I'm warning people now, before you even read this chapter (and if you miss this don't blame me) is pure fluff. Literally. There might be about 500 words, give or take, that are not pure fluffiness in this chapter. Not much actually happens but I still love it all the same.

Right, with that over with on with the story.

ANOTHER VERY IMPORTANT NOTICE AT THE BOTTOM

Yugi was dreaming, of that he was fairly sure. He was standing in a huge room that was bare apart from the single bed in the centre of the room by the wall. The room was carved from blocks of golden-leaf covered mud-bricks with a design of lotus flowers bordering the walls in the style of the Ancient Egyptians. The only difference here was the fact that the paint was new not crumbling to dust.

All of a sudden a boy rushed in through the open doorway. Yugi blinked. The boy looked just like how Atem might have looked at the age of six, with short spikey hair (the way that Yugi's hair spiked when he cut it short because it wouldn't stay down) and wide innocent crimson eyes. He was dressed in a sort of ancient tunic which originally had been pure white. Now it was stained a sandy colour, probably from playing outside. A small golden collar was around his neck and the boy was giggling madly. He rushed around to the other side of the bed and out of sight from the doorway.

A man suddenly entered the room, his eyes alight with happiness. He was taller than Yugi (although that wasn't hard) but perhaps not quite as tall as Joey. He had brown hair that fell to his shoulders, the first signs of grey showing through and serious grey eyes. He was also wearing a white tunic and had a purple robe thrown over the top. A golden pendent rested around his neck, looking a lot like an upside-down pyramid with an eye carved into it.

The man seemed to catch sight of the boy and a smile crept onto his face. He then turned away from the bed and began to pace the room, scratching his head, one eye still on the corner where the little boy was hiding.

"Hmmm… I wonder where Atem went," the man said playfully, in the manner that adults had when playing with young children. The little boy, Atemu Yugi realised, giggled, hunkering down further. The man's smile widened into a smirk that Yugi had seen plenty of times on Atemu's own face. "Is he on the balcony?" The man made a show of looking out onto the balcony which showed an elaborate garden below and then shook his head. "No? Well… what about in the dressing room?" The man made another show of going into a side room, steadily moving closer to the little boy who was giggling again. Yugi found himself laughing, enjoying this little episode between Atemu and a man who he presumed was his father. Not that Yugi believed that this little boy was actually Atemu. No one dressed like that anymore.

"I know!" the man snapped his fingers, his smirk back in full force. By now he was standing right by the foot of the bed and he was looking at it as if planning something. It reminded Yugi of all the times Joey had played pranks on him. "He must be… behind the bed!" Atemu gave a shriek of laughter and attempted to run from the man who scooped him up off the floor and swung him onto the bed. He then carried on to tickle Atemu who laughed further, squirming to be free.

"Mercy daddy! Mercy!" Atemu cried his accent strangely muddled. Yugi was used to the Arabic lilt in his voice at the moment but here it was like he hadn't quite got the hang of it yet. As if he hadn't been living there all his life.

"Shall I, the pharaoh of all the land, grant mercy upon this prisoner of mine?" the man said, rising up to look down on Atemu. The smile was still on his face.

"Yes!" Atemu shrieked laughing as his father swung him onto his lap.

"All right then," he said, smiling fondly at him. "What do you want to do now?" Atemu seemed to consider this.

"Play a board game!" he cried, wriggling off of his father's lap. He ran into another room and returned holding a board which was roughly the size of a folded monopoly board. The man smiled and took it from the child, pulling out a drawer and setting up the pieces.

"Ok, which do you want to be? The hippos or the hedgehogs?" Atemu didn't even seem to consider.

"The hedgehogs!" The man smiled and began to set up the board. However at that moment a man ran into the room dressed only in a kilt and a headdress. He was holding a spear and his eyes were wild.

"My pharaoh, there has been a breach in security! Soldiers are on their way here!" the man cried, looking to Atemu's father desperately. Yugi felt dread curl in his stomach as the king rose from the bed and put the pieces back into the board.

"Atem," he said his voice suddenly deadly serious. "Put the board back where you found it and then hide under the bed until I tell you it is safe." Atemu just looked confused.

"But- "

"NOW Atem!" Atemu flinched at the power in his father's voice and scurried away with the board. A moment later he was back and crawling under the bed. Yugi thanked the fact that he was so small as he dived under the bed with him. He didn't want to find out who these soldiers were.

Yugi watched as the two men left, hearing nothing but Atemu's quick breathing next to him. He could tell that the boy was confused and scared as to his father's sudden change in moods. A long time, perhaps an hour seemed to stretch out, before anything seemed to happen. In that time there had been the faint sound of shouting and even the odd scream of a child or woman. Atemu was now on the verge of hyperventilating, his eyes now wide with fear rather than excitement. Then, four men burst into the room.

The men were shouting and what appeared to be blood dripped to the floor. They paced back and forth, three men against one, and all of a sudden there was a horrible squelching sound and Yugi suddenly found himself face to face with a pair of wide staring eyes. He heard Atemu's breath hitch as they watched the blood drip from a gaping wound in the man's throat. More feet entered the room, more men fell to the floor and finally it all seemed to become too much for Atemu. As the third man fell to the floor, he let loose a terrible scream…

Yugi woke to the sound of his brother crying out. He sat bolt upright in bed, the imprint of those wide eyes staring back at him still stuck behind his eyelids. The halls were silent now but Yugi heard the sound of Grandpa's light snapping on. Someone got out of bed and Yugi heard Grandpa's shuffling steps moving down the hall. Yugi crawled out of his own bed and pulled his door open a crack and peeped out. He glimpsed Atemu sitting bolt upright in bed, breathing heavily and Grandpa sitting next to him talking to him quietly. By the looks of things, Atemu hadn't been having the best of dreams either.

Yugi sighed and quietly closed the door again. For a moment he had been tempted to go and find out what was wrong but he got the feeling that there was nothing he could do. And anyway, it wasn't as if Atemu would tell him anything even if he did. He seemed to be keeping everything of importance from Yugi.

The whole afternoon of the previous day had been spent with the Kaiba's, Seto Kaiba having dropped everything to spend the afternoon with them, including a business trip to America. Yugi got the feeling that their father was something to do with that. Atemu had been quiet the whole afternoon, only speaking when spoken to. He had been silent the whole trip home and had gone straight to his room the moment they had gotten home. Yugi had thought that Grandpa would scold them when they returned but he only spared a sad look in Atemu's direction before asking Yugi how his afternoon with his newly found cousin had gone. Well, Yugi wasn't sure how he felt about Seto but he was sure that he definitely liked Mokuba, even if they weren't related.

Not that Yugi had been complacent. After rigorously interrogating his grandfather as to why he had never known that the Kaiba's were his cousins, his grandfather had simply gotten that sad look on his face again and replied with, "It wasn't something you needed to know." Yugi wouldn't admit it but he was scared. Ever since Atemu had come to Japan, there had been nothing but trouble in his life. He had started to discover that the world he lived in wasn't real, that even his own grandfather, whom he had thought he could count on through anything, was hiding secrets from him. He had heard his father for the first time in over ten years and he hadn't even spoken to him! It was like the entire planet had turned upside-down and he wasn't sure exactly how to put it back together again.

"Are you sure?" It was his grandfather, probably leaving Atemu's room considering his voice was a little louder. Yugi didn't hear his brother's reply but it must have been the affirmative as his grandfather shuffled back to his room. Yugi peeked out of his door once he heard Grandpa's light click off. Then he slipped down the hall towards Atemu's room.

Yugi had yet to enter Atemu's room, having never had reason to enter the spare room before. It had always been clear that the room was meant to be used for something as Yugi had always shared with his mother while she was alive. He remembered asking her why she didn't sleep in the spare room but all she had answered with was that she couldn't bring herself to leave her only son alone in the night. Yugi now wondered if that was true. Had even his own mother been lying to him? It was a disturbing thought and one that Yugi wished he could throw off.

Atemu was still sitting up in bed, the duvet tossed aside, staring out of the window. A shaft of moonlight entered the room through a gap in the curtains and Yugi could make out the moon through it. It bleached the colour out of the room but Yugi could still see that it was meticulously tidy, as if no one stayed there. Yugi had thought that Atemu might have brought something, anything, to remind him of Egypt but there was nothing. The bedside table was empty, the desk bare of anything personal. It was as if someone had just packed all the essentials and Atemu had left Egypt behind him, hoping to lose the memories.

"Are you all right?" Yugi asked quietly, hovering in the doorway. He still wasn't sure how to act around his brother but he was warming up to him slightly. Even hearing the tone of their father's voice had made Yugi wonder if Atemu's childhood had actually been all that great. I would not like to be contacted on this number again unless in an actual emergency… The words might have been sugar-coated but they were harsh like knives. Atemu hadn't even reacted, his eyes staying on the floor of the police station. What kind of father wouldn't want to be contacted by his own sons?

Atemu turned to look at him in the darkness and for a moment, Yugi saw that his eyes were wide, almost in a mirror of his dream. Yugi remembered the little boy screaming as the dead men's faces stared at him and shuddered. He was glad it was just a dream.

"Yugi! I didn't realise…" Atemu trailed off, looking ashamed. Yugi felt guilty that his brother wouldn't talk to him and moved further into the room.

"It's ok. You didn't wake me up. I had a nightmare too." Yugi wasn't sure why he was disclosing that to Atemu- it wasn't as if he would care- but he felt happier saying it. This was what brothers, twins, were supposed to do. They both would be sixteen in a few weeks and suddenly Yugi wanted Atemu to be there with him, celebrating their birthday like they were five years old again and nothing had gone wrong in their lives. Atemu smiled up at him, a real smile, and patted the side of the bed.

"What was it about?" he asked when Yugi had sat next to him. Yugi shrugged, putting it off as something he couldn't remember. He didn't want his brother to worry about him considering he wasn't having the most pleasant night of his life either. Then Yugi surprised himself.

"Can I stay here with you?" he asked, looking up at his brother's face. For the first time since he had arrived, Yugi didn't curse the fact that Atemu was taller than he was. It felt more like they were older brother and younger brother rather than arguing twins. He wasn't even sure why he had been angry in the first place. Atemu gave him another smile and nodded.

"Of course." Silence stretched out a moment.

"Atemu?"

"Yes?"

"Thank you."

Yugi didn't have any more nightmares for the rest of the night. In fact, all his worries had slipped away for those few hours in Atemu's room.

Solomon was curious as to why it was so quiet when he awoke that morning. After he had been woken by Atemu crying out, he had been worried that the poor boy wouldn't go back to sleep. It seemed like something he would do, too stubborn to admit that he was frightened. Solomon was sure that the nightmare was in remembrance of something horrible from his childhood, but he didn't want to pry. If Atemu didn't want to tell him, then that was fine. It would be almost cruel to try and get answers out of him.

Solomon decided to see whether Yugi had been disturbed by the night's events only to find that Yugi's room was empty. Frowning, Solomon searched through the house, unable to find Yugi anywhere. Finally, he stood outside Atemu's room, wishing that he could do anything other than disturb the poor boy. He deserved to get some sleep after last night and it wasn't fair to wake him up after that.

The sight that met Solomon when he opened the door caused him to freeze in the doorway. And then to smile. Yugi was curled up against his brother's chest, snoring softly, looking very peaceful. Even Atemu, who was holding Yugi close, looked more at peace than Solomon had ever seen him. In fact, they both looked happy, a single stream of sunlight lighting their faces like sleeping angels. Solomon smiled softly and then quietly closed the door again, leaving the pair to sleep.

Joey couldn't remember a day when he had wanted to talk to Yugi more. His sister had called that morning, wanting to talk to him, only to find their already drunk father on the other end of the phone. After wrangling the phone out of the man's hands (and gaining a few new bruises to boot) he had finally managed to talk to Serenity, only to find that she had called to tell him that she needed an operation. An operation to save her eyesight which they couldn't afford. Joey had felt his stomach drop and even the sound of his father raving in the background had fallen away.

Serenity was going blind. And there was nothing he could do to stop it.

He needed to talk to Yugi desperately, needed someone to listen, maybe even to help. He needed to get money fast, his part-time job in the mechanics' no longer enough to keep his family happy. It didn't matter that most of his wages went on the running of the house, the mortgage and bills while the rest fuelled his father's drinking problems. He had just been able to scrape a living, able to have good friends who made him forget the troubles in his life. Now his sister was never going to see him again and he couldn't stand that. Serenity was everything to him. If she wasn't happy then everything that he was doing wasn't worth it.

And he had thought that life couldn't get any worse than it already was.

When he arrived at the Game shop he found it closed and locked. He frowned and banged on the door, not in the mood to attempt to even sound pleasant.

"Hey Mr Motou!" he shouted. "It's me! Joey! I need to talk to Yugi!" There was no answer. Joey swore and banged on the door again, scowling at the closed sign. This had never happened before and Joey, surprisingly, cursed Atemu for arriving for the first time. Joey had nothing against the boy –he hadn't really spoken to him much- but he really needed to speak to Yugi and he guessed that he was stopping him.

Joey's eyes caught sight of a window above the game shop and an idea caught. Quickly, he stooped down and scooped up some pebbles. Preying that he wouldn't cause the Motou's to have to pay for a new window, he pulled him arm back and threw the first pebble.

Ok, I will admit that Joey's bit was just to set up a plot point in the next chapter.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: I'm sorry if the bold capital lettering annoys you but it's so that I don't get any annoying people sending me messages shouting 'UPDATE' without reading. Next week I will be going on a kind of work experiency kind of thing (I'm not saying what) which will mean that I won't have much a) writing time or b) updating time. So if this and the rest of my stories go very quiet for a few weeks this is where I will be. I will try to update as often as I can but don't count on regular stuff (not that I am a regular updater).

So moving away from that thanks to everyone who reviewed and read this. It really makes me happy when people review but I can't complain really.

So moving swiftly on...

Magical Guest: Thank you for your review. The irony of what you asked is that Mahad turns up (or is mentioned) in the next chapter and then turns up in it for a bit. I'm trying to write Mana into this because she is part of this story (mainly because she's obviously one of Atem's friends) and because I love her. So yeah, she will turn up at some point, I just haven't got to her bit yet. As for In a Time of Ignorence I will be continuing that but it's kind of taken a back seat to this, Court of Emrys and The War of the Wizards (which is literally one chapter away from completion). It will be completed though! Along with all the other stories I've promised people I will update/finish/actually repost... It will happen at some point.

CrimsonStraberry17: I know you didn't ask anything of me this time, I just wanted to give you a special thank you because I have never come across anyone who reviews every chapter. I wish there were more people out there like you!