Monarchshipping (Atem x Yami no Yugi)

Even though the lights were on, it was still dark inside the museum, especially in the basement where the pharaoh's tablet was kept. It was silent, too, as all of the patrons had left hours ago. Dust floated thickly in the rays of half-light, muting it even further.

Yami no Yugi sneezed. He half-glowered at the columns of dust, but he really didn't have the energy for it. He was so tired...and Battle City was starting the very next morning. Yugi was already asleep, snoring at the back of his mind. Yami no Yugi caught hints of the boy's dreams, strange adventures that consisted of pink elephants and a llama-bat, apparently. Yami no Yugi had to smile at how ludicrous it was.

But then his smile faded. He didn't have dreams. He wondered...what it would be like to dream while sleeping.

Yami no Yugi stared up at the pharaoh's tablet, his eyes flicking around to the gods, the dragon, the man that was vaguely similar to Seto...anywhere but at the man that looked like him. He avoided looking right at the copy of himself because he was afraid he would look at it and it would be someone else. He was afraid that he would find it again and then realize that he was not the person on the tablet, he was...something else, an eternal nameless spirit that had somehow found his way to Yugi.

He sighed and set his head on his knees, still looking up at the tablet from where he sat. He was glad Ishizu had let him come in here so late. He didn't want to sleep. He knew he should, since he had a mission to accomplish starting tomorrow. He had to face the darkness again, the evil that he had supposedly faced once before three thousand years ago. He really should sleep.

But he was afraid to close his eyes. He hated sleep. He hated falling into the blackness, without even a dream to break the dark, and he often wondered, after he woke up, if that was what death would feel like.

He jerked up, realizing that his eyes had drooped. His eyes jumped up to the tablet again, and befor he could stop himself, he was looking right at the image of himself.

It hadn't changed. It was still the Egyptian carving with the distinctive hair. There could be no doubt about it. Yami no Yugi rolled his own lightning-shaped bang in his fingers, and had to smile. He looked so much like that tablet that it was hard to believe that it wasn't a hoax. How could it be possible for his hair to exist in more than one time and place?

He had looked...almost the same, then. Same hair. Perhaps the same red eyes. His skin had probably been darker than Yugi's fair skin, though. He had been Egyptian after all. Was it only a coincidence that he had awoken within Yugi's soul, the boy that looked how he had three thousand years ago? Or was it fate?

His eyes traced down the carving's frame. The long cape draped from the shoulders. The tunic tied to the waist with some kind of belt. The Puzzle hanging from his neck. His own hand went to his own Puzzle, cradling it in his palm.

He had been a king, once. A ruler, a monarch...a pharaoh. The thought sent a slight tremor of apprehension through him. Had he been...a good king? He couldn't be sure. Who had he even been all those thousands of years ago? Had he been the dark avenger that he had started out as when he had first awoken in Yugi's soul, dealing out cold justice to those he deemed unworthy? He didn't like the idea. He was not proud of the things he had done in those early days. Perhaps they had been necessary...but did he really have the right to judge?

He stared up into the stone face of that long ago pharaoh – the face of himself. What kind of person could look at an image of themselves and not recognize it? Because he could barely recognize himself now.

"Who was I?" he whispered. "Was I...good enough?"

The stone face didn't have an answer for him.


A/N: This was a difficult one to work with. I just had Yami no Yugi get all introspective, since, you know, technically he and Atem are the same person, just with different memories and stuff. Sooooo this pairing is kind of like narcissism. XD Next is Mobiumshipping (Atem x Yami no Yugi x Yugi). Yaaaaay.../sarcasm off