Chapter Text
"I don't care if I don't ever get my memories back. As long as I have you, I don't need them."
"You can have my memories and we can be together forever."
"Forever."
The words echoed with every beat of Yugi's heart. In every thought in his mind. With every step he took during the years following. With every strategic smile carefully choreographed on his face.
"What doesn't kill you makes you stronger," Katsuya, his well meaning best friend, told him often.
But it sounded a lot like a lie. Because if watching the person who had become his entire world, had formed an irreplaceable home in his heart, walk away could make him stronger… then how come he felt weaker than he ever had in his entire life?
"Time heals everything," Anzu had wisely told him, comforting arm around his shoulders. But even he could tell she was only saying the words for his benefit.
Because it had been years now and the violent wound in his soul was still a gaping hole since it had been irreversibly torn that day in Egypt.
When he had left. And Yugi had made him.
"I set you up on a blind date," Ryou told him with a kind smile.
At twenty-five, Yugi should have been happy to try dating. Especially since he hadn't dated anyone. He'd never had the drive…
But as soon as he stepped up to the little table near a cafe window and saw the well dressed European man who Ryou worked with at the museum, Yugi froze as if his feet had permanently cemented to the floor.
His heart tugged backward, as if an invisible string had been pulled taut, attempting to drag him in the opposite direction.
The man caught sight of Yugi, standing there with a pale face under his eyeliner. Under his pressed shirt and form fitting jeans. His toes pressed harshly in his boots.
An unfamilar hand went up in greeting, appearing friendly and more than likely a wonderful person to get to know—
Yugi ran out of the cafe without a word, pushing past another man at the door with his head down to flee the area.
"You can find somebody new."
"They must have never met you."