Chapter Seven
Yugi was standing in complete darkness.
"Do you feel that?" Yugi said. He could sense the dark slithering around him, and even though it never ventured close enough to touch, he got goosebumps every time that it moved.
"The shadows are drawn by my magic," Yami said. "They won't hurt you." He had his hand on Yugi's back as he guided him farther into the room. The older boy had barely taken his hands off of him since their conversation over an hour ago, and once they'd entered the darkness, Yami had seemed even more intent on keeping him close.
"I wish I could see them though," Yugi said. The shadows gave him the heebie-jeebies, like they were biding their time for the perfect opportunity to attack, and in a room already shrouded in darkness, every scurry made him flinch.
During their conversation earlier, Yami had explained that the labyrinth of dark rooms and shadows was his soul room – a place where his soul could reside without being attached to his body. The older boy suspected that the secret to their return to the physical world was hidden somewhere inside the room's depths and had coaxed Yugi away from the safety of the light to explore the shadows.
Yami was quiet for a second. "If you aren't ready…" he said.
"I am," Yugi said, cutting off the older boy. "I guess I just forgot how dark it was in here."
It had only been a few hours since he'd first found the Yami in this place, but Yugi had tried to forget the darkness as soon as the door had closed behind them. He had brought his flashlight along again but, the light seemed dimmer the farther that they pressed into the dark maze. Around them, the air remained cold as they moved, but it lacked the same icy nip as their previous visit.
Yami took his hand, and his palm was warm as they approached the first stairwell.
When Yugi had woken a few hours ago, he had been sprawled on top of the older boy, his face tucked in the juncture between Yami's shoulder and neck, the older boy's fingers spanning his lower back. It had taken Yugi a few seconds to remember where he was, but as the seconds passed, it had all started to replay in his mind – finding Yami, the kiss, crying in the older boy's arms, Yami's fingers on his… - by the time he'd replayed the past day, his entire body had been red with the stunning force of his embarrassment.
When the older boy had stirred underneath of him, Yugi had scrambled up and out of the bed, mortified as the older boy wished him a good morning through half lidded eyes, his chest bare.
"Yugi," Yami said. "You're dwelling again." The older boy's hand squeezed his as they moved through another empty hallway.
"Sorry," Yugi said. Yami had explained that, just as Yugi had been experiencing for the past few weeks, Yami felt his emotions too, and negative ones were particularly unsettling. Every time his embarrassment over last night and this morning flooded him, Yami felt it too.
True to his promise, the older boy had explained their situation after they had both woken up, and the details had been a little more mystical than Yugi had been imagining.
It went something like this - their souls were trapped inside the Millennium Puzzle. Yugi was a hikari, the lighter half of Yami's soul and his soul mate through and through. Yami was the reincarnate of an ancient Egyptian pharaoh and could command the shadows. There was a mental connection between the two of them, linking them in every way, and it was only just maturing. Most importantly, they would both be stuck here, in the puzzle, until their bond solidified enough to balance the shadows that had been unleashed within the older boy at the puzzle's completion.
Yugi hadn't wanted to believe a word of it. Soul mates, shadow magic, mind links – it sounded like some kind of children's cartoon, not flesh and blood, not reality.
Yami had told him about the Millennium Puzzle, the reason for his coma, and his ancient connection with the shadows, and as Yugi listened to the older boy explain, he wanted to be angry. He wanted to be enraged by the secrets that Yami had kept from him, the ridiculousness of everything he was saying. Yugi wanted to yell, to push the older boy away and never have to deal with any of this ever again.
But, the older boy's desperation had stopped him. He had felt Yami's fear pulsing through him, the terror of Yugi's possible rejection and the trepidation of being trapped in the shadows forever, and as much as he wanted to, Yugi couldn't bring himself to refuse him.
The younger boy had felt something different between him and Yami since the start, and it had terrified him from their very first moments in the cafe. As much as he wanted to deny it, he couldn't ignore the flashes of the older boy's emotions, his voice in his head at the hospital, being transported here – if it wasn't magic, Yugi had lost his mind.
But, was Yami his soul mate? Yugi believed in love, sure, and, he'd read too many books to forgo all belief in magic but, could all of what Yami had told him really be true? Yugi felt something for the older boy, he knew that, and the intensity that he felt when it came to Yami scared the wits out of him, but could he really allow himself to believe that Yami was the other half of his soul?
The connection between them seemed harder to deny the more that he considered it. Was he really this hikari person? The longer that the pair walked in the darkness, the more Yugi wondered what in the world he had gotten himself into.
Yami guided his hikari down one of the many hallways in his soul room, searching for something that even he didn't know.
The connection between him and Yugi remained clear as they walked, and Yami felt himself relaxing the longer that Yugi's aura brushed against his. The younger boy had made no moves to block their bond since their conversation, and his light seemed to have taken the truth better than Yami had anticipated. Yugi hadn't said much since their talk, but Yami could sense the torrent of thoughts swirling through his hikari's mind as they continued through the darkness.
When Yami had woken a few hours ago, the bond to his hikari had felt clearer than ever. The connection had repaired as they had slept, and with his light's delicious heat sprawled on top of him, Yami had felt almost whole as he dozed in the warmth.
He had been desperate for his hikari when Yugi had first brought him into his soul room. The shadows had been thrashing inside of him as his light pulled him from the darkness, and he'd been half delirious when Yugi laid down beside him, the younger boy's aura settling the magic within him. It was only after Yami's mind had quieted that he had started to feel the ache that the Yugi had been shouldering since their separation, and it had been instinct to reach out for the younger boy.
Yami had touched his light, pleasured him, and when Yugi had surrendered beneath him, giving into the desire that ricocheted down their bond, Yami had felt another wall crumbling between them.
It had been the first in a chain of dominos.
The exhaustion of their separation and the intimacy between them had weakened Yugi, and as the boy came down from his high, he'd been too drained to continue to fight the pain that he had been burying long before he'd met Yami. The waves of emotion had crashed through the younger boy, and it had been torture to watch his hikari struggle under the pain that he'd kept locked away, hidden deep for years.
However, as Yugi surfaced from the emotions that he had refused to acknowledge for so long, Yami had felt the catharsis work down their bond. As the younger boy let go of the pain, their connection cleared, destroying the final walls that had weakened their link.
Then, when Yami had told Yugi the truth of their relationship, he had sensed their bond solidifying. Yami could feel Yugi's apprehension as he revealed the truth but, he could also sense his hikari's acceptance, and the longer Yami talked, the more that he could feel the final puzzle piece clicking into place.
Now, he and his hikari were delving farther into his soul room, searching for a way out of the puzzle as Yami sensed that the secret of their release was hidden somewhere in the darkness.
"Yami?" Yugi said. He hadn't asked Yami a single question since their earlier conversation. "What would have happened if I had never finished the puzzle?" he said. "Or what if someone steals it? How would that affect - you?"
"The puzzle is how the pharaoh channeled his shadow magic. If it was stolen, my powers would be diminished but, our bond would remain intact, much how our link existed even before the puzzle's completion," Yami said. "We are one, Yugi. Even if one of us were to perish, both of our souls would continue to exist in one physical form."
Yugi was quiet. "And, if I never finished it?" he said.
"Impossible," Yami said. "You were destined to receive the puzzle and to solve it. You are my hikari." There was something comforting about saying the word out loud, staking his claim on the younger boy at last.
"And the rest of the millennium items, they are born to the other owner's hikari too?" Yugi said.
"Yes," Yami said. He already knew where this conversation was heading.
"Which means that Ryou…" Yugi said, trailing off.
"Yes, Ryou-san is the hikari of the ring," Yami said. It wasn't his place to involve himself in the relationships of other hikaris and yamis but, he had his suspicions that Ryou, Yugi's soft-spoken, well-mannered friend, would soon have his hands full when Bakura barreled into his life.
Yugi was quiet again as they descended a set of stairs, his flashlight settling on a set of stone carvings along one of the walls. They were crumbling but, most of the swirled ancient designs were still intact.
"Woah," Yugi said, leaning in closer. Yami could feel the younger boy's excitement shoot down the bond. "These look authentic," he said. His nerves eased as he leaned in closer to examine the engravings.
"This soul room is the same as it was when I was pharaoh," Yami said. "Everything here is original to ancient Egypt."
Yugi brushed his fingers over the designs. "I wonder if there are more of them farther down," he said.
The pair descended the rest of the stairs, pausing as they entered a wide, squat chamber. Yugi scanned the room with the flashlight, illuminating a giant set of stone tablets on the far wall.
"Duel Monsters," Yugi breathed.
True to his word, several of the tablets featured crude engravings of Duel Monsters, and Yami's power tingled under his skin as he identified the Dark Magician on one of the tablets.
"Look!" Yugi said, honing in on another tablet in the center of the series. "It's you!"
He shined the light on the figure, and Yami recognized a similar head of spiky hair and signature monster floating above it.
"And, is that – your cousin?" Yugi said, he stepped closer to survey the carving.
The figure did resemble Seto, right down to the Blue Eyes White Dragon flying above his head.
"Seto is the guardian of the owners of the millennium items," Yami said. "He is said to be powerful enough to challenge all of us and win, even against me."
"But, didn't you beat him in a duel a few years ago?" Yugi asked, turning to face Yami in the darkness.
"Indeed," Yami said. He had stripped Seto of his title right before his cousin had met Jou. Seto had been too clouded with his own darkness at the time to stand a chance against Yami and, after meeting Jou, his cousin had retired from Duel Monsters all together, devoting his time to launching Kaiba Corp. Yami often wondered who would emerge victorious if they recreated the same duel now.
"Why are you both engraved here?" Yugi said. He lowered the flashlight between them, illuminating both of their faces. "What does it mean?"
Yami met his hikari's eyes. "It is the story of the pharaoh," he said.
"You mean – your story?" Yugi said.
Yami nodded. "It speaks of a time when the pharaoh will save the fate of the universe," Yami said. "It talks of Duel Monsters with the power of gods, and how the pharaoh will need their power to save the world from the shadows."
"I just don't get how I play into that," Yugi said.
"You are my hikari," Yami said.
"You keep saying that," Yugi said, frowning. "But, how can you be so sure?" He scrubbed his hand down his face, eyes focusing somewhere over Yami's shoulder.
Yami stepped forward, putting his hands on the boy's shoulders. His hikari's apprehension had returned full force, and Yami wouldn't have the way the younger boy wouldn't meet his eyes.
"Look at me, Yugi," Yami said. When the younger boy didn't move, Yami titled his chin up, forcing him to meet his eyes, thumb brushing against his jaw. "I have no doubt in my mind that you are my hikari. You are the other half of my soul, and there is no one else but you who can fill that role. Do you deny the bond between us?"
Yugi was quiet, and Yami reached for their link, filling it with his energy, hoping to calm the younger boy. Within seconds, Yugi relaxed under Yami's hands.
"You can't just do that whenever I start freaking out," Yugi said, sighing. "It's really unfair."
"Do what?" Yami asked, feigning ignorance. The boy's calm washed over him as Yami's energy settled his hikari, and the older boy was relieved that their bond remained intact. His hikari wasn't running from him, not yet.
"This is crazy. Everything about this is crazy," Yugi said. He shook his head, taking a deep breath. "But, I believe you. I don't want to, but I do." The younger boy stepped closer to him, looking into Yami's eyes as if looking to find the answers he was so desperate for.
Yami pulled his hikari closer, shutting his eyes, as Yugi relaxed into his hold. The shadows were watching them but, they had lost their malicious aura, and for the first time since the puzzle's completion, the dark energy within him felt calm, manageable even, as Yugi curled his fingers into Yami's jacket.
He was surprised when Yugi reached up for him a few moments later, brushing his lips against his own. It was a gentle touch, light and warm, like his hikari's energy. Light filled him as Yugi touched his jaw, the younger boy's thoughts – his growing feelings for him, the gradual acceptance of their bond – flowing through Yami. The older boy felt like he was floating from his body as Yugi settled back against his chest. The darkness seemed to ease the more that he soaked himself in his light's energy, their bond linking them in the unbreakable connection of their souls.
By the time that Yami had settled from the energy, his hikari's warmth was gone from his arms. He opened his eyes, annoyed, and cringed as fluorescent bulbs and white walls burned into his pupils. Yami squinted in the brightness, searching for Yugi, but stopped as he was crushed in someone's arms.
Yami wasn't in the puzzle anymore. He was in a hospital bed, and his mother had him in a death grip, crying his name.
A/N: The next chapter will be the last of this story! Thanks for all of your support so far!