Disclaimer: I do not own Yugioh or any songs I may use in my fanfic.

Authors Note: Ok, so anyone up for a challenge? I want to see how my OC would look on paper, so any artists out there willing to draw her in anyway you wish, be it Egyptian or modern days, with Atem or Yugi, WHATEVER! I want to see what you think she would look like. I don't really have any cool prizes or anything, but all pictures I will cycle through my Avatar on and I will link to all entries on my profile! Thanks for reading and I hope you all have fun with it! Go Nuts!!!

Knock Me Down

The door bell rang, scaring Akila out of her terrified trance. She jumped off the couch they had been sitting on together, and walked briskly to the front door, trying to clear her head before she met up with the rest of her guests. When she got to the front door, she took a deep breath and let out a sigh, before plastering a smile on her face.

"Hey guys!" She was greeted by Yugi, Tea, Joey, and Tristan holding bags of chips and boxes of sodas and even a six pack of bottled sodas. Joey and Tristan also had a little bit of an extra load. Apparently they brought a few movies from their houses and even went by a movie store. "How many people are coming?" She asked; a little overwhelmed with everything they had in their hands. Yugi and Tea just let out a giggle as the two other boys in the back seemed to have a very proud grin on their faces.

"We didn't want them to eat you out of house and home, so we bought extra." Tea said as she started the group's line to enter the big house. As each filed in, they all looked around, jaws on the ground in amazement.

"Before you ask, we're not rich. It came with my dad's job." She said with a blush as she shut the front door. She figured they would have noticed the giant house on the outside, but apparently not. Though, she did have to admit that when she first was shown the house herself, she was pretty amazed by the inside.

"Hey, has Atem come by? He was getting ready when I left with the others, but when I called my grandpa he said he had left" Yugi asked, the first to seemed to knock himself from the pure awe the others were still suffering from.

"I'm right here, Aibou. I'm sorry I slept in this morning, but I figured I'd at least come by and see if Akila needed any help with anything before you guys showed up." Atem said showing up seemingly out of no where, hands jammed in his pockets. Yugi looked at him slightly disapproving at first, but the look quickly disappeared before anyone, aside from his darker half, noticed.

"We'll, come on; let's bring all this to the kitchen!" Akila said, feeling some sort of tension starting to form in the group. She grabbed the bags that Yugi held onto and signaled for the others to follow along. As the others followed Akila to the kitchen, Yugi just looked at Atem for a moment, not knowing what to say.

"Whoa! This is a huge kitchen!"

"We got all this stuff so you wouldn't raid her kitchen!"

"I didn't say we were going to raid it, I just said it was big!"

Tea and Joey's argument was all the two could hear from the entry way of the house before the two look a likes decided to speak.

"You shut me out, Atem." Yugi said, hurt before Atem let out a sigh. He didn't mean to make Yugi worry, but he just wanted to have some alone time with Akila to size up the threat everyone thought she was, and that was all.

"Yugi, it was not my intention to hurt you or to worry you. I simply came by to check her out on my own. You're very perceptive of people, and even you couldn't see that she wasn't acting like herself during school. She was shielded. She's not a threat, Yugi. We can trust her, I promise you." Yugi opened his mouth to argue, but he let out a sigh. He knew his friend knew what he was doing. After all he did have a few thousand years of wisdom on him. He smiled and shook his head, sometimes he thought the Pharaoh was too trusting, but he was smart and strategic and wouldn't do anything without a plan.

"I just hope you know what you're getting yourself into." Yugi smiled encouraging. "So I asked Akila to the dance." Atem let out a knowing sigh. "I'm guessing she told you." Atem nodded. "I took her advice." The Pharaoh looked up at Yugi, searching for signs that Tea had rejected him and he needed to be comforted, Tea was always a touchy subject with the two of them, Despite the fact that Atem wasn't interested in the girl, Yugi was still jealous of him because he held her attention. "After I told her what Akila said, she agreed to go as my date to homecoming. I think she finally got the message that you weren't interested in her." Atem chuckled. He didn't like hurting people's feelings, so he didn't really tell Tea straight out which caused all the issues between the three of them, but he was glad Yugi was finally getting his chance with the girl he was obviously head over heels in love with.

"That's good. I'm proud of you for finally telling her, Aibou." Yugi beamed at him, finally able to show how happy he was without looking like a dork to everyone else. It was nice that Atem and he shared the same body for so long; he didn't have to worry about hiding anything from the other. Their brotherly moment was cut short, however, when a crash was heard from the other room.

"Stop it!" Atem and Yugi heard Tea and Akila scream at the same time as they rushed off towards the kitchen. They were about to asked what was wrong when they took in the scene of the crime. Joey and Tristan stood there fighting over a bag of cheese puffs while Tea stood by Akila, who was holding the fifty dollar bill that had been on the refrigerator.

"Drop the bag before I decide that this fifty will go to something girly for Tea and I!" Joey and Tristan both swallowed hard at the thought of the missing pizza from their DDR and movie night, and slowly handed Tea the bag of cheese puffs. "Good, now take the movies into the other room, while Tea and I handle the food." Akila said, taking charge or the situation. Atem and Yugi looked shocked at how well Akila was able to hold her own against the toy food obsessed boys. They were just so used to Tea being the only one who could handle them. They heard the two mutter their 'yessir' and grabbed the bags of movies before they slinked into the main room like dogs with their tails tucked between their legs. Once they left, Akila let out a loud sigh before the two girls let out a loud laugh, leaving Yugi and Atem stunned.

"You get used to it, kind of." Tea said before she and Akila looked around for cupboards for big bowls to fill with chips and smaller ones for some dip they also bought. Atem stood their watching as the two girls seemed to be getting along. Akila's obvious perseverance to get them to accept her was obviously working. Akila felt his eyes on her once again, and swallowed hard before she turned around slowly with a blush. Atem mentally kicked himself for it. Obviously what happened earlier freaked her out; it freaked him out as well. He watched, though, how quickly she was able to hide her discomfort, and smiled at him.

"If you're just going to stand there, do you think you could put the sodas in the fridge real fast?" She asked real polite. Tea noticed the slight nervous tone she had, and looked back and forth between the two, knowing something happened between the two.

"Trust me, Atem is intimidating, but he's really nice." Tea whispered to her, Akila putting a smile back on her face once again. Once they were done filling up bowls of chips and dip and put the brownies and other sweet snakes on plates, Akila and Tea started to bring them out and piled them onto the coffee table that was in the main room in front of the DDR pads Atem and Akila had set up not long before then.

"I don't know about you, Tea, but I can't do DDR without a tank top, do you want to borrow one of mine?" She asked, her body turned slightly, ready to run upstairs at any moment. Tea smiled and shoot her head before she took off the fashion jacket she had been wearing, Akila figured it didn't do too well against the cold, to reveal a bright yellow cami. Akila smiled and then started to go up to her room, where she changed her shirt real quick and then went downstairs with the others again. "Alright, I think I'm ready for some dancing." She said as she stretched a little to loosen her legs up. At that the boys took the hit it was time to sit down and let the girls show off while they all munched on junk food, waiting for when they would be able to watch their action and slasher movies. Being two girls in a group of boys made it hard to convince them to slip a few girly movies in the mix.

As the game started, the boys started cheering for the girl they thought would win. Tristan and Yugi started cheering for Tea, saying how they have seen her crush even the greatest DDR players at the arcade, but Tristan seemed to be giving his support to Akila. Atem just sat their, not ready to choose who he thought would win before he saw more. It was true, Tea was great, and she was able to keep her balance while Johnny Steps was trying to cheat and trip her, but Akila was an unknown factor in this. He needed to see how she performed first before making his judgment.

The rounds went on for a while; having to go through a few songs considering both their scores were too close, usually only a few points below the other. It wasn't a good enough of a win for either of them. You would have thought that watching them play DDR for so long would eventually get boring to the boys, but the competitive spirit kept everyone pumped. Even Atem started to get into it, not like the others who were whooping and hollering, but by studying both of their steps and debating with himself who was better. Yugi kept looking at Atem, who kept leaking his mental debate through their link a few times before he closed it to shut out the noise. It had taken Yugi a moment to realize that the other wasn't talking to him.

At the end of one of the many songs, the two girls had to take a breather before starting the next one. Who ever said that girls don't sweat would have been proven wrong today as the two bent over to steady themselves as they caught their breath. Akila, who was getting tired of feeling her hair sticking to her face and neck from the sweat, put her hair up in a messy bun with the hair band she always kept around her wrist when she kept it down.

"You're good." Tea said in between breaths. Akila looked at her and smiled.

"You're not to bad yourself." She huffed as the two got back on their mats ready for the next song. It was Tea's turn to pick, and as any other competitor would have done, she picked the hardest song that she could think of that she could beat. Unfortunately for Akila, it happened to be Paranoia Hades Oni. It was the one song that she always tripped up on. Atem noticed the change in her confidence and sighed himself.

"I think this is the end." He muttered, making Akila grit her teeth and growl lightly. How could he just now chirp in about this competition? How dare he doubt her abilities? However, she knew he was right, this was the one song she had yet to master. This wasn't looking good. As the song started, she didn't have a problem keeping up with Tea, but she could feel the muscles in her legs burning from everything they were doing, she was so tired it felt like they didn't want to respond to her anymore, at least not fast enough. To her it seemed like the song would never end. She felt her exhaustion in her head, but she looked over and noticed Tea was feeling it too. All she had to do was keep it up to the end of the song. A stream of arrows started to go up the screen, to fast for her to even comprehend half of them. Her feet were trying to comprehend what her mind was trying to tell them, and in doing so, her feet made contact, making her fall back.

'Damnit' she cursed to herself as she fell backwards. The next thing she knew, she felt a hard thud on the back of her head and she heard multiple gasps all around her. She had hit her head on the coffee table behind her, and blacked out. A moment later, she started coming to. She heard everyone around her, yelling to get her to wake up; making the throbbing headache hurt more. "Ow" She squeaked as she put her hands on her head, eyes still closed, almost forgetting they were closed. She heard what sounded like Tea's voice, shushing the all of them.

"Akila, are you ok?" She heard a strong baritone voice ask her before she felt someone lift her up a little. She let out another groan as her head throbbed again. She let out another 'ow' as if trying to tell him 'no' she then heard a baritone chuckle and she sighed. She knew it was Atem's voice, but at the moment it was the only one that didn't make her head throb. She leaned into him a little, trying to feel more stable in his arms, catching once again the warm, familiar, comforting sent of spices that came off him. "Husn, are you ok?" Akila heard Atem's voice called once more, but the name he used was unfamiliar.

'That's not my name…' She thought to herself before she slowly opened her eyes. Atem looked at her, slightly startled. He had remembered her eyes being a hazel, almost honey golden color, but now they were like a lavender color, it had him startled, and he could see a shocked expression on Akila's face.

As she opened her eyes, Akila silently gasped. She was met by two crimson eyes, but everything else was different. Atem looked different, he was dressed different. For once thing, he had what looked like a gold crown with a weird looking eye in the center of it, and the cloth that she believed was his shirt she was holding, was a purple cloak that seemed to have flung over his shoulder in his rush to see if she was ok. In fact, he didn't seem to be wearing a shirt at all. Once she realized that he was shirtless, she let out a blush and then closed her eyes again

"Akila?" Atem started to shake her once she closed her eyes again, scaring him. He thought maybe she had hit her head harder then he thought. She had hit her head pretty hard, and he did feel the sticky warm liquid that felt like blood. It wasn't a lot, the normal amount for a bump to the head; the thing that worried him what her seeming lack in consciousness and coherency.

"Should I go call an ambulance?" Tea asked, not knowing what else to do. Akila wasn't coming to. However, when the word ambulance was mentioned, Akila started to shake her head and moaning. In unison, the whole group let out a sigh of relief. Akila put her hand on her head, where she could feel her head throbbing. She started to slowly sit up, still not having opened her eyes again, not wanting to see the hallucination again, because that might mean there was something actually wrong with her.

"Hey, slow down." Atem said softly as everyone around her seemed to be on their toes, making sure that Akila didn't get up too quickly, or fall back down. Once she sat up, she slowly opened her eyes, and started to look around her a bit, making sure she wasn't going insane, or hit her head harder then she thought. She sighed with relief when she saw she was in her house, and Atem was fully dressed in normal clothing. She then noticed techno music playing in the background, and looked up at the TV and saw the score on the song that they had been on. It was the first song where there was a significant difference between them. Tea had earned herself an "A+" while she had gotten a "B".

"Aw man, I lost." She said, earning herself a small chuckle from everyone around her. She had just fallen and cracked her head hard on the table behind her, and acted as if she had a concussion and she was worried about whether she won or lost their game of DDR? Atem and Tea looked at each other, not talking to each other, and Tea nodded at him before she stood up and walked to the kitchen, making her an ice pack for her head. Atem took the initiative and maneuvered himself in front of her and took her face in his hand, having her look at him.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Atem asked softly, his eyes bearing deep into her. She was still a little startled with what happened when she opened her eyes the first time, that she was a little hesitant to open them a second time, however, she knew she had to open them up eventually. She slowly opened her eyes, blinking them a few times to focus her vision. She jumped lightly, noticing how close Atem really was.

"I'm fine. It's just a bump on the head." She said backing away from his hand before rubbing the back of her head lightly, feeling a small clump of matted hair from the small cut she had from hitting the table and the slight swelling around it. However, aside from that and the weird hallucination she felt fine.

A Moment later, Tea came back with a dishtowel wrapped icepack and handed it to her before disappearing in the background with the rest of the group, watching to make sure she was ok from a distance. Akila thanked her and put the icepack on, and watched everyone who was staring at her. Her fall had startled them, and it made her blush in embarrassment.

"I okay!" Akila finally blurted out before she started to laugh a little. For some reason she felt like a gold fish in a tank being watched for just doing what she does all the time. "I suppose I should have mentioned I'm a klutz." She then looked at the coffee table and found a spot on it that you wouldn't notice unless you looked really hard. It seemed that it had been covered up by a marker used to fix up marks on wood furniture. She smiled and pointed to it. "See, this isn't the first time I've fallen and hit the table." Everyone seemed to relax at the confession.

"What did you do that time?" Tea asked, getting closer to her. Akila seemed happy that Tea was trying to get close to her, trying to be her friend. At the beginning it didn't even seem like she was willing to learn anything about it. It must be a nice change for her to be around another girl for a change.

"I was running around getting ready for school, I had over slept that day and was rushing around trying to get ready and I tripped over my own two feet. I hit busted my lip and chipped my tooth." She then pointed to a spot under her bottom lip and everyone could see a light line on her skin from the scar. "No stitches, but a really big lip for a while and my parents had to get my tooth fixed." After everyone had a laugh and a chuckle, the mood seemed to light a bit in the room. "I think its time for pizza and movies."

Soon, the room became littered with soda cans, pizza boxes, and crumbs from chips all over the coffee table. The gang sat around the darkened living room watching various horror and slasher films. Akila and Tea were unable to convince any of the boys to allow them to have one movie that didn't have blood in it. Akila wasn't particularly happy with how many zombie films they ended up bringing over. The idea of the bodies of dead humans being reanimated into rotting cannibals terrified Akila, mainly because they seemed more likely to be real compared to vampires and werewolves. She did her best to quiet her screams when something popped out of no where, but it was really difficult for her. She could tell when the suspenseful scenes were coming up, and she could feel her body and mind prepare her for it, which made her jump.

Atem didn't really care much for the movies, he always felt detached from his friends considering the extreme differences in them, but he always enjoyed their company so doing what they wanted to and watching what they wanted to didn't ever bother him. However, as he was watching the movie and enjoying their company, he noticed someone who wasn't having so much fun. He noticed Akila curled on the sofa next to him, knees tucked to her chest, startled by the movie. He felt bad for her but could tell she wasn't going to say anything more about their movie choices. He could tell that she could tell when a battle was lost, but why she didn't mention the fact that she was afraid of this kind of movie scared her so much he didn't know. He was tempted to ask her if she was ok, but she decided right then to get up and start cleaning up the food on the table behind everyone, trying not to disturb them.

"Do you need help?" He whispered to him, noticing that everyone else was like the zombies on the television and didn't notice them. Akila looked up, slightly surprised that he was so easily pulled away from the movie she thought he was enjoying.

"It's not a big deal; I'm just not to these kinds of movies is all. I got it." She whispered as she dumped what was left of the chips into one bowl before stacking them into each other. She then stacked them on top of the pizza boxes and then carried them into the kitchen. She didn't notice that Atem was following behind her with the empty soda bottles tucked under his arms and empty disposable cups stacked together in his hands.

"Horror movies aren't your thing, are they?" Atem asked in the kitchen, making Akila jump. He didn't realize that she would still be so jumpy from a movie. She sat everything down so she wouldn't drop anything like she almost did and sighed.

"Zombie movies freak me out; they seem more likely to happen to me for some reason. I don't know why psycho murder movies don't scare me, because they do exist." She shrugged and chuckled to herself at the fact that slasher movies don't scare her like zombies did. She then looked at him, trying to figure him out. She didn't know why, but she felt that he was different then the others. To her she didn't really fit in as easily. He was more or less like the one piece of the puzzle that obviously didn't fit into the missing space, but you would try and jam it in anyway. Atem could feel her eyes bearing into him and wondered what she saw. He hadn't been here that long, but he never had anyone look so confused about his presence here like she did.

"So what do you like, Akila?" He asked, hoping to get her attention off her analysis of him for a moment. She shook her head, obviously taken off guard by his question.

"I like swimming, and I like reading about Egypt." A questioning look washed over Atem's features. "I know, it just seems like I'm just some nut who really loves her country or something, but it's not like that. Ever since I was little I've always have this fascination with Ancient Egypt. My par…" She paused for a second, her throat drying out at the saddening memory of her dead parents. "My parents used to take me to see the Sphinx all the time when I was little, and they would laugh because every time I went they said I act like I never saw it before." Atem picked up on the momentary lapse of emotion, again sizing her up just like she seemed to be doing to him. "But I also love music. I sing, used to sing in America. It was helpful to learn the language. Singing the lyrics and then having to read them helped me with my reading and writing." She explained to him. "My parents decided to give me a guitar for my birthday one year so I could write my own songs"

"Did you?" Akila smiled.

"I did once. It was a nice way to try and get some things off my shoulders."

"I'd like to hear it sometime." Akila just laughed to herself as she started throwing away the trash and putting the bowls in the sink to wash later on.

"I haven't sung it for anyone other then my parents. I don't think I'm really ready to play it for strangers just yet." She said defensively. She wasn't really ready to tell them that she was adopted. She made the mistake of telling people that when she first started school in New York and regretted it. She got treated as the poor adopted girl with the dead parents for the longest time, at least until she became last week's news to the social media.

"You seem guarded."

"You're one to talk." She blurted out suddenly, a flood of frustration flowed through her, catching Atem off guard. "Ever since I got here you've been watching me and your friends act like I'm a threat or something." Everything that she felt the last week rushed out of her so suddenly to the point where she gave a sigh of relief after she was done. "It's tough enough being ripped from my life to be moved to a different part of the world but then to be watched like some criminal is just frustrating." She raised her voice a bit before she looked into the other room to make sure she didn't raise the others attention. Atem stayed calm knowing she needed to get that off her chest.

"I'm sorry you feel that way. They have reasons to be slightly jumpy with new people. It's not your fault, and they are trying to accept you. You seem to have won them over, though. And when it comes to me… you just are very interesting to me. There is something very…"

"Familiar?" Akila interrupted.

"Yes." He said, curious as to how she knew. Akila looked slightly freaked for a moment and then shook it off.

"I've been having the same feelings as of late, but haven't thought much of it. But the truth is, I don't know you and you don't know me, so please if you will, stop acting like I'm some slide under your microscope. The only way you're going to get to know me is by talking to me."

"Very well; you are right, I'm sorry." He agreed. Akila then jumped onto the counter by the sink and looked at him, not really wanting to go back to the bloody marathon going on in the other room.

"You don't seem to really fit in with Yugi and his friends. I'm not saying you shouldn't be hanging out with them or anything, but you just seem different. You seem more mature and you don't seem to like everything they like, but like being with them when they do things. It's puzzling to me." She said, finally speaking her curiosity.

"You can read people well." He said aloud. "Yugi and I are very close, and his friends have been very accepting to me and I thank them. I owe them a lot, and besides, just like you I am learning new things here as well. What better way to learn then by experiencing them first hand." Akila nodded, accepting his answer as perfectly logical. "Just like you, though, I can read people pretty well. I sense something in your past is a bit more painful then just moving from country to country that has left you so guarded." Akila looked down feeling like she just got hit in the gut at how easily Atem picked up on that. "Something that you haven't been able to recover from fully." He added, noticing that he hit a sore spot, he decided to stop right there. He walked up to her, and put his hand under her chin, lifting it up so she would look at him. He saw what he was afraid to see. He had caused her pain, not with that intention. She had tears wanting to fall from her eyes, but she did everything in her power to stop it. He didn't voice his apologize, but his eyes said everything he couldn't find the words to say.

"Have you ever felt when something bad happens it happens for a reason, like something is pushing you to where you're supposed to be, even if it means hurting the ones you love?" She asked, her voice breaking from her sadness. It had been so long since her parents died, and for some reason she could never forget the pain. She had seen so many therapists to talk about it, but nothing helped. For a while she had been given anti-depressants which had seemed to make things worse. She didn't have a chemical imbalance, she just hurt, and she couldn't find some way to get rid of the hurt. This was closer then anyone had ever gotten to Akila, to make her cry openly. She still wasn't ready to tell him what was really wrong, but she felt safe with Atem, like he wouldn't judge her about anything. She then leaned forward, resting her forehead on his shoulders, and let out a sigh, trying to collect herself. He moved closer to her so he could wrap his arms around her.

"You're so conflicted, Akila. But even if we haven't known each other long, I will be there for you if you ever need me." What he said was true. He couldn't really explain why he could be so willing to hold a stranger like a friend who needed a hug, but right now he wasn't willing to question it. He hurt seeing her cry, and he wanted to help, he would help some how. "We should hang out, just you and me, and get to know each other. I want to know more about you, Akila." At those words, Akila stiffened. This wasn't right, this was too fast. She was crying in front of a guy she just met a few days before, and he was hugging her, and she was letting him. It scared her how comfortable she was around him. She didn't want to stop this, but at the same time, she was scared.

'I don't understand what's going on…' She thought to herself. She then sat up a little, moving out of his arms, and looked him right in the eyes.

"Are you asking me out on a date?"

Author's Note: And that's where we'll end it for now. I'm not sure how soon I'll be able to update seeing as a few things are going on this month. My boyfriend's birthday is at the end of the month and my birthday is on Saint Patrick's Day, but after all that I promise another chapter will come! So until then, ENJOY! And please, try my little challenge I am really interested in what you all come up with! Much love!

P.s: Husn is Akila's old name from her time in Ancient Egypt. If you read the first chapter of "A Siren's Call" You'll see that I said she will have a different name. Well that's it. I don't want to spoil too much in this story, that is why there hasn't been more chapters for her back story, but no worries it will come!