One year later…
"They offered me an assistant professorship, Father, with tenure. But still, I don't want to move the children. I'm afraid it'll be too rough on them… and too soon." Sakura looked up at her father-in-law, her green eyes filled with concern. The twins were playing in the living area, oblivious to the discussion.
"It's too good an opportunity to miss, Sakura. You really should take it. How often does Berkeley offer such a position in linguistics? Not often enough, I'll tell you that." The old man sighed as he sipped his tea. "In the end, you can only follow your heart. I know Hiroshi would have wanted you to go."
"Yeah," She gazed absently into her teacup. "But I can't just think about what I want anymore. I have to do what's best for the kids. They're only five, Papa. And I'm afraid that such a drastic move so soon will… I don't know, I just want them to be happy, I guess."
"They will be six soon, but if you want, they can stay here with me. I don't have any plans to go traveling any time soon. In fact, it might be nice to have them around to help out with the shop." Sakura laughed at the mention of the shop. Her father-in-law's dream of owning a game shop had always seemed to play second fiddle to his wanderlust. As such, the shop was rarely opened and only just managed to cover expenses. She was unsure how a pair of soon-to-be six year olds would help the bottom line of the place.
"I don't want to burden you any further, Father. Besides, you have done so much for us this last year."
"It would be no bother at all. I would love to keep Yugi and Umi, at least until you're ready to move them," he took a sip of his tea. "Maybe we should ask them what they want?" His lips turned up slightly in an infectious smile.
"If you think that is best." Sakura returned the smile, grateful for his offer and all his assistance over the last year, though skeptical of his penchant to put such important decisions in the hands of a pair of five year olds.
"Umi!" Yugi cried from the living room. "You can't just take it apart and put it back together like that!"
"But I wanna see how it works!" Umi yelled back at him.
"You're supposed to solve it without knowing how it works though."
The argument was growing to a fever pitch as Sakura and Solomon entered the room.
"I knew I should have gotten them each one…" Sakura muttered to herself.
Small plastic blocks with different colored faces littered the floor as Umi disassembled the puzzle. Yugi sniffled angrily as his sister carefully examined how the pieces interconnected and slid against each other to make the various faces move. At seeing his grandfather, Yugi ran to hug him, crying into his chest.
"Umi broke the puzzle, Granpa, like always."
"But he already solved it! He wasn't even playing with it when I started!" Umi protested.
"Umi, you figured it out, now can you put it back together?" their mother asked.
"Fine." Umi sighed in frustration. She sorted the pieces by color and proceeded to reassemble the cube.
"Don't put them in the wrong order!" Yugi called from the comfort of his grandfather's side. Umi shot him an angry glare as she slid the pieces back together. She tossed the completed cube on the floor when she was finished.
"There's your stupid puzzle." She said before jumping into the couch, her arms crossed and her lips pouting.
Sakura looked at her father-in-law questioningly.
"You sure you want to deal with this madness alone?"
Solomon just chuckled softly.
"Kids," she said as Yugi picked up the cube and sat on the floor. "We have something important to discuss."
Sakura and Solomon told the twins of the possible move as Umi pouted and Yugi worked through solving the puzzle again and again, his tiny hands flying rapidly as the cube twisted and turned from multicolored faces to solid.
"Yugi? Umi? Do you understand what your mother is saying? That she is going to have to move?" Solomon asked as the kids did not seem to be paying attention at all.
"Yes Grandpa. Sounds like fun." Umi replied, her voice terse as she nestled closer to her mother. She could not imagine being without her mother. It was already too much not having her father there. She still found herself crying at night when she thought of him. He would have let me take apart that stupid cube, she thought angrily. And the rice cooker too. I know I could have gotten it back together right this time. She added mentally, recalling her grandfather's chastisement from a few days ago. "When do we leave, Mommy?"
"Leave?" Yugi asked, panic rising in his voice. He looked from his mother to his grandfather, trying to wrap his mind around this change in situation as his hands made and unmade the puzzle. "I don't want to leave."
Yugi glanced at his sister. He saw in anger and fear in her eyes, and he knew that she could not lose another parent. She stared at him wide-eyed, feeling herself break as he backed away from her outstretched hand, as she beckoned him to join her on the adventure their mother was about to undertake. He wanted to take it, to be with her, but he could not bring himself to do so.
"I… I wanna … I wanna stay with Granpa. I don't wanna go, Mommy." His voice trembled as he spoke. He could feel the warmth of newly shed tears on his cheeks as he realized that he would be parted from his sister for the first real time in their short lives. He had thought that he was done with tears after losing their father, but his choice to stay tore a new wound within his spirit. As he said the words, he knew in his heart that he had made the right choice, but he could not bring himself to look at his sister's tear-filled, angry and hurt eyes. He darted past her to his small bedroom. Throwing himself to the bed, he covered his head with a pillow. He wanted to bury himself where he could not hear her accusations, but the voice was in his head, not his ears. For the first time in his short life, Yugi wished that his bond with his sister was not so strong.
He had been drifting in the place where wakefulness and sleep meet when Umi crawled in bed with him and hugged her brother.
"I'm sorry, Yugi." She whispered.
"Me too." He hugged her tightly. "But, Umi, I don't want you to leave me."
"So come with us. And we can go to cool places and have adventures."
He felt paralyzed and he did not know how to respond. He knew that he needed to stay with their grandfather, but he did not know how to make her understand.
It was the twin's birthday, and Umi did not feel much like celebrating. She still had so much she wanted to do before leaving for America, and she had still not convinced Yugi to come with them. She had been trying so hard, but he was being incredibly stubborn. It made her angry, and so she spent the morning of their sixth birthday pouting. Even a trip to the park and the hardware store for new gadgets did not cheer her up. Where she was usually the one giving orders and making friends, today she simply sulked. At the park, Yugi ran into some girl she had seen him with before and had gone off to play with her, which made Umi even more irritated with her brother.
"Umi, you should go play with Yugi and Tea." Her mother tried coaxing her gently, but she sat resolute and headstrong. "You won't get a chance to see him again until we come during winter break to visit."
"Why can't you just make him come with us, Mommy?" she whined, and not for the first time.
"Oh my sweet little one, Yugi is not adventurous like you are. He needs consistency, and making this move right now would hurt him way more that you realize." Sakura pulled her daughter close.
"But I'm moving. And being away from him will hurt me." Umi reasoned. "Won't that hurt him too? What if our twin powers don't work because we're too far away?" She had asked all of the same questions before. Her mother laughed.
"We will have telephones and letters. And we will visit, and maybe we will get him to come visit us and maybe even come stay with us one day. But right now, he needs to be here. Besides, who will take care of Grandpa when we leave?"
"Easy, he can go on adventures again like before."
Sakura laughed again. Her father-in-law had retired from his previous live of exploring after her husband, his son, had died a little over a year prior, and as such had been looking for something to occupy his time. He had recently opened a game shop in the space that her mother-in-law had used as a seamstress's shop before she had passed away. It was an unconventional use of the space, but Sakura had been happy to see him doing something other than wallow in grief.
"I don't think Grandpa is up for those kinds of adventures anymore."
"He would be if he was coming with us too. And then Yugi would have to come!" Umi exclaimed.
"But what about his shop, Umi?"
"He can open one in America." Sakura just chuckled and hugged her daughter tightly as she watched her son playing with one of the few friends he had made without Umi's help.
The newly six-year-old twins held each other tightly as they waited for the airplane to dock. Sakura and Solomon had to pry the pair apart when it came time to board. Yugi's violet eyes were filled with tears as he watched Umi disappear into the hatch.
Umi! He called to her in his mind and he felt her answer.
Yugi, I miss you! I don't wanna go now.
Yugi rubbed his tears away with his fist.
But now I want to go with you.
He ran to the window of the terminal as the airplane taxied to the runway. He tried to keep up the dialog with his sister, asking her what she thought her home in California might be like, if she was going to learn how to surf, and other questions to help her keep her mind off the fear of separation. He kept asking questions, about her hopes and dreams of living in a new place, and sharing his own hopes and dreams even though she had stopped answering him after he could no longer see the plane in the distance. He kept the dialog going until he could no longer even feel the warmth of her spirit with him.
He did not know how long he had been standing at the window, his forehead pressed against the cold glass when his grandfather placed a gentle hand on his shoulder.
"Come on, Yugi. Let's go home." Solomon said quietly.
Yugi nodded his head as he turned. He crossed his arms tightly over his small chest as he felt a vast emptiness open up within him.
Umi pressed her face against the small window as she watched the ground fall away. The people below looked like ants, and then the cars, and then the houses all shrank into nothingness as her world was enveloped in clouds and sky. She was awestruck, wishing Yugi could see it with her. He had been asking her questions mentally—using their twin power, as their grandfather had called it. Eventually his voice shrank too, until she could no longer hear him. Even the sense of him grew smaller, pulling away from her until a Yugi shaped hole tore away much of her heart. She felt cold and empty without him there. She shivered. Her mother pulled a blanket around her shoulders, thinking she was chilly from the flight. As her mother leaned over her, Umi caught sight of the golden necklace her mother wore. It was an eye, very much like the one embedded on her father's grave stone. It flickered in the low light as it twisted on the chain she wore around her neck. Umi was mesmerized and eventually drifted to sleep with thoughts of it filling her mind.
The sun was warm on her brown skin as it filtered through the diaphanous drapery that separated the harem from the garden. Her mother was commanding the Pharaoh's other wives and concubines as always while she and the other children played among the painted stone columns and pools. She caught bits and pieces of her mother's politicking, but she cared not for the details. She knew that her betrothal was being altered—whatever that meant, and that her half brother was to be her father's heir. She giggled as the toddler escaped his mother's grasp to chase after the ibis that had landed among the reeds in the garden. She caught the young boy before he fell into the shallow pool.
"Now, Now, Atem. You mustn't run off." She said, laughing as she corralled the three-year-old back to the older women. She had just turned six and as the Pharaoh's oldest child, she felt it was her responsibility to keep the other children in line.
"Thanks, Neferet." He replied before clinging to his mother's skirt. Djefatsen was a secondary wife, the daughter of a noble, but the only one to have given her father a son. Her own mother, Hekenuhedjet, was a royal princess and the Great Wife of the Pharaoh. It was a role that she knew she would inherit one day. Djefatsen took little Atem's shoulder and steered him toward their chamber within the harem. Her mother sighed as she rubbed her temples.
"Bast, give me strength to put up with these morons." Her mother muttered under her breath.
"Mother?" She asked, offering the older woman a cup of wine. She was curious to know what was going on. She knew that she would one day have to play the games of court, and her mother was the best player. There were even stories where her mother had bested her father at games of intrigue, though she had only heard of them and knew none of the details and when she pressed for them, the only response was 'when you're older'.
"You father—in his infinite wisdom," she said with an edge to the words that Neferet could hear but did not yet understand. "With his naming of Atem as crown prince, has also screwed all of his earlier plans for you." She sighed disgustedly. "You—a royal princess, descended from a dynasty of Pharaohs and Queens, marrying that half-blooded imbecile."
"Atem's a really sweet kid, Mother." She said in his defense.
"Sweet kid, yes, but when he becomes Pharaoh, he will change. They always change." Her voice was bitter. "Your cousin, Seto, was a much better match for you." She sighed again, this time in resignation. "Well, we shall make the best of it, shall we?"
Neferet smiled as her mother pulled her into a tight embrace, sunlight dancing in her green eyes.
"Umi. Wake up, Umi."
Umi's eyes flittered open slowly at her mother's prodding. A strange woman was staring at her, smiling expectantly as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes.
"Where are we, Mommy?" she asked.
"We are on an airplane, Umi. On our way to America. Remember?"
Umi nodded as the memories came rushing back to her—the death of her father, leaving Yugi. But her own memories were not the only thing that flooded her mind. She also brought with her the feel of sun-warmed stone on bare feet, the tinkling of tiny bells, the call of birds at dawn and dusk, the heady scent of frankincense and myrrh, and the musical laughter of a woman.
"She would just like some water." Her mother said to the stewardess after being prodded repeatedly for Umi's drink request.