even a proper farewell. The light from under Seto's door went out a few moments later.

"Yugi?"

Yami froze at the soft voice, turning away from the staircase to blink at the speaker. Mokuba watched him from down the hallway. This was going to take some interesting explaining…

But Mokuba hardly gave him a chance to even think of an excuse. "You're not really Yugi, are you?"

Yami blinked at him. "What?"

"You look like Yugi, but you don't really act like him…" Mokuba said. "Seto keeps telling me that you're Yugi, but… you're not. Are you?"

Surely there were plenty of ways to counter that logic, but Yami couldn't think of a single one. Nor, he found, did he really want to. "No," he finally said. "I'm not Yugi."

Mokuba nodded wisely, having expected as much. "Who are you?"

"My name is Yami," he said. "I guess. I mean… I don't really remember a lot about who I am."

"What were you doing in my brother's room?" Mokuba asked, frowning at Yami, giving him a sort of this-had-better-be-good look.

Yami looked back down the hall to Seto's closed door, then shrugged. "I needed to talk to him about something."

"This early?"

"Yes," Yami said. "This early."

Mokuba watched him shrewdly, finally folding his arms and demanding, "Are you in love with him?"

Yami managed not to choke on his surprise at the question (a fact which he was rather proud of). "Excuse me?"

"Well, are you?" Mokuba asked, losing a little of the severity in the question.

"…No, I'm not," Yami answered. "I do like him though… most of the time."

Mokuba brightened. "Do you like me too?"

The childish eagerness of the question made Yami smile. "Yes, I do."

"Good." Mokuba practically tackled Yami with a hug, luckily not knocking either of them down the stairs. He held on a moment before he let go, grinning at Yami. "I like you too." He grinned at Yami sheepishly for a moment, before he hurried back into his own room.

Yami walked back to Yugi's house, still rather amused by the entire encounter. Seto had been right about one thing, though; Mokuba had very nice blue eyes.

Yugi awoke to find himself standing on his front porch, the front door open. He blinked in bewilderment at his surroundings. Since when did he start sleepwalking, anyway? He shrugged and walked inside, closing the door and locking it behind him.