"Atem…A-TEM…will you wake up already?"

Atem peeked an eye open at the annoyed voice of his wife.

"I am awake. I'm just choosing to ignore you."

Kat smiled as she brought her face down to his, touching their noses together. "Try ignoring me now."

He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her down and pressing their lips together. Kat giggled as she broke the kiss and tried to playfully roll out of his grasp.

"I don't think so. This is what you get for bothering me," he teased.

"We can't just lay around all day. We have our duties to attend to."

Atem laughed lightly. "I am Pharaoh. If I choose to have a day of nothing but laying around, then it shall be."

"Atem…" Kat playfully chastised.

"It's just one day. I think the kingdom will manage that long without us. Let Set and the priests deal with the trivial stuff."

Kat gave him that look that told him she was thinking heavily on his suggestion…and would most likely agree to it. He decided to sweeten the pot.

"I'm sure Akasa would love a nice run along the Nile…"

"By Ra, you are supposed to be opposed to these kinds of things!" Kat said playfully, caving into the idea of neglecting their royal duties for the day as she brought her smiling lips to his.

Atem kept his hold as he rolled her onto her back, both of them giggling and laughing, enjoying their moment.

"...* muffled *..."

"...* muffled * concerned…"

"...too. First you, now * muffled *...what's going on?"

Atem groggily attempted to sit up. His head spun, forcing him to stick to semi-propping himself up on one elbow. Looking around, he discovered he was in a dark, unfamiliar room. Meanwhile, the muffled voices, which appeared to be coming from just beyond the door, became clearer as they continued their conversation.

"I wasn't ready. I probably screwed something up."

"You can't just blame it on that. I'm sure it's something else."

His mind finally registered the voices as belonging to Kat and Bakura respectively.

"Like what? Stress? Okay, sure. If it was just me, then I could chalk it up to that…but then it happens to him too?"

"Divorces are stressful. In your case, it's been a bit of a shit-show."

Atem couldn't help but nod along at that particular remark as he continued to listen in on the conversation.

"He has a portion of my life essence! It can't be a coincidence that he blacked-out only a few days after I did!"

"You said it yourself, you were drowning in the darkness of your own mind. Your physical actions mirrored that. He just blacked-out and didn't wake up."

So that's what had happened. He tried to think back to before the black-out. Last thing he remembered was sitting in his office at Kaiba Corp and talking with Mkhai.

Light peeked its way beneath the drawn curtains of the room. He finally managed to sit in a fully upright position. After making certain the position wouldn't leave him feeling dizzy, he slowly made his way out of the bed and across the room. He pushed aside one of the curtains in hopes it would help him determine where he was. He obviously wasn't in a hospital…or was he?

Looking out the window, he was surprised to see the already familiar view of Domino from an elevated angle. Was he back in the penthouse?

He finished opening the curtains, allowing the light to fill the room. It took him far too long to realize that it was his room. Someone had gone through the troubles of redecorating it. How long had he been unconscious?

The hideous display of dark purples and blues, along with the garishly over-indulgent Dark Magician themes meant to represent his dueling deck, had been replaced with soft cream accented by hints of gold. Vibrant reds and blues were blended neatly throughout the room, giving off an ancient Egypt vibe that was reminiscent of his time as Pharaoh. As much as he wanted to be annoyed by the reminder, he found he couldn't. The room had been done in a way that felt warm and inviting, as opposed to regal and elegant.

He walked over to the bed, feeling the material that he hadn't paid any mind to before. Soft.

Atem took another look around the room. Kat was here. Had she done this for him?

He slowly made his way towards the door, only pausing once his hand was on the knob. He wasn't certain if he was ready to face his former wife just yet…especially after how things had gone the last time they'd seen one another.

The voices had grown distant, indicating that Kat and Bakura were no longer standing directly outside the door, and were now elsewhere in the penthouse. He took a deep breath, steeling himself, before opening the door and peeking his head out.

Atem was extremely surprised to see that his room wasn't the only part of the penthouse to get a makeover. Judging on the voices coming from just out his view, the process of eliminating the previous decor was still taking place.

"Dammit, Mal! My right, not your right!"

"We have the same 'right', Runt! Why don't you make yourself useful and help instead of just barking orders!"

"Just move it right! How fucking hard is that?!"

"Oh, I'll move it 'right'…right up your ass…"

Atem had managed to sneak down the short hall, peeking his head around the corner.

Malik was moving a giant pillar to where Bakura had presumably indicated. The whole living area now looked both inviting and Pharaonic at the same time. The cold leather sofa had been replaced by a very familiar looking chaise lounge. His chaise lounge to be exact…complete with colorful cushions and exotic furs.

"Would you look at who's finally awake."

Atem jumped in surprise at Bakura's voice…which had come from behind.

"How did you get behind me?!" Atem questioned as he whirled around to face the elemental.

"Do I really have to answer that?" Bakura asked boredly.

Atem shook his head. "Now that I think of it, no. But can you at least tell me what's going on?"

"Well, you obviously ruined the surprise," Bakura stated in annoyance. "I got the other two to help in redecorating the place. Now it doesn't give me a migraine to look at and I'm hoping it will make you less likely to jump from the roof."

Atem looked around again, his brow furled in confusion as he brought his gaze back to the elemental in front of him. "This is your doing?"

Bakura mocked grabbing at his chest as if in pain. "Wow. That hurts. You really don't think that much of me, do you?"

Atem opened his mouth to respond, pausing for a moment. "I think it would be best if I didn't answer that."

Bakura scowled. "How is it even while attempting to be civil towards me you're still an ass?"

Atem ignored the comment while looking around again. "Where's Katrina? I'm certain I heard her voice?"

"She literally just left. She thinks it would be best for the two of you to avoid one another for a few days. You know, give each of you time to ease your minds over the current situation."

Atem's head fell. "I really screwed up any progress between us, didn't I?"

Bakura scoffed a laugh. "Progress? What progress? The only time the two of you weren't at each other's throats was when you were completely alone. It was hurting her to see those small hints of what used to be."

Atem walked over and relaxed himself across his chaise, sighing heavily as he melted into it. "Too bad there wasn't a spell to preserve people's hearts in the same manner that she managed to preserve my furniture."

"I'm sorry, did you just say 'she managed'?" Bakura asked, sounding extremely offended. "You think a fire elemental with poor control over magic preserved your precious material possessions?"

Atem glanced in annoyance towards the elemental that was standing with hands on hips while glaring bitterly in his direction.

"Are you saying that this is also your doing?" he scoffed.

"I'm a very materialistic person. I don't like my stuff decaying and falling apart because of something as dumb as 'time', so I took it upon myself to learn the magic art of preservation. I used your shit as test subjects. You're welcome," Bakura spat.

Atem scowled as he sat up. "Oh, well THANK YOU," he said over-sarcastically, "for using my stuff as test subjects. I wonder how much of it didn't make it through your 'testing' phase…"

Bakura pointed a sharp finger in Atem's direction. "I'll have you know there was a ninety-six percent success rate." The finger dropped as he sheepishly averted his gaze. "The other four percent…may have decayed almost immediately…" he squeaked out.

Atem rolled his eyes as he relaxed back into his chaise. "I'm not even going to ask…"

"Hey, at least that was part of the success batch," Bakura stated, referring to the piece of palm wicker furniture that Atem was dramatically sprawled across.

Atem casually turned his head to look at the annoyed elemental. "And I am grateful. Is that what you want to hear?"

"It's a start."

The dream sequence at the start was just a small bit of 'happy'. I feel like the reader hasn't seen much of the better times between Atem and Kat, and thought this would be nice to show. For the most part I've shown Kat as being the one reluctant to let go, while Atem seems to have just accepted things.