Another prompt! Yay!! This was a request from @sonarbreezythelongearedhedgehog, she wanted a night before ceremonial duel moment. I of course have actually NEVER wrote one. Mainly cause I have so many ideas floating in my head that I can’t pick. So she wanted angst and romance, but without them speaking. Leading to DSOD where Yugi says he wishes he had a chance to tell Atemu what he meant to him. Here is that moment where the regret sets in. Enjoy!
"Atemu." Yugi sobbed as he buried his face in his hands and leaned against the spirit, he finally let it out, the tears wouldn't stop anytime soon, and he knew it. So for now, he just wanted to feel the presence, for the last time, of the man he loved, but could not speak the words to. He refused to think of what tomorrow brought them, he refused to think of anything but this moment. Being in Atemu's arms, though he was a spirit, Yugi was able to feel him, touch him, in their own special way. It wasn't the same as his mother's embrace, but it was still an embrace. Just like their bond, special, unique, different, but oh so loved and wanted. Yugi felt the tears fall into his hands, down his cheeks, some even made their way into his mouth when he would open it to breathe. The salty taste was helping his mouth stay moist, for he refused to get a drink of water. No! He would not break this moment, not for anything!
"Yugi." Atemu whispered as he wrapped his arms around Yugi, pulling him close to his chest. He buried his head in Yugi's hair and he too began to cry. He felt Yugi tremble as he sobbed and just wished he could take the pain away. All he could do was squeeze Yugi as tight as he could. Yugi had closed off their link so he couldn't feel what he was feeling at that moment, he couldn’t hear what Yugi was thinking, but he was glad for that. He didn't want Yugi to know how much he wanted to just run away, to just go home. Home! Not his tomb, not the afterlife, but Japan. The little game shop in the middle of Domino City. In the place where they made memories, the bedroom where they stayed up late and talked until Yugi passed out. Where he watched tv and played games, and learned to cook. He loved to cook, Atemu smiled thinking of the meals he made for Yugi, which he loved them all! He wanted to just make a big bowl of soup and snuggle under a blanket and watch a movie with Yugi. With his Yugi. No! He couldn't allow himself to call Yugi that, he was not, nor ever will, belong to Atemu. Yugi had a life that was needed to be lived, a life without the burden of evil, shadows, darkness. He deserved to be happy, that's what Yugi deserved. Even at the cost of his own happiness.
Yugi wanted to open the link, wanted to feel what Atemu was feeling. But he was too afraid, afraid that he would feel Atemu give him pity for breaking down. He didn't want to come out of his soul room until it was time, but he needed to. He needed to let his tears fall, because he was too scared to cry in front of his friends. Their friends. The one's they made together. Yugi knew that he was given those friends by the puzzle, by his wish. It was now time to return his wish, but he didn't, at least not in the tomb in the Memory Game. Now though, Yugi was going to have to return his real wish. His wish for Atemu! “Was Atemu my wish?” Yugi thought for a moment, the tears slowing down. Yes! He was! He knew the moment he bonded with Atemu, that he was the real answered wish. Yugi wanted friends, yes, Yugi wanted love, yes! But Yugi also wanted someone to want him, as much as he wanted them. That was Atemu. He smiled thinking of every day he came home from school. Atemu greeted him with a smile on his face and a ‘good afternoon Yugi’. ‘How was your day Yugi?’ It warmed his chest just thinking of it. But then he felt the tears sting in his eyes again, next week when he returned to school, when he would come back home, Atemu wouldn't be there to greet him. "It hurts so much." Yugi sobbed out loud.
"Shh." Atemu whispered in his ear. "I'm here." He rocked Yugi and slowly walked him backwards to the bed, both of them sitting down. "I'm here." He said again as he laid down, bringing Yugi with him.
"Don't think of that, just think of this." Atemu hummed. A tune he didn't know what, but it was soothing and it was relaxing. Yugi and him were crying, holding, touching. They felt the love the other had, but yet the words could never be spoken. They spoke that promise, a silent promise, to never say the three words that would tear their hearts apart. It was not needed nor necessary of them to even say them. They knew, in their own way, they knew.
Yugi cried until he felt exhaustion take over. He had stayed up all night working on his deck and then Atemu took control and worked on his own deck. The body, their body, was tired and needed sleep. Yugi closed his eyes and smiled. "You, were all, that I, needed." He breathed softly, each word spoke from a small whisper to almost unheard.
Atemu felt Yugi let out a big sigh, his breathing indicating he had fallen asleep. "You are all I ever need. Memories, my name." He smiled. "I didn't need them, like I need you." He closed his eyes and allowed sleep to take over. Though he was just a spirit, he didn’t need sleep. But he still felt the urge sometimes to close his eyes and just let the feeling of Yugi's fatigue take over his senses. He felt content with the young boy in his arms.
They forgot all about the sun rising, the door that was knocked on by three different people, they just laid there, on the bed. The boat that had docked to the shore that would lead them to their final destination. To Atemu's final home. Yugi would return an empty man, with nothing more but words left unspoken. Atemu would be at peace, that's what matter to Yugi, if it meant happiness for him, he would let him go, no matter how painful it was to him. What both boys failed to realize is what they both thought the other wanted, was not true. Atemu wanted Yugi's happiness, Yugi wanted Atemu's. Two people, both in love, both forbidding themselves to speak it. Both thinking of the other, not once thinking what it would do to themselves, or what life they could have. No! Instead they cared deeply enough about the other, to let each other go. For now, through the tears, the pain, and the heartache, they just held each other. They had genuine smiles on their faces as they rested. Soon someone would wake them and soon they would travel to the tomb, where they would duel each other, where one would win and the other would lose. Where they would part. They knew it was coming...they just didn't want it to end...so soon.
