Chapter Text
He put the disastrous decision to try romance with someone knew behind him. For months he focused on bettering himself.
For getting used to the idea of being alone forever. He thought of his grandfather who had been forced to walk the earth without a partner for many years after his wife died.
If anyone knew what it was like and had kept going on with life, it was him.
Yugi could do it too.
Work was more interesting anyway. He didn't want to think about getting to know someone. He already had everyone in his life that he wanted.
No one new would fit.
At least not in the way, Yugi'd prefer.
It was raining when he clocked out from work. The rain hit his skin with an icy chill. It slipped into his hair, his clothing, his broken and irreparable soul.
He'd forgotten his umbrella.
It wasn't like him to do that. He'd always been prepared for anything. Past experiences had taught him to be this way.
But nothing could have prepared him for that moment, when there in the rain, wondering if this was all his life would be: a lonely, dark cloud of an existence—the rain stopped.
Not because it stopped raining. But because something had obstructed it from landing upon Yugi's pale form.
He looked up in surprise, noticing that it was an umbrella. The droplets of rain hit it loudly and yet none penetrated the plastic to reach him.
Yugi whirled his eyes in the direction of the person beside him, holding the umbrella over Yugi's wilting hair with a bronze hand.
"There you are," the man said in a voice Yugi was certain he'd never hear again. For it only haunted his dreams and sometimes his nightmares.
Yugi's mouth parted in disbelief, rainwater slipping onto his tongue without a thought. For he was dripping with melancholy.
"We seem to keep running into each other."
The man smiled, causing his dark eyes to crinkle at the sides. Causing Yugi's heart to stop and restart.
Restart into a rhythm it had never beat before.
"Is it really you?" Yugi's shaking voice mirrored his shaking body. Was he hallucinating? Had he gone crazy from greif or had he really—
But no. How could it? Atem was in the afterlife. There was no way the gods would grant him a body after all these years, a body that seemed to have aged splendidly, and adorned with modern clothing.
Maybe he was crazy.
"You wouldn't believe what I've been through to find you," the man who sounded and looked like the love of Yugi's life said with awed humor. "Just to learn your name."
"Name?" Yugi questioned mindlessly, his brain having a difficult time processing the entire situation. For this couldn't be real.
"Yes," the man smiled down at him. The smile touched Yugi's heart in a way he hadn't felt in too many years. "I'd like to know the name of the one who's been haunting me since the moment I saw you."
Yugi blinked. No. No, this wasn't Atem. Or if it was, he'd forgotten him? Yugi didn't even care at the moment. Or maybe he did.
He didn't know. All he knew was that there, in a raincloud that had been a downpour for what felt like forever, he could see the sun.
The sun that reflected in the man's eyes. That gave him hope and just enough warmth to answer.
"My name is Yugi."
"Yugi," the man repeated in what sounded like relief. As if he'd waited his entire life to learn it. To speak it.
And it sounded like heaven to Yugi's ears.
Tears sprung to Yugi's eyes in an instant.
The man smiled. "It's wonderful to officially meet you, Yugi. My name is Atem."