AUTHOR'S NOTE
Edited in the lines that make a huge difference in dramatics. Good grief.
Also fixed some utterly painful spelling errors. Ouch!
The rain had a numbing quality.
After they'd returned home to Domino City, Atem had all but ditched his friends and taken Yuugi home. The old Mutou had reacted quite weirdly though. A blank stare, a nod, as if he'd accepted the truth long ago. Yuugi's body had been cleaned and rested on his bed now, waiting for the funeral to be held in the morning. His other half sat on the bed's edge, watching over the seemingly sleeping form while listening to the steady pitter-patter of the gushing rain outside, hitting the roof with ferocity.
"I never wanted this to happen..", Atem whispered, knowing fully well his words fell on deaf ears. But maybe, just maybe Yuugi did listen from somewhere in the afterlife. Atem hoped so. Then again, if Yuugi had his peace now, that was all he could ask for. Why would he bother with the trivial worries of life if he had eternal happiness? No doubt Yuugi shone brightly enough that the weighting of his soul wasn't even neccessary. With a chuckle Atem imagined the scales tipping on the feather's side as it outweighted Yuugi's sins completely. The boy had been so innocent.. Well, almost innocent. Having been his constant companion Atem had seen a fair share of not so innocent thoughts from his partner, many of which though could hardly be damned, rather than seen as youthful hormones talking.
His mood made a sudden turn downwards at the memories, slowly popping up one after the other. He took a shaky breath. With no one around to watch him crumble it was too much effort to keep up the mask anyway.
"If I could bring you back.. I'd gladly sacrifice my memories, my name, even my soul. You're not the one supposed to be lying there dead..", he continued the one-sided conversation, slightly leaning over the silent body of his partner. "I know.. would be silly, wouldn't it? All this work and your sacrifice for nothing.. but tell you what, Aibou.. it was worth every minute. I'd gladly start over, all the way to the beginning, if it means to have you back"
When Yuugi didn't know of him, didn't pay heed to what his other side might stupidly wish for. In fact.. back then he didn't care for his past either. He gladly took care of Yuugi's enemies, ridding the world of their evil ways. He was content with just that. He'd never needed to be part of their little group. If he'd just stayed hidden.. If just Yuugi hadn't been such a pleasant companion, such a brilliant light that soothed the loneliness and the madness of 5000 years..
As more of their common adventures passed before his inner eye, the spirit suddenly felt both old and deeply exhausted. Lazily he swung his legs onto the bed and stretched out on the little space he had. Yuugi still scented like.. himself, Atem found. He'd expected the smell of rotting meat starting to take over, but none of that reached his nostrils. For the lack of a soul, the body wasn't exactly dead, but would be, very soon. All bodily functions reduced to a minimum, they could easily seem fully deceased to the untrained eye. He of course didn't know how long this state could be drawn out, as they'd luckily managed to get the souls of others sharing this fate back before they could find out.
This state though didn't help in the least. If anything, it nurtured a pointless hope in Atem, who of course realised Yuugi wouldn't come back, even if they kept his body alive for longer than a day. Or maybe a week. It wouldn't be right.
They couldn't do that.
With that thought he drifted off, taking in the last whiffs of Yuugi's scent, trying to store it away in a secure part of his memory, so he wouldn't ever forget.
The next morning.
"You are well aware what you are asking, aren't you?"
Solomon Mutou stared blankly at Atem who glanced to the side to avoid the piercing eyes of the old man. He didn't even know why he'd bothered asking, realised the utter foolishness of his request, felt the same shame his old mentor made him feel whenever he'd done something so stupid he ought to feel humiliated.
And this notion was utterly foolish, there was no mistake about that.
Against his conviction and better knowledge he'd actually suggested they take Yuugi to the hospital, instead of putting his still living body underground. He'd also regretted the question the second he'd asked it, but there was no way he could ignore the feeling in his guts. The feeling of them making a terrible mistake if they were to bury Yuugi now. His time before the puzzle and even the short amount of time with Yuugi taught him never to ignore these kinds of feelings, no matter how unreasonable they were. There was no chance for Yuugi's soul to return to its body, not after entering the afterlife, so keeping the body alive would be a waste of time and money. The old man before him had said so as well and the former spirit knew it was right.
Still.
Solomon sighed. "I know you have a hard time accepting what happened. We all have. But Yuugi is dead", the elder emphazised the last word with an attempt to stay calm and assertive on the outside while his soul cried out. Atem could see he was more or less successful by the way a tremble went through the old frame. When he had gotten himself back under control he shook his head and continued.
"You said so yourself, my boy. Don't worry, you can stay here even when Yuugi isn't with us anymore. I promised. There is no reason to draw this out for longer than neccessary."
"You are fully right, sir.. I can't explain why..", Atem said, daring to look towards Solomon's now gentle eyes. He couldn't take it, so his eyes went right back to his feet. Solomon watched as the very same emotions as his own went through the tanned young man. Being soft of heart and also seeing that there was little point in denying both their feelings, he gave in.
"Listen. I will ask a good friend of mine. He is a doctor and might help us set something up to care for Yuugi here"
Atem perked up. "Really?"
"Yes. This way no hospital bills will eat my savings and we will have more time to make a decision. What do you say?"
"Thanks, sir.."
"Call me Grandpa, you silly boy"
"Alright, s-... grandpa.." The word tasted weird, despite him having used it for ages whenever he'd controlled Yuugi's body. Now that he wasn't related to the man anymore it just felt strange. He kind of thought it must've been written all over his face, but the elder didn't seem to see.
"That's better. Now go. I will take care of the shop today. Tomorrow I'll show you how. Don't worry about school..." The old man trailed off and seemingly sunk into his own world of memories, ending the conversation. Atem, realising he was dismissed, slightly bowed his head.
"Thank you", Atem whispered again, fully aware Solomon wouldn't hear him anymore, then turned around and made his way back to Yuugi's room. For a moment he hesitated, but finally entered and silently closed the door behind him. Once he was sure nobody could see or hear him, he leaned against the wood and let out a relieved sigh. He really hadn't wanted to attend a funeral today, much less Yuugi's. The spirit glanced towards his charge, smiling silently before making his way back over to the bed. As he sat on the edge again and watched his other half in his eternal sleep, Atem felt the Millenium Puzzle grow warm against his chest.
Before he could figure out what this was about the artifact flashed once, after which the world became dark.
His soul room was almost the same as before.
Except it had boiled down to one single, four-walled room. Everything in here seemed a lot more personalised with a mixture of old egyptian decoration along the brickwalls and several kinds of newer games stacked on the floor at random spots. A few duel monsters posters and photos of his friends (new and old) were the only thing keeping the walls from being completely barren. There was no bed in this room. Since he was used to sleeping on the floor anyway, there was little reason for one to be here. Old habits died hard (especially after a couple millenia).
As the spirit listlessly strolled through his personal space, he slowly began to wonder what he was supposed to do here. Usually the puzzle didn't enforce him being in here unless something had gone horribly wrong and he needed to recover – maybe that was it? Had him being emotionally fatigued caused the artifact to overreact?
"Strange.. I didn't think I was that tired..", he mumbled to himself, idly picking up some sickeningly colorful ball the size of his palm, throwing it into the non-existing air and flawlessly catching it everytime it came down as he resumed his pacing. While he couldn't see anything being off, his guts strongly disagreed. There was something strange about this place, other than not being unlimited anymore.
Then it hit him.
Right in front of him, just a couple paces away, was a door. This alone wasn't surprising; his room always had doors. Ignoring the one that led him back to consciousness there'd always been thousands of thousands of them.
Thing was: He didn't recognise this particular door. He knew each and every door by heart, quite literally so, having had enough time to explore them all. This one though? No dice. It wasn't the exit door; this one was still at its place, watching his every move from the ancient eye adorning the frame. That strange new door gave him vibes that made him thing that in all likelihood he'd find his not so beloved old maze behind it, still his curiousity was spiked.
Putting his toy down he approached the door, but not without making sure the other one never moved. You couldn't know. A place that's all but the manifestation of your mind might change any moment. But nothing moved. The new door was still in place.
As he put one hand on the handle, he half expected an electric shock, or boiling hot metal searing his hand, but nothing like that happened. There was barely any resistance as he pushed down. Pulling it open proved a little harder.
Still he proceeded. Light began shining through the small but growing slit...
"Atem-kun!"
He snapped awake, gasping from both the shock and the aftermath. A dream then. Bleary eyes looked up and found a worried-looking Mrs Mutou, who'd obviously called him several times by the tone of her voice, halfway leaned over him. Atem blinked.
"Good morning.."
"Morning?! You're some heavy sleeper, I must say. Afternoon!"
"I'm sorry", was all Atem could reply as his eyes automatically wandered to his extinguished light as if expecting a change. For a second his heart stopped only to resume its work with twice the speed, his breath getting stuck on the way to his lungs.
Yuugi was gone.
He was alone in the cold bed. But he couldn't have.. he couldn't possibly be.. and they didn't, did they? His mind found it difficult to even finish the sentences. Too gruesome were the unwelcome pictures of a gravestone and the knowledge of having missed the funeral.
"Where is..!?", he began, turning to Mrs Mutou with one quick move that made both him and her dizzy for a moment. She only sighed, leaning back and seemed to look for words.
"I tried to wake you..", she then began, trying not get too disconcerted by the way Atem blanched. ".. my father's friend was here. Yuugi's in the guest room. All that medical st-.. hey!", she was cut off by Atem all but jumping out of the bed and only saw his afterimage dash out the door. As he made the short trip to the guest room he almost ran most literally into Solomon who made a side-step at the very last second, huffing.
"Hey, where's the fire?", the old man good-naturedly hummed. Of course he realised why Atem was so upset. It really hadn't been the most optimal solution to move Yuugi while Atem wasn't aware of his surroundings, but the doctor could've hardly worked around a sleeping person.
"Where is..?", Atem started but Solomon already pointed at the room he himself had just left.
"Don't get your hopes up though.. nothing has changed, sadly. Try not to be shocked either. It's quite a lot of machinery in there..", Solomon warned and Atem nodded, then proceeded into the room.
