Disclaimers: Yu-Gi-Oh belongs to Kazuki Takahashi, and any other items mentioned in this belong to their respective owners. PFFFT, I'm not going to say "If it was mine etc." because honestly, if I DID own Yu-Gi-Oh, I'd probably ruin it with my fail.
"Ah, Yugi... Come in!" It hadn't been difficult to figure out which room Malik had chosen to explain things to Mai in. By the time he'd gotten there however, it appeared that she had been filled in only about Bakura however, given that she'd just called him 'Yugi' yet again.
The teen came into the room, collapsing on one of the two couches there with his head in his hands. Bakura looked up from where Malik was currently sitting on him, the blond's face wet with tears. Rubbing the teen's back with such care that the others had to stare briefly, the thief raised an eyebrow. "You look like someone just kicked your cat Pharaoh," he said, Atem noting that Mai held no confusion at the name. She knew then? But why call him Yugi?
Atem merely sighed, leaning back on the couch. "Earlier, when the phone rang... It was Joey. Apparently he and whoever else is with him will arrive in a few minutes..."
Beside him, Mai blinked, before frowning. Atem's current expression said quite clearly how much he was looking forwards to this, and Malik looked absolutely terrified until the teen he sat with whispered something in his ear. "That means him, Tea, and Serenity then." As Atem turned to ask what happened to Tristan, she shrugged. "Tristan joined the military a few months ago," the woman said with a wink. "You were quite distraught about it, Hun."
He blinked, before sighing again. So that was why; it was an attempt to keep anyone from finding out. But while Mai would be content with that, he wasn't. Not only because of the lie, but because of how bad a lie it was. Yugi had seen the others just a week before. While she knew of his reaction through conversations on the phone, she hadn't known what he looked like the week before. So while she could easily pretend that 'Yugi' had hit a growth spurt, and grown his hair out, the others likely wouldn't.
Bakura looked over at Atem. "Well now, we can explain this to everyone at once, can't we?" He smirked. "After all, I'm sure they'll want to know how the 'Pharaoh' is back from his grave..."
The teen answered with a half-hearted 'yes', eventually adding an 'I suppose so', before falling to the side on the couch. Rolling over slightly, he buried his face in the cushions, eventually falling asleep.
Mai got up, stretching as she watched Bakura pull a couch throw over a now sleeping Malik. "I'll watch the door for you boys..." She smiled, before heading out of the room. "Make sure that one," she said as she pointed at Atem, "Gets some shut-eye."
The thief looked over at the unmoving teen on the couch, smirking. "As you wish, though I can't guarantee how long it will be..." Mai chose not to answer that as she shut the door behind her.
It did not, as Joey had said, take long before the doorbell rang. As the bell pealed through the house, Atem sunk further and further into the cushion, dreading the inevitable as the doorbell stopped. There was silence, before a collective off footsteps came towards the room. As Malik stirred, Bakura pulled the teen closer to him and the corner he sat in on the couch. As the others entered, very few actually took advantage of this space however; while Serenity eventually took a seat beside the pair, Tea and Joey both seemed to be looking at the thief with silent horror.
Letting the others chat amongst themselves (Bakura sending a glare to match the one Joey sent towards him), Mai gently shook Atem's shoulder. "Come on hun... They're here." Receiving no response, Mai sighed, turning to the others with a shrug.
Bakura sat up, a now awake Malik relinquishing his grip on the thief as he sat up as well. "Please," he said with dark humor, "Allow me..." Grabbing the remote off the coffee table in the room, he pegged it at the teen without even sparing the target a glance.
"Ach!" He jumped up, a few of the others in the room sniggering as he gave an odd, yawning groan. Those who recognized him so to speak stared. It was quite evident how tall he was, even as the teen remained seated to rub the back of his now bruising head. Eyes still shut, the teen quickly froze. "...Ah..." He turned, blinking as the others stared back, confused and likely curious. "Hello, everyone..." It was like watching Yugi on the first day of school all over, he told himself. Except this time, the situation was far worse, and there was no washroom or soul room to hide in.
As it was, he decided as Joey took a step forwards, it would likely have made things worse if there was. "Y...Yami?"
Atem nodded slowly, his head mostly averted from the others awkwardly. As Tea appeared to grin at the prospect of him coming back however, the woman froze. "But... Shouldn't you be dead..?" She shook her head, confused. "I mean... You went back to your own time, didn't you?"
He tensed, before nodding again. "That is... Correct. Though I go by Atem now..." As he said this, Malik appeared to grow pale, wrapping his arms around himself as Bakura pulled him close. The grip seemed protective, and almost objectifying, as though the one holding the blond had not held anything other than rare treasures for a majority of his life. As the others ignored the growing guilt emanating from Malik (Mai standing between the pair and the newcomers with her arms behind her back), Tea frowned.
"Then what happened?"
"And just out of curiosity, who is he..?" The others turned to Serenity, who was gesturing over to Bakura curiously.
The thief scoffed, before smirking. "Really, 'Atem', I'd assumed you'd be bragging about my defeat for until you moved on..."
The others tensed, and Joey clenched his fists. "Bakura..." He was held back by Mai however, who shook her head. "Nyeh? What're yah do-"
"Come on Hun- now isn't the time, alright." The serious look in her eyes strengthened those words, and although he was hesitant, Joey nodded and stepped back.
Atem, however, had just gotten enough of a breath to explain what had happened. "There was an... Accident," he finally said, as the others turned to him. Even Bakura's eyes widened slightly, as Malik tensed and turned away with a bitten tongue. The teen could almost hear the thoughts of the others as he said this... 'No', they were saying, quietly, nervously. 'No, you can't say that'. "During a ritual he was present for, something went wrong..." Tea was already about to cry, and Joey looked as though he would punch the first thing that spoke to him. On the couch, Mai was no taking a seat and comforting Serenity, who had already guessed just what was going on. Atem gritted his teeth, head turned to the floor as he continued. "And Yugi... He was there..."
His fists clenched, and he fought off the wave of rage and hurt that was threatening to overcome him, threatening to come out as it had almost done in the ritual room itself. Snapping at the bars of the soul's cage, screeching in pain and anger as it cried for the blood of the one who had done this. These things, these terrible things, so easily held back by the shock and disbelief of a situation- he pushed back that feeling, as the mental cries he envisioned pounded against his skull. 'NO!', they screamed, 'NO! This didn't happen! It couldn't happen!'. "...Yugi... Yugi didn't make it..."
Mai pulled Serenity close into a hug, Bakura doing the same to Malik; both were meant to comfort, but both were visually and intentionally different in their reasoning. As Tea finally let loose the tears she'd been holding back with a cry, Joey gritted his teeth. "Who did it," he forced out as he walked over to Atem. "WHO KILLED HIM!" His fist slammed into the coffee table, a wide and sick sounding crack emitted through the wood.
The teen pulled back slightly, still not looking up. "He was killed in an act of 'equivalent exchange', a 'life for a life' deal that nearly killed everyone in the room." The feelings were returning, and he shoved them back with a hatred for his own self. He could have thrown the spell off, forced it to cancel and nothing would have happened. He ignored the fact that it had completely caught him off guard, ignored the fact that Yugi would have still died due to the presures of the ritual. It was his fault, he told himself, not Malik's, and certainly not Ryou's. "For something to be created," he continued, not caring what kind of damage would be dealt to him there, "Another thing must be lost, and then some... Tax, if you will..." He took a shuddering breath, as his head was thrown upwards by the force Joey was using to shake his shoulders.
"Who did it! Someone else w's there! WHO DID IT!" As Joey continued shouting, Atem's eyes looked past the teen at Bakura and Malik. The thief quickly understood, narrowing his eyes before leaving the room with Malik.
Atem turned his head back down, breathing slightly labored as the shaking stopped. Tears were visibly streaming from his eyes as he swallowed, dry throat rasping as his friend let go. "Those who did it are not to blame for this, Joey." His breathing was hitched, shaking as he continued, the others in the room putting two and two together after Malik and Bakura both disappeared. "Not only were they unaware of the consequences, having suffered themselves, they were blinded by their grief." The tears continued to fall, staining the couch they fell. "They only did what you would have done for the sake of an old friend."
Before Joey could speak, having noticed that Malik was no gone, Atem continued, holding his head in his hands as he seemingly spoke on 'autopilot'. "If you wish to hunt them down for what they've done... Then be the first person to do that to me, in their place. But I will not allow another person to die when it will do nothing.
Mai turned with wide eyes as Atem said this, Serenity's face buried in her shoulder. "Wait, Joey-" Tea as well paled, her sobbing cut short as they watched the blond stand their for a moment. The teen was too quiet now, standing there with clenched fists... "Joey, hold on," the woman said as she stood, watching the teen pull Atem up by the front of his shirt. "Joey!"
A loud, echoing crack rang through the room again, Joey holding his fist frozen past Atem's face and watching as it turned back to face him slowly. He shook, staring at the broken man before him, at the blood that now dripped from Atem's bleeding lip and cheek. At the tear lines and kohl markings that were soaked in water from his tears, seemingly highlighted by the droplets. Atem's cheek burned terribly, but he did nothing, his eyes as blank and frozen as they'd been while he spoke. Staring ahead, unmoving as they watched the teen that trembled with rage before him. The teen who, like him, had tears dotting his eyes.
He dropped the teen, collapsing to his knees as Atem's face fell forwards. As Joey cried, loudly, painfully and so unlike himself that it wasn't at all out of place, Atem's shaking voice came out again, barely louder than a whisper. "Forgive me..." Joey didn't respond, his own head turned to the floor as he trembled at the loss of his best, and closest friend. "Please forgive me for what I've done..." It took all he could, to keep from simply fleeing his body right there. From taking off for the sky, to calm himself of the flurry of emotions that were finally spiraling out of control. "I'm so sorry, Jonouchi-kun." There was a subtle response from Joey with the use of his Japanese name. It was a response that told him things would, eventually, heal. He didn't know how, he didn't know when. But they would heal.
"It was... It was Malik, wasn't it?" Atem looked up, eyes wide and his mouth hanging open slightly as he and the other women in the room turned to Serenity. Joey continued to stare silently at the floor, fists clenched as the veins in his skin became more and more visible against his now pale skin. He remained silent at the girl's partial statement, swallowing. He had a bad feeling about what would happen if Malik was out-ed as the one who had started the ritual... If he didn't speak before it was too late, there was likely to be blood spilled.
Mai looked around the room nervously, before hurriedly changing the subject. "Joey, you said that guy with Malik was Bakura right?" She didn't wait for an answer, continuing anyways. "I thought Bakura was that quiet, pale boy, not some tanned young man..." The woman gave a partially seductive smirk, watching as both Joey and Atem turned to look at her.
"Well... Ryou is still Ryou..." The teen coughed, sitting up straight as he attempted to regain his voice, watching as Joey also moved to take a seat on the couch. As the others followed suit, they turned to him, waiting for his answer. "'Bakura' is the soul of the one that Zorc used to manipulate Ryou from the millennium ring... Recently, Ryou, Malik, and myself freed him from the Shadow Realm..." He trailed off, inwardly wincing. He didn't really know how deep bad blood would go in this case; while Bakura might not have almost killed anyone directly, the fact was that having their souls removed from their bodies was also fairly intense.
Blinking from her position between Serenity and Mai, Tea stared at Atem with a confused expression on her face. "So does that mean... He's not evil anymore?"
Serenity also asked a question, meekly raising her hand slightly before speaking. "Sorry... But if Bakura came from Ryou, then why does he look so much darker..?"
Atem blinked, smiling slightly as he answered the questions. The change in subject was more than welcoming; he was still fighting off the negativity of the last conversation. "Ah... To answer your question Serenity," he said with a slightly nervous laugh. 'Not evil' indeed... He decided not to answer that question really. "The reason why 'Bakura' was so pale was because it was not his body. Ryou is pale, and as he was possessing his body at the time, their appearances matched. Bakura's body however, is completely his, and therefore matches his original appearance."
The girl blinked, smiling lightly and nodding. "Ah... I see."
As the room began to fall silent again, he was pulled from his now drifting thoughts by Joey. "How... How was this all an' accident, I mean..." He bit back a shout, fists still clenching slightly as he turned to Atem. "How could Malik... 'Accidentally' kill..." He couldn't finish the sentence, having more than enough trouble with the knowledge of the death in itself, a feeling that Atem was aware of all too well.
He remained silent momentarily, biting his lip before continuing. "The ritual to bring a person to life requires three people; theoretically, the life energies of all three is divided equally to bring another to life without drawbacks." He chose not to say that the third person was killed before the ritual finished to provide a body. The others had enough to deal with as it was. "While the process nearly killed Malik, Yugi himself was not so lucky." The teen sighed, unconsciously rubbing his arm as he spoke. All this stress, this misery... It was too much, far too much for a soul that was meant for flight, a soul meant to be carefree and relaxed once the battle was over. "Malik himself," he continued, "Is still distraught over the event. He might seem fine to you, but inside he is grieving just as much, if not more than us, due to the guilt of it all. The teen stared at the ground, before blinking as a hand rested on his shoulder. Atem looked up as Tea sat beside him, Serenity and Mai also standing nearby.
"We..." Tea choked, tears still in her eyes as she wrapped an arm around him. "We're all here for you, ok, Atem?" She smiled, before pulling back to stand up and offer him a hand. "We'll deal with this together, alright?"
"You..." He blinked, eyes wide with slight shock before he took the hand and stood up. Why... How was it that they were so quick to forgive, so quick to move on? This friendship that he had felt through Yugi's body and soul, how did it spread so deep that they were willing to forgive those involved in the boy's death completely? He looked at the faces of the others, watching as Joey stood up and wiped his eyes as well. He wasn't their 'Yami' anymore. He certainly couldn't be their Yugi. And yet these people who he had known only just slightly... Yes, he expected it from Tea he admitted. But from all the others...
As he looked at Joey, he watched the blond break into an uneasy, but nonetheless sincere smile. "Yea... Tea's right. All for one, an' one for all, yah know?" The others nodded, Mai standing at the side before Atem found himself pulled awkwardly into an enormous group hug.
"Gn!" Shocked at first, he found himself smiling in the end. It was good to be back, so to speak. Even with people missing, even when there was now a hole in their hearts that could never be filled, the warmth that radiated from the others was welcomed. He had to wonder, mentally, just how odd this hug looked however. Half slouched on his shins, his arms had been pulled over someone else's shoulders while his head was thrown rather tightly between those same shoulders.
There was a knock from the door, and they pulled out, watching as Mai walked over to answer it. Opening it wide, she stood back as Bakura walked in, carrying Malik on his back. "Ah, Bakura..."
He was cut off as the thief let Malik down, the pair taking a seat on the couch. The thief did not, however, relax in any way, occasionally whispering to Malik in Egyptian as he watched the others in the room with narrowed eyes. Malik, in the meantime, seemed considerably less like his usual self as he leaned into the thief King's arms, shaking slightly as he sent nervous glances around the room. Finally, he looked over at Atem. "...Can you..." He continued speaking in Egyptian, the others frowning and listening in curiously. "Can you tell them I'm sorry..?" He swallowed, turning away. "I don't think they'd believe me, if I told them myself."
His response was in Japanese, and he looked directly at Malik rather than glancing at those behind him. Ignoring whatever comments might come from them, he shook his head. "I already told them... They forgive you, Malik." As he said this, Bakura continued to stare at the others, his eyes focused on the still slightly tensed Joey. True, they were in front of Atem, who could probably stop the blond from attacking Malik easily. But one could never be to sure, he told himself, so he kept himself prepared.
Deciding to change the subject to happier things, Atem turned to look at the others again. "So... What exactly are you four doing in Eygpt?"
"Ah," Serenity blinked, answering for the others with a soft smile. "Nii-san, Tea, and myself signed up for an exchange program here. Tristan signed up as well, but was unable to come due to summer activities involved with the military."
Tea continued where Serenity left off. "We agreed to come early to see Yu-" She paled, becoming silent. It was hard... Realizing that Yugi was gone forever rather than just not there.
Walking over as the girl stopped talking, Mai decided to finish for her. "I had decided to come here for a possible entry into Cairo's duel monster tournament; when I heard that the others would be coming as well, I decided to drop by with them."
Joey grinned, nodding. "Heh, yea! That way we're all..." The grin faded just as quickly as it had come, before he finished the sentence off. "...T'gether..." As the group grew silent, Tea coughed, attempting to change the subject.
"So... Atem... What happened to your hair, it looks really different..." The others turned, Joey nodding in agreement as he added a 'i's not goin' up anymore!' to the question.
From the couch, Bakura smirked, answering before Atem could. "His gravity defiant hair was forced to obey the laws of physics in the afterlife." Malik snerked at the joke, while the subject of the conversation merely crossed his arms with a frown.
"I'm fairly certain that it would have gone back 'up' when I came back if that were the case, Bakura. And if you must know, the journey to the Fields of Aaru, essentially heaven, involves a fairly long and arduous journey by sea." He turned to look at the others before continuing, having a feeling that those on the couch already knew what he was talking about. "Specifically, I was required to pass through 21 gates, each one 21 leagues apart, with each gate bearing a challenge of sorts. Generally a battle of sorts." Well, Malik thought mentally, at least that explained how the bird had fought so well against the 'chimera' in the Shadow Realm. He listened as Atem continued on yet again. "In any case... By the time I made it to the fields, my hair had grown out. I had become fairly attached to it, so I decided not to cut it in the end."
They blinked, before Serenity looked up at Atem's face and asked another question. "Ano... What about the lines..?" Atem blinked, before the girl made two 'tear' motions on her face. "The tear lines; where did those come from?"
Malik looked over at Bakura expectantly, Atem looking at the thief with narrowed eyes in the corner of his sight. The thief king shrugged, before crossing his arm. "I have no snide remark for those; learn to be creative."
The blond Egyptian frowned, crossing his arms. "Tch, I'm creative! I just can't think of anything!"
Atem sighed, before turning back to the others and shrugging. Joey, of course, did not expect this. "Whaaaaaat? Whad'ya mean you don' know? They weren' there last time we saw yah!"
There was another shrug, and the teen began scratching his cheek in what had apparently become a bad habit of his, the fingernail following the side of his tear line. "Quite honestly, I've looked like this since I moved on into the Afterlife... I can only assume this is what my Ka always appeared as."
The others looked at each other in awkward silence, before turning back to him. "Even the height," asked Tea nervously, still confused about having to look up slightly to meet the teen's eyes.
"Yea man, you must be as tall as Kaiba!" Atem laughed embarrassingly at Joey's last comment. Something told him that if that was the case, meeting with Kaiba would prove very... Interesting. Nonetheless, he couldn't come up with a solid answer for that. He assumed that it had to do with the height of his Ka of course (as when his body was completely that of a bird, he was this exact height), but either way. On the bright side, he added mentally, they hadn't made a comment on the thick kohl-like shadows around his eyes... Though they probably assumed those were created with makeup.
The group turned however, as Bakura smirked. "Perhaps," he said with a menacing and eerily familiar chuckle, "The pharaoh's testicles finally dropped and he hit puberty."
Needless to say, the comment successfully got a rise out of the teen; in fact, if one looked closely, the could see his soul-form's feathers bristle and rise up. As it was, his hair was already doing something similar, and Atem was beet red. "Excuse me!"
"Hey! That was uncalled for Bakura!" Joey glared as Tea joined in, hands on her hips.
"Yea, what was with that comment?" The thief merely laughed loudly at the reactions he got, grinning as Malik snickered as well.
He eventually calmed himself down, shrugging. "Well, that's my theory at least. Called for or not, I can bet that it's true..."
As the thief continued grinning, Atem narrowed his eyes. "Trust me Bakura, I can guarantee that it is not that." Crossing his arms, he looked at the others from the corner of his eyes. "And if I were you, I wouldn't react so strongly... If anything, you're encouraging him even more..."
"Nyeh, but... But he j's said... Aw what th' heck." Joey sighed, appearing to admit a temporary defeat as Tea rubbed her head in the same action. Bakura in the meantime, continued laughing again, increasing his volume before shaking his head.
"Really, your faces... Absolutely priceless." He smirked, looking over at the former pharaoh with a raised eyebrow. "I must say though, 'Atem'. You know far more about me than I gave you credit for."
While the others stared at the thief after realizing he'd used the teen's actual name, Atem himself merely shrugged with a small smile. "I doubt so actually... I don't know much really. All I can do is make a few guesses given the right evidence." As he smiled, he had to admit that he rather liked this side of Bakura. Though it likely had to do with the fact that the thief was no longer bent on killing him really... As he smiled however, Malik leaned over to whisper something in Bakura's ear. The thief blinked, turning to Atem for a moment... And then promptly shook with a loud and almost barking laugh once again. Atem sighed, putting a hand on his forehead. "What now..."
The laughter continued, and briefly, the teen wondered if it was some odd inside joke that the pair had made. The others were certainly clueless enough, and as he held his head, he watched as Bakura stopped whispering and spoke out loud instead. "Hnhnhn... You're most likely right about that Malik... Or maybe he's just..." He turned to Malik, the pair blinking in silence before the thief finished the sentence. "Gay?" They started laughing once again, as Atem proceeded to respond with a face-palm. "Hahhh..." As the teen sighed and rubbed his forehead, he shook his head. So much for enjoying that side... He turned to look at the others, most of whom were holding back a particularly murderous looking Joey.
"Oh," Bakura said as he looked over at Joey. "What was that..? I didn't quite hear you," he said with a grin.
Joey growled, attempting to break free of the girl's fairly solid hold on his arms. "AH SAID THA- MMPH!" He turned to Tea, glaring as the girl held a hand firmly over his mouth.
"You SAID nothing! Honestly, all you're doing is giving them a good laugh!" She scowled, before nodding over to Atem. "You don't see Atem shouting do you? No! Only you! Stop acting like such a kid Joey!" Releasing the teen, she and Serenity watched as he folded his arms over each other and muttered something about unpacking his things. Mai as well left the room, though it was likely to calm the blond down rather than unpack a bunch of bags. Particularly since she was staying at a nearby hotel. Before they left however, Malik decided to build on the already tense/humorous situation.
"Maybe," he said as he gained a falsely ponderous expression, "It was with the mutt..." He smirked, and Bakura looked at Joey and Atem with a grin.
"WHY I OUGHTA-" Joey's shouts were quickly blocked out by the door as Tea, Serenity, and Mai all pushed him out of the room, following after to make sure he didn't do anything stupid... Such as attempt to com back in.
"Joey, go sit with Mai and have a nice long talk or something..."
"What she said, Nii-san..."
As they left, Bakura continued smirking before turning with a grin to Atem. The teen was currently rubbing his head, a figurative 'tic' growing as the chaos ensued and (at this point) ended. Though Joey was now outside to calm down, he had a feeling that Bakura had a few more aces up his sleeve in terms of getting a rise.
He was right. Watching as Bakura simply stared at him with the smug smirk on his face, Atem eventually stopped rubbing his head and began heading for the door. "I think it would be best to head to bed now. It's getting late after all." The other two shrugged- it beat sitting down there all night- before following behind the teen and chuckling silently as Atem let the tips of his wings drift out of the body. As though responding to that, he rolled his shoulders a bit before continuing to let the wing tips 'hang'; he knew that living with them 'inside' would be something he needed to get used to but... Well, quite honestly, it was uncomfortable enough with all the skin-tight leather he was wearing.
"You know," Bakura said as they walked down the hall, smirking. "They're going to find out sooner or later, so why not go outside and show them 'Pharaoh'?" The four ahead in the next room blinked, ducking into the hall as Atem hurriedly retracted the wings.
Malik grinned, catching on to what his partner was doing. "Yea," he said as the other four began coming towards them. "You're a pretty magnificent looking chicken if I say so myself~"
The teen tensed, hair bristling again as the others, for the most part, raised their eyebrows in confusion. "I am not a chicken!" He went red as he said this, the other two simply laughing.
"Fine," the blond said with a grin. "A peacock."
Bakura continued chuckling, watching as Atem clenched his fists. From what he could tell, the teen was likely gritting his teeth too, though he appeared to be letting the comment slide. It did look rather similar in terms of body colour after all. "Well Pharaoh," he said as the others listened intently, "Are you going to tell them or not?"
He bit his cheek, before turning to head up the stairs. "No!" Behind him, the others groaned.
"Awww, C'mon Atem! We wanna see!" Joey was quickly elbowed for being rude, though it was plainly obvious that nothing he had said was at all far from the truth. The teen sighed, pausing on the stairs before tensing. Bakura was speaking again.
"Well now," he said with a sarcastic drawl, "That's not fair is it? You showed us, but not your closest friends?" He grinned slyly, an action oddly similar to his jackal counterpart. "Really.. I'd expect better from the former 'Nameless Pharaoh'."
By this point, it was fairly plain to see that a majority of Atem's hair was at least attempting to stand straight, and he gripped the banister on the stairs tightly to keep from simply sandwiching the thief in his wings. "I didn't exactly have a choice at the time," he finally bit out.
This time, Malik decided to counter the statement, grinning as he watched the figurative tics appear around Atem's head. "But you wouldn't be that rude to your friends now would you?"
His nails dug into the banister wood, still red. "I stand by my decision!"
At the bottom of the stairs, the others frowned. "Awww..." Tea sighed, coming up a few of the stairs to approach Atem. "What kind of thing is it that you don't want to show us Atem?"
"Well," Malik began, before he was cut off by the one on the stairs.
"FINE!" The shout made most of the others jump slightly, blinking as he continued. "I'll tell them... But I would prefer to do it my way than yours." Ra give him at least that; all this 'chicken' talk on top of the earlier revealing of Yugi's demise was weighing on him all too much. Anything more, and he'd probably snap. He held back a shudder as the thought entered his mind, focusing on Tea's smile as the woman moved past to head upstairs.
Following behind, Malik merely shrugged. "Alright, alright... If it's anything like what I think you're getting at, then I know where to bring you." He moved past the others, and led them towards a third staircase.
Serenity blinked. "I thought the building had two floors..." A voice from behind interrupted her, almost as quiet as hers.
"It does... But I think that these stairs lead to the roof.. Right?" The others turned as Ryou appeared behind them, yawning slightly before finding himself in a semi-headlock on Bakura's part. "A-Ah..!"
He flinched as the thief mussed his hair in a noogie, before quickly releasing the boy and crossing his arms with a laugh. "Consider that my last payment for rent, 'Landlord'." He smirked, Ryou blinking at the use of the old name he'd had when Bakura was sealed in the ring. "I have to say, at the rate you were going, I'd have thought you would sleep through the entire night."
"I wasn't that tired..." The small conversation was cut short as the others turned to stare, before turning back to the staircase with mutterings of 'weird', 'they really are two people now'.
Malik opened the door to the roof, stepping aside to allow everyone on. As the group crowded in the center, confused for the most part, they watched Atem walk over to the edge of the roof with Ryou. Atem turned to the boy, smiling. "I leave my body in your hands," he said as he bowed his head, the albino nodding curtly. With that, he turned to face the others and held a card towards him. "Iw, SOUL RELEASE!"
Familiar tendrils of light escaped, creating an incredibly beautiful effect against the night sky. Waves of light that rivaled the Northern Lights in appearance wrapped around the teen's body, but rather than pulling, they pushed at his soul and forced it out of the body. The body collapsed, Ryou catching it awkwardly as Bakura and Malik came over to help lay it on the ground before looking up. Atem's soul soared upwards into the sky, rising a good ten feet above the roof before spreading his wings to hover in place. Pulling his arms out, he looked down at the others, tail feathers fanning below him in an iridescent wave of faded color.
The four who hadn't seen his form before gasped at the sight, each one bearing a different response. Serenity was the first to speak, her eyes wide with wonder as she stared at Atem's feathers. She watched as they melted into the night sky almost seamlessly, only disturbed by the occasional flap of wings. "It's... It's so beautiful," she finally said, while Mai merely stared, silent before muttering 'it does kind of look like a chicken hun..' under her breath.
Joey in the meantime literally jumped in shock, almost tempted to yell 'ghost' and run the hell out of there. However, there were two major things keeping him there. For the first part, he was, like the others, fairly awestruck at the sight of an enormous bird-like version of his friend floating in the sky. It was one of those things that a person couldn't help but stare at. For another though, this was his friend. His best pal (Kinda. Yugi had that role...), the 'other Yug'. He eventually opted for muttering a seemingly unintelligent 'woahhhhh...', while Tea as well shook her head, almost hesitant to repeat the statement.
Unfortunately however, Atem had somehow head Mai's comment on resembling a chicken, and his words quickly snapped the crowd out of their awestruck stare. "I. AM. NOT. A. CHICKEN!" The bird's shout was groundbreaking, but while it was enough to make them flinch, it wasn't enough to stop the laughter that resulted when he continued into a semi-enraged rant. "NOR AM I ANY OTHER FORM OF FOWL! It's called a BA! A BA!" He crossed his arms, annoyance clearly visible across his face as the bird continued. "Honestly! What you're doing is almost as bad as comparing the Winged Dragon of Ra to a turkey!" His feathers bristled, face completely red with rage and embarrassment as Bakura and Malik began laughing uncontrollably.
As the others looked to each other nervously- Atem sounded... Almost murderous really- the bird pointed down at Bakura with gritted teeth. "Oh, and your Ka is so much better? At least I have HANDS!" The nervousness quickly faded as a shouting match began, Joey staring with raised eyebrows while the girls began to shake with silent laughter.
Bakura, on the other hand, simply grinned. "Pfff! And why should I care about hands Atem? I'm a being that represents the God Anubis! And you? You're something I could get from Colonel Sanders!" Ryou shook his head in his hands, resisting the urge to laugh himself; he should never have taken the ring into a fast food place, never never never never... Malik in the meantime, laughed even harder, clutching the side of the railing on the roof to keep from falling over.
"Well... I represent life as it is," he spouted back, the match continuing to escalate. As the others laughed loudly at the image, Joey had to face-palm; now who was adding fuel to Bakura's insulting fire?
Malik and Bakura appeared to be ignoring him for the moment, talking about chicken. "Or maybe barbecued," Bakura was saying with a distant look in his eyes. "Yea... That would taste MUCH better." He chuckled as Malik moved his hands from the railing to his stomach, tears in his eyes as the group continued laughing. Ahhh food humor. Always the best.
"I AM NOT A CHICKEN! GET OVER HERE BAKURA!" The bird lunged, hawk style, though the thief easily stepped to the side to avoid him. "And at least I didn't spend the first half of my afterlife speaking like the Cheshire Cat!" As he swooped back into the air, Joey blinked, confused as he turned to look at Bakura.
"Oii... Seriously Bakura? The Cheshire Cat?" At the image that appeared in his mind, he abruptly burst into laughter, the others soon following suit. Particularly after Malik appeared as 'Alice' in his mind. Though that was likely only him.
Meanwhile, Atem had taken another swipe at Bakura, only for the thief to dodge yet again with a laugh. "At least I didn't have a pole up my ass for 3000 years, 'Pharaoh'!" As the match continued, Ryou frowned, his silent laughter cut short. This conversation, he realized as a chillingly cold feeling entered him, was heading in a very, very dangerous direction...
"Bakura..." He paled, head shaking slightly as he shouted to the thief. "Bakura! You need to stop! Now!"
"I did NOT... ARRRGGG!" The former pharaoh screeched, the crowd below tensing as the laughter halted almost instantly. It was a feral cry, rage filled and the sound of pain that had clearly built up over time. "You know Bakura, at least my Shadow Games had some ironic justice to them," he shouted, ignoring the now slightly sick faces the crowd was gaining at the mention of the games. "All you did was seal souls in little figurines? Are you a toy collector, Bakura?"
The thief ignored Ryou's pleas, even as Malik joined in as well. "Hah," he spat out as Malik and Ryou quickly attempted to herd the others downstairs. "Is that the best you can do? At least I didn't simply sit around as someone MURDERED an entire CITY!"
Ryou and Malik quickly grew pale once Bakura said that, turning to the sky as it began to darken past the point of a normal, Egyptian evening. They swallowed, watching in horror as Bakura's reaction came out in the form of two things.
The first was an inhuman screech, which almost completely masked what the bird was actually saying.
And the second was an attack that, unlike the grasping strikes made before, was clearly created with the intent to kill.
AN: Usagi-Squeared is a sucker for cliff-hangers, can you tell? OTL. When she was writing these from our roleplay, (even though I knew what was going to happen) I was always like " WHEN YOU GOING TO WRITE THE NEXT CHAPTER? OAO" She did/is doing such an amazing job *heart*
R&R!