Chapter Text
Atem chuckled as he watched Mana and Mahad show off their magic while the rest of his Royal court surrounded him. The two magicians where bouncing an orb of light back and forth between each other and the first one that dropped it would lose the game. It was rather amusing watching the two compete since Mana had had a whole lifetime to gain more power that Atem had yet to witness. He glanced to the side where Seto and Kissara were snuggling and smiled to himself. He couldn't remember the last time he felt so at peace with his situation, so relaxed. Each and every one of his Sacred Guardians had found peace and happiness within their final resting place and with them being at ease, so was he.
Atem Sighed as his might shifted to Yugi, Tea, Joey, Tristan...... "No Fair!" yelled Mana and Pouted as she watched the orb of light disappear at her feet.
She pouted and folded her arms over each other, "I was distracted by the pharaoh!" she claimed and glanced at Atem with a look of discontent.
Atem, who had snapped out of it by now, frowned in confusion.
"What do you mean Mana?" he asked her as he felt the attention in the room shift to him.
He wasn't very talkative ever since he arrived in the afterlife. Although he wasn't unhappy, the others felt like their Pharoah simply needed some time to adjust. However, when he did speak up, everyone hung at his every word as though he was giving them orders in a war.
"Egypt to Atem, helloooo," Mana's hand waved in front of his face and Atems eyes snapped up to her.
"I'm sorry, what were you saying?" he apologized and caught her hand so that she would stop waving in front of his face.
Mana merely frowned down at him, since she was standing over him and he was sitting down. "You're alright Pharaoh?" Mana asked, her brown eyes reflecting the seriousness in her voice. Atem plastered a smile on his face and got to his feet, "I'm fine Mana, don't worry about me," he put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed it reassuringly.
Then he turned away from his friends with the intent to go walk for a bit, but Seto spoke up. "My king?", Atem held in a sigh and turned his torso towards his friend.
"Yes Seto?" he said, motioning for him to continue with whatever he wanted to say.
Seto seemed hesitant but continued none the less, "We know you've been saying that you are fine, my king, but we have been worried about you," Seto spoke.
Atem raised his eyebrows in surprise and looked around his group of ancient friends. The expressions on their faces confirmed Seto's words and Atem suddenly felt guilty for giving them anything to worry about, they deserved their peace a long time ago.
"I don't understand," Atem answered as he made eye contact with Seto.
Seto seemed at unease as he moved in his place but spoke up once again. "My King, you've been unusually quiet since you arrived, you've seemed distracted like you're not really here......like you're unhappy," he finally laid out their concerns.
Atem thought about this for a few seconds, Seto wasn't the person to talk about emotions unless they were really as concerned as they said. "You're right, I'm sorry. I have been quiet and distracted, but don't mistake that for unhappiness. I could never be unhappy with the greatest friends surrounding me.....and in the afterlife none the less," he told them as he eyed each and every one of them and smiled at them gratefully.
Their concern really touched him, he truly didn't know better individuals than the friends he surrounded himself with during his lifetimes.
"But that's just it, isn't it?" Isis spoke with her voice ever so soft and wise.
"You miss them, don't you?" she eyed him as if she was piercing right through his soul.
Unconsciously Atem took one step back from her intense gaze and tensed his shoulders, Isis broke off the eye contact and looked down at her hands that were resting in her lap. As though she was ashamed of the words she had just spoken.
Atem stared at the woman's face, he had forgotten how observant his friends could be and how well they knew him. He did indeed miss his friends, the feeling was unfamiliar to him as he had never had memories of his Egyptian friends, thus he couldn't have missed them.
Atem frowned again, he did miss them, but it wasn't like when he had lost Yugi.....Yugi.....
He closed his eyes for a second, needing to get a grip of his emotions, for as he was not planning to show weakness in front of his Royal court. As he clenched his hand into a fist, he felt two arms wrap around him. Surprised by this he looked up and saw Shimon standing by him. "It's alright my boy, we understand," he reassured Atem.
Atem chuckled by the so familiar-sounding words, the same words grandpa had used so many times when addressing either him or Yugi. He wiped his slightly wet eyes and smiled down at the man.
"Thank you Shimon," he said gratefully.
The smiled and patted him on the shoulder and Atem looked back up at his friends, "Thank you, all of you. However, I don't wish to worry you. It's true that I miss them....but that's not it," he said while he once again stood tall.
"Than what's wrong Pharaoh?" Mana pouted at him while she was spinning her staff in her hand.
"I wish I knew," he sighed, which earned him confused looks from everyone.
He shook his head and rose his hand when Mana opened up her mouth again to speak. "I need some time, I'll be back....soon," he said and turned around as he had originally done before Seto interrupted him.
Even though his friends protested Atem continued to walk away, surely they would survive an hour without him.
Atem kept walking and the scenery around him kept changing. The afterlife was truely great, whatever you wanted and whatever your heart desired would be there whenever you wanted it. But even afterlife had its limits. The only thing Atem truly wanted was to have all his friend, all the people he cared about, at one place. But that was far beyond the power of the afterlife and Atem knew it. Just like every monster had a weakness, so did this place.
He kicked away a small stone in front of his feet and looked up when he heard it collide with water. In front of him was an enormous lake that spread out as far as the eye could see. With a sigh, he sat himself down at the edge of the lake and kicked off his shoes before he dipped his feet in the water.
Staring down at his own reflection made him wince, his own face reminded him of Yugi. The once small boy wasn't so small anymore, and as he grew up he began to look more and more like Atem.
That wasn't the case when he first met Yugi, far from.....
***
He gazed at the door of his soul room, he had noticed his friend had developed a strange pattern lately. A pattern wherein Yami was frequently cut off and shoved away in his soul room, without his consent.
Yami had fallen asleep while waiting for Yugi to let him back in....or out actually. He was woken up by thick smoke. His eyes snapped open and he sped to the door of his soul room in an instant. Was there a fire? Was Yugi at danger?
He banged against the door, which to his surprise opened smoothly. Unsettled by this, Yami sped out to their hallway and appeared in his ghostly form right next to Yugi.
He blinked his eyes in surprise a few seconds, the youngster was leaning out of the window and Yami couldn't detect any sign of danger that might have caused the smoke. He stepped closer to Yugi and froze when he saw what was in his Aibou's hand. "Yugi!" Yami cried out in disbelief and anger, he couldn't believe it.
Yugi jumped at his voice and nearly dropped the cigarette out of the window. He cursed and looked up to find Yami standing right behind him. "You scared the hell out of me Yami!" Yugi complained as he took another drag of his cigarette and stared at Yami as if nothing was going on.
Yami had seen quite enough, "What do you think you're doing?" he growled and stepped next to Yugi.
"What does it look like?" Yugi said in annoyance and waved his hand while he blew out little circles of smoke.
"Besides, what are you doing here? I thought I had put you away" Yugi grumbled.
Yami narrowed his eyes in anger, his Hikari had never spoken to him like that, in such a disrespectful tone. Yami, however, decided to stay calm, there should be a logical explanation for this. "I thought there was a fire, my soul room started to fill with smoke," He answered Yugi with his arms folded in front of himself.
"Clearly I was mistaken," He added and clenched his teeth and Yugi took another drag of the cigarette. Yami hated seeing him do this, why was he hurting himself like this? Yugi was well aware of the effects.
"Yes you were, so you can leave me alone now," Yugi snapped at him and gave him an angry look.
Yami was taken aback by this but shook his head. "I'm not going anywhere until you tell me what's going on.....and put that out! You're intoxicating our minds!" Yami complained and massaged his temples, he could feel the nicotine getting to him. He didn't even wanna know what effects it had on Yugi.
Yugi huffed but put out the cigarette anyways, then he turned to Yami with a look of annoyance on his face. "The only thing that's going on is that you're being annoying. I have no need for you, go away!" he lashed out.
Yami was shaken by his words, they really did hurt him. It was in that short moment of inadvertence that Yugi mentally locked him up in his soul room again.
With a look of disbelief on his face, he started banging at the door again, what had just happened? "Yugi! Let me out! Don't you dare ignore me!" He yelled, his voice echoing through the puzzle, but he got no response.
"Yugi!"
***
Atem came back to reality when he heard something moving behind him. For a moment not realizing where he was, he stood up and turned around with his handheld up high, a flame emerging from his palm. He was ready to attack whoever snuck up to him, but the intruder held up her arms and stepped into the light of his magic flames. "It's me, I didn't mean to scare you!" Mana said, looking startled by Atems fierce reaction.
Atem, in turn, lowered his hand and was about to put out his flames, when he noticed that it was already night time. Confused, he let the flames dance around his palm, providing the two of them a little bit of light in the dark. "What time is it?" he demanded to know.
"It's already past midnight Pharaoh, we were worried for your safety," Mana explained as she frowned.
Atem felt the headache in his head building up as he tried to recall six hours passing by. He shook his head and eyed at her with a sorrowful look on his face. "I am sorry Mana, I am causing all of you a lot of trouble lately," he sighed and let his head hang.
Mana was surprised by this view, Atem was a proud and strong Parhaoh and he nearly never let his head hang. "Hey it's alright, what matters is that you're safe," she answered as she stepped in and gave him a hug.
She felt Atems weight on her increasing and she frowned, "So tired," Atem muttered as he felt his eyes closing rapidly.
Mana tightened her grip on her friend and slowly put him down in the grass.
She looked down at her friend and sighed, "Oh Atem, I wish we knew what was going on in that stubborn head of yours," she whispered as she summoned a mattress and a pillow underneath him and a blanket on top of him.
She then watched him for a few more seconds as he restlessly turned and mumbled in his sleep, before she proceeded to put red sparks in the sky so that the other could find them.