Chapter Text
***
Yami silently watched through Yugi's eyes, trying to keep as quiet as he could. If Yugi noticed him, he would probably lock him up again. "Oh, no thanks," He heard him say.
Yami frowned and look up again, "I became vegan recently," Yugi told Joey and waved away the hotdog with a smile on his face.
Joey looked at Yugi as though he was going crazy and Yami feared Joey might be right. "What?! But Yug, you love hotdogs!" Joey said in confusion.
Yugi laughed, it sounded fake to Yami. "Yeah, but it's better for my health, the animals and the planet," Yugi answered him and shrugged when Joey kept starring at him.
"More for me I guess," Joey brushed it off and started chowing down on his lunch.
Meanwhile, Yugi just moved around the salad on his plate and took small bites every now and then. Yami could feel Yugi's hunger and yet he wasn't eating properly. He hesitated to speak up, the last couple of weeks Yugi had only lashed out to him anytime he appeared.
Yami bowed down his head and kept silent, hoping that Yugi just had puberty hit him late and that he would get over it, soon.
***
Atem turned and tossed in his sleep, while his sacred guardians were setting up camp around him. While Mana was getting a fire going, Mahad was making sure their Pharaoh was physically alright. His magic crept through his master's body, only to return to him without any results. "He seems to be unharmed, he just needs rest," Mahad spoke up and stood up from his kneeling position.
"Thank the gods," Isis sighed and gave Mahad a weak smile
***
Yugi's hands were shaking while he was copying the notes from the chalkboard, Tea who noticed this bent over to him. "You alright Yugi?" Tea asked with a worried look on her face.
"Hmm?" Yugi looked up, "Yeah yeah I'm fine, just had a short night studying for the test on Thursday, that's all," he lied to her.
Yugi had never been a good liar, but lately, he had become worryingly good at it. Yami grunted as he noticed this. He knew for a fact that Yugi had slept for over twelve hours. "You shouldn't wear yourself out like that Yugi, you always ace tests no matter what," Tea scolded him.
Yugi grinned, "I'll go rest after school, don't worry," he promised her, this seemed to satisfy Tea enough to get her off his back for now.
Yugi let out the breath that he has been holding and continued scribbling down the notes that the teacher wrote down for them.
'Yugi, why are you lying to her?' Yami asked him through their link.
He glanced up from underneath his bangs and saw Yami leaning against his desk, unnoticed by everyone else in the classroom.
'Why do you care?' Yugi hissed back at him.
Yami, by now, was really done with Yugi's behavior and crossed his arms over his chest. 'I don't know what's going on with you lately, this is not you Aibou,' Yami sighed and shook his head.
'Yeah well, maybe you don't know me so well after all! Get used to it Yami!' Yugi grumbled.
'Yugi, I-' Yami fell silent as Yugi's hand started to tremble harder and he noticed a little layer of sweat on his Hikari's forehead.
'Yugi are you feeling alright?' Yami asked in concern and reached out for him.
Yugi seemingly forgetting that they were in the middle of a classroom filled with people, swished his arm at him as if he was trying to hit Yami.
Yami stared at him as Yugi's arm went right through him and so did the rest of the class, not understanding what was going on.
"Mister Muto?" The old and graying man looked up from his writing to gaze down at his top student.
Yugi didn't answer, instead, he jumped up from his desk and stormed out of the classroom. Yami quickly followed him as he heard Tea being scolded and getting dragged back in by the teacher.
***
Even in his sleep, Atem didn't seem at peace, Mana sighed and cast a few spells over her friend that should make him more at ease.
After a while, each of the sacred guardians fell to sleep, even Mana, who wanted to watch over her friend for the night, doze off as time went by.
***
"Leave me alone Yami!" Yugi shouted at him, now that there was no one else to hear them.
"Yugi please," Yami begged him, wanting to reason with the young one.
"No! I. SAID.LEAVE.ME.ALONE" Yugi kept pacing away from him when all of a sudden the puzzle started to glow.
"Please calm down Yugi, you're disturbing the energy's of the puzzle," Atem pleaded with him.
Yami himself wasn't even sure what was happening, but seeing Yugi's current state, it couldn't be good and he really needed his Aibou to calm down before he would accidentally activate some kind of magic.
Yugi's breathing got heavier as the shaking got more intense when they got outside of the school building, Yami tried to lay a hand on Yugi's shoulder and turn him around so that they could face each other. Instead, the light got brighter and erupted, blinding him completely. "Yugi!" Yami cried out for his friend as he covered his eyes with his arm and tried to see what was happening.
Next thing he knew, he was in a very dark and cold room. He looked around in confusion and tried to figure out where he was. He could strongly smell coffee, which confused him even more. Yami sighed and started to slowly shuffle around with his arms stretched in front of him, hoping he wouldn't fall in some kind of trap.
He then bumped into something, which at first he thought was a wall, but it turned out to be a door. He turned the doorknob around and opened it, resulting in light falling into the room. Yami blinked a few times to get used to the rapid changes from light to dark and back to light. He stared into the hallway for a second and saw the door of his own soul room right across from him. Goosebumps crawled over his skin as he realized that he somehow ended up in what was supposed to be Yugi's soul room.
By remembering where it was, Yami switched the light switch on and gazed into the room. The light didn't work properly and dimly lit Yugi's room. What Yami saw put a lump in his throat.
The once bright room, filled with toys and happiness, had become a grey and dark space. It barely looked like it was inhabited anymore. It was then that Yami realized that this wasn't just something that would blow over, but Yami was still puzzled by what was going on exactly.
"Oh Yugi, I am so sorry for not seeing it sooner," He whispered as a tear rolled down Yami's cheek.
Yami was getting crushed by feelings of guilt when all of a sudden the room started to shake and cracks appeared in the wall. Yami's eyes widened and he let out a gasp as he felt a strong wind and he was blown out of Yugi's soul room and knocked unconscious against the entrance of his own soul room.
***
Atem eyes flew open, he was surrounded by water and his lungs were burning from lack of oxygen. He desperately tried to move his limbs in order to swim to the surface, but his body refused to answer. Not recalling how he got here or where he was in the first place, he started to panic. His mind was rapidly going fuzzy as he felt his body sinking further, he thought he saw something but wasn't quite sure as his view slowly darkened and the darkness took over.
Seto woke up to a cold breeze that tickled his skin lightly. He turned around and grumbled as he tried to get a grip of sleep again. However another cold breeze hit him and in annoyance, he sat up straight to see if the fire was still running. It was then that he noticed the Pharaoh gone. "Wake up!" he shouted at the rest of the Royal Court.
Eyes instantly snapped open, only Mana grumbled to him to shut up. "Mana this is no time to be sleeping, the Pharaoh is gone!" Seto cried out.
This seemed to be enough to grab Mana's attention. She shot straight up and looked down next to her, where the Pharaoh should be sleeping. "Where is he?!" she cried out as she looked up and scanned her surroundings.
Maybe he just went to empty his bladder? "If we knew that he wouldn't be missing Mana," Seto snapped at the younger girl.
Mana frowned and looked up as Mahad whisper to his millennium ring that instantly started glowing. "Well, where is he?" Shada asked as he watched Mahad trying to locate the Pharaoh.
The ring started pointing and tugged at Mahad neck. They all turned their necks and gazed into the water where the ring was pointing towards. "Oh no," Isis cried out, and they all saw how a far underneath the surface a strong light started glowing.
"My king!" Seto shouted in horror.
It didn't take even five seconds for Mahad and Seto to jump into the water as they both started diving towards the Pharaoh. When they came closer they could see their king unconscious and looking very pale. Mahad just wished they weren't too late. Both Seto and Mahad grabbed one of the Pharaoh's arm and started to pull him to the surface as quickly as possible.
Atem felt his back roughly collide with the ground and tried to gasp for air. Instead, a whole bunch of water came racing up his throat. Gagging on the sensation he barely noticed how someone held him up so that the water was able to leave his mouth. "My king," a worried voice sounded next to his ear as the person belonging to that voice stroke his back in an attempt to soot him.
Atem desperately wanted to answer the voice but as he tried to blink away the darkness, he could feel his body struggling to stay awake.
The next time he awoke he felt a cool cloth on his forehead, his clothes where dry and he was wrapped up in multiple warm blankets and placed beside the fire. He slowly opened up his heavy eyelids and gazed into the light of the fire. He shivered, making the cool cloth fall of his forehead. This drew Karim his attention, "He's awake," he announced quietly as he put the cloth back on his king's forehead.
Next Atem saw his friends move into his line of sight. "Pharaoh, you had us worried," Seto scolded.
"Seto, this is no time to be harsh on him!" Isis scolded Seto in return and gave him a disapproving look.
Seto and Isis glared at each other for a few seconds, before Seto mumbled something and appeared to give in to Isis, as he kept quiet and looked back at Atem.
Atem sighed as his view got a little clearer, he tried to sit up, but a wave of dizziness made him lay back down. A grunt left his mouth and he took a deep breath. "What happened?" he asked, trying not to sound as weak as he felt.
"You...we..." Mana looked at him and teared up.
Atem reached for her hand and softly squeezed it, "When we woke up you were gone," She whispered, barely noticeable over the sound of the cracking fire.
Atem looked at her, silently telling her to go on. "Mahad used his ring and...and we almost where to late. You wherein the lake and you nearly drowned," Mana said, starting to softly cry as she stated the last part.
Atem frowned, "We are already dead, how could I drown?" Atem wondered as he kept holding on to Mana's hand.
"We are not sure Pharaoh, we hoped you could tell us more," Mahad answered him.
Mahad looked at Atem with a gaze of wonder in his eyes.
Atem's frown deepened, he stared down at his own and Mana's hand tangled together. He sighed and slowly let go of his friend's hand.
He felt exhausted and knew full well that he wasn't hiding it very well, "My king, maybe you should rest, we have all the time of the world to talk about this after you recovered," Shimon spoke up.
Atem gave a small smile, worry still written all over his face. "We won't let you out of our sight again, don't worry Pharaoh, you'll be safe," Mana promised as she wiped away the last of her tears.
Atem gazed at all of them as they all nodded in agreement and felt truly blessed with the people in his life. "Thank you," he said, already feeling sleep calling for him.
As he drifted off he could feel the magical energy of the millennium items flooding over him, guarding him.