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Darkness Before Dawn	By : SangoHuntress1977 Category: Yu-Gi-Oh > AU - Alternate Universe Views: 3356 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: YuGiOh and the characters thereof are the sole domain of Kazuki Takahashi and all rightsholders. I'm only borrowing them for entertainment purposes and am deriving no profit.

Chapter List
- 19
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- 21
Tuesday, July 26, 2005

As the sun’s light poured into the room through the eastern window, a beautiful bronze figure stood in its path, allowing the light to seep into every inch of skin, eyes closed, head thrown back.

It had been years since Atem Ishtar had been able to greet Ra in this way. Now, free of his torment and surrounded by happiness and safety, he worshiped the sun god of his clan, basking in the white light’s soothing embrace.

Still snuggled in their now shared bed, Yugi blinked his eyes in annoyance at the sun’s intruding rays… only to be struck dumb by the vision of divine beauty before him: a naked desert god bathed in the sun’s white light, head thrown back as in ecstasy.

‘Wow!’ was the only thought Yugi could articulate.

“Good morning, Yugi,” Atem’s deep voice rumbled as the living god turned to face him, irises colored a deep ruby.

“Uh… hi…” returned Yugi, still staring in unmitigated awe at the vision of perfection before him.

“Did you sleep well?” Atem asked as he came forward and sat on the bed’s edge, taking Yugi’s hands in his.

“Uh… yeah…” Yugi answered breathlessly. “You?”

“Like a baby,” Atem smiled softly at Yugi.

The scent of sandalwood and incense hit Yugi boldly as Atem leaned in, touching their brows together while gifting Yugi with a smile that catapulted the smaller tricolor into the seventh heaven. When Atem’s tongue begged entrance, Yugi parted his lips, allowing their tongues to dance and play, teeth sliding together as they leaned into each other. By the time they pulled apart, Yugi’s heart was racing and he felt warm and tingly all over.

“Get dressed and I’ll make breakfast,” Atem said softly.

“It’s your birthday. We could all go out and I could…” Yugi protested feebly, only to be silenced by Atem’s forefinger on his lips.

“I enjoy cooking,” Atem reminded him. “Hurry…”

Yugi could only nod and watch as Atem rose gracefully and retrieved shorts and t-shirt, for late July was much too hot for leather. With a final smile Yugi-ward, Atem strode from the room and made his way downstairs to start breakfast before a certain golden retriever woke up and went in search of his matutinal repast.

After getting his heart rate and breathing under control, Yugi rolled out of bed and ran into the bathroom for a short, icy cold shower, before ducking into his room to dress for the day. Clad in shorts and a tank top, he ran down the hallway, just as the scent of something salty and meaty being fried hit his nostrils.

‘USA style breakfast!’ Yugi thought happily.

Just then, the door to Jounouchi’s room opened and out stepped the blond, his sensitive nose evidently having picked up on the scent too. Yugi and Jou looked at each other and grinned widely.

“BACON!” they cheered happily.

The two friends flew downstairs, now with Yugi in the lead, now with Jou in the lead. As the bacon scent became ever more powerful, the two started groping and tugging at each other in a bid to reach the dining room first.

The sounds of scuffling and footsteps filling his ears, Atem set everything on the table and stepped out to greet his two friends in the doorway. Then they were there, almost ready to bowl him over to get to the bacon. Two hands were held up and a glare leveled. Two racing roommates stopped dead in their tracks.

“Do I need to send you two back upstairs and have you walk down?” Atem growled at Yugi and Jou, albeit with a twinkle in his eye.

The roommates hung their heads.

“No…”

“Alright. Let’s eat,” said Atem more gently. “I made plenty of bacon for the three of us, so there’s no need to kill each other.”

“Itadakimasu!”
The bank…

Atem, Yugi and Jou sat in rigid anticipation as Akhnadin’s accountant looked the papers over. Akhnadin had been confirmed as deceased by one Kujaku Mai-sensei and as of today, Atem Ishtar was of age to claim his inheritance.

“Congratulations, Ishutaru-san. Here’s your paperwork for the transfer of the account. If you’ll just sign here, here and here and initial in these boxes, you’ll be all set,” said the accountant as he handed Atem the paperwork.

With a stiff nod, Atem put pen to paper, signing and initialling where he must.

During the entire procedure, Yugi and Jou kept a sharp eye on the Egyptian. Although Atem had made great strides, anything remotely to do with Akhnadin made him stiffen up and withdraw, not only for its duration, but also for a while after. They had agreed beforehand that if it seemed like Atem was making ready to leap over the desk and throttle the accountant, Jou would have to restrain him, knocking him out if need be, and get him out of there before any bodily harm could occur.

‘I just wish it didn’t have to be right on his birthday. People deserve to be happy on their birthdays, especially their coming of age,’ Yugi thought as he wrung his shirt in his hands unhappily. ‘Well, once it’s over, we’ll take him out to do whatever he wants. That’ll make him feel better.’

“Thank you for your business today, Ishutaru-san. If I may offer my services…” the accountant began.

“Are we through here?” Atem bit out, narrowed eyes warning away any preamble on the accountant’s part.

“Yes, sir,” said the accountant with a gulp.

Gathering up the folder of documents, Atem turned on his heel and strode from the office, Yugi and Jou quickly following him. As Atem strode forward, Yugi and Jou saw the gradual change in his demeanor. The tension drained from his shoulders, to be replaced by the customary strength. His head went up and by the time they reached the door, Atem was no longer walking in anger, but in pride.

Behind him followed Yugi and Jou, both gazing in admiration at the regal demeanor their friend bore, as if taking control of the estate had completed something that had been missing in him, perhaps giving him a much needed sense of power in his own life? Even as a psychology student, Yugi could only guess. But whatever it was, the transformation was something wonderful to behold.

Stopping ahead of them, Atem looked over his shoulder at his friends and smiled at them.

“Stop walking behind me like that! You are my friends, not my servants,” he gently reprimanded the other two.

“Sorry!” yelped Yugi, running to catch up.

“So Mistah Moneybags, how’s it feel t’ be rich?” asked Jou bluntly.

“Jou…” ground out Yugi.

But Atem merely smiled serenely at the blond.

“I don’t know what it’s like to be rich because I’m as of yet unused to it. Could we please keep this among the three of us for the time being?” he asked the other two.

“Abso-fuckin’-lutely,” answered Jou. “If ya buy me a new cah!”

Whap!

“Really, Jou?” glowered Yugi.

"Ha ha ha ha ha!" Atem threw his head back and laughed at his two friends. “On a more serious note, I need some suggestions. I’ve more money now than I know what to do with. What should I spend it on?”

“A gamin’ rig!” Jou piped up suddenly.

“Oh, yeah! If you had your own computer, the three of us could play each other over the LAN!” chirped Yugi.

“Fragalicious,” grinned Jou.

Atem deliberated a moment, then raised twinkling irises to his friends.

“Please, take me to the nearest computer shop,” he requested. “Afterwards, I’ll treat you to lunch at Burger World as my thanks.”

“We’re dere, dude,” grinned Jou.
Downtown Domino, a computer store…

“By Ra!” gasped Atem when he saw all the different laptops and towers lining the store’s shelves.

“Ain’t dis shit a sight?” remarked Jou. “Maybe I’ll git a new PC too.”

“We got ours at the same time, Jou. They’re only four months old,” countered Yugi.

“Zaklee. Ol’ ass shit! Time t’ upgrade,” grinned the blond.

“Well, you do what you want, but I got mine setup the way I like it and I’m not changing it,” huffed Yugi, crossing his arms.

“Now, now, you two. Help me pick out a good rig,” soothed Atem.

“Well, if yer serious ‘bout gamin’, dun bothah wit’ a prebuilt machine, have ‘em make ya one custom. Costs a bit more, but dat way its yers,” instructed Jou.

With a nod, Atem turned his attention to the sales lady who had just approached the group, smiling politely. With Yugi and Jou’s help, he picked out the best hardware and OS for his computer, including the newest motherboard, the fastest Socket 7 CPU, an nVidia GeForce AGP video card, 2 GB RAM, a sound card that supported 4.1 speakers, wireless mouse and keyboard and an HD monitor.

“Man, what a sweet rig! Yer gonna blow us away on our ol’ dinosaurs. Dat’s why I ordered mahself a new video cahd,” crowed Jou.

“Well, I just upgraded my card last month, so I’m all set,” said Yugi.

“Ya could git more RAM. Ya only got 1 GB ‘n he’s gonna have twice dat!” said Jou, jerking his head Atem-ward.

“I’ll be fine,” reiterated Yugi.

Meanwhile, Atem was having a fine time listening to his two friends debate the merits of upgrading vs waiting.

“Let’s go eat at Burger World while we wait for your new machine,” suggested Yugi.

“Awesome idea,” said Jou, whose stomach rumbled audibly.

With a nod, Atem led his two friends from the computer shop.
Burger World…
“Hi, guys! How have you been?” asked Anzu as she led the three young men to the usual booth.

“We’ve all been great,” answered Yugi for the group.

“That’s good. Drinks?” Anzu asked as the trio sat down.

“Coke!” Yugi and Jou ordered simultaneously.

“Iced tea, please,” ordered Atem.

“Coming right up,” chirped Anzu as she scribbled down the orders.

The three friends fell into looking at their menus to decide what they wanted.

“Man, I’m so lookin’ for’rd t’ wastin’ yer ass!” Jou presently grinned across the table at the tricolors.

“Rest assured, the feeling is mutual,” Atem returned coolly with a sip of his tea.

“Once we get everything setup, I’ll show you a site where you can download custom characters to play as,” offered Yugi.

“That would be appreciated,” smiled Atem.

Yugi opened his mouth to speak… only to receive a blown straw wrapper in the chest from Jou, shit eating grin on his face. A smirking Yugi quickly opened his straw wrapper and blew it back at Jou, who reciprocated by grabbing it, wadding it up and chucking it at Yugi.

During this exchange, Atem watched, a look between incredulity and amusement playing on his handsome features, that is until a wadded up straw wrapper hit the tip of his nose, causing him to blow his straw wrapper at Jou.

“Do you two wanna be banned from the restaurant again?” came the scolding voice of Anzu just then, causing a red faced Yugi and Jou to quickly clean up the straw wrappers.

“Sorry, Anzu,” the three apologized.

“That’s better. Now… what’ll ya have?”
Soon…

Finally, the food was served: two cheeseburgers and chili fries for Jou, a hamburger and fries for Yugi and a hamburger with onion rings for Atem.

“Hey! Eatcher own damn fries!” Jou growled as Yugi dared to lift one of his chili laden fries from the container.

“Like you’re gonna eat all that!” defended Yugi, cramming the fry into his mouth.

“Ain’t da point. What’s mine is mine ‘n what’s yers is also mine,” quipped Jou.

“Jou…” gasped Atem.

“‘N ‘n spirit a dat…” Jou snatched a fry from Yugi’s plate, cramming it into his mouth.

“Asshole!” glowered Yugi, almost ready to leap over the table and throttle Jou.

“Yugi, you did bring it on yourself by filching one of his chili fries,” pointed out Atem in an effort at peacemaking.

“And just whose side are you on?” Yugi playfully fumed, taking the opportunity to snatch one of Atem’s onion rings.

“My own,” returned Atem, swiping a fry from Yugi’s plate. “I saw that, Jou.”

This as Jou snatched one of Atem’s onion rings and bit into it.

“Say, dese ain’t too bad,” Jou smiled.

“Yeah. These are awesome,” agreed Yugi.

“Er… guys?” gulped Atem.

Only to find Yugi and Jou now attacking his plate equally, rapidly depleting his beloved onion rings. In return, Atem snatched fries from both their plates at an equal rate.
Soon…
After everyone had eaten (both their own food and what they snatched from the other two), Anzu brought the bill, which Atem took care of. As they got ready to leave, their minds turned back to Atem’s computer.

“Your computer should be built by now. Wanna go get it?” Yugi asked.

“Yes!” answered Atem, eyes shining with excitement.

“Let’s book,” said Jou.
Later
At home…

“She’s all set. Press da button on da fron’ ‘n she should turn on,” instructed Jou as he stood up from attaching all of Atem’s cables.

With a nod, Atem knelt down and pressed the power button. The machine’s fans roared to life and the purple LEDs inside the box lit, glowing through the window in its side. Not a moment later, the monitor showed the POST screen and began scrolling through all the system RAM before finally booting to the Windows XP login screen.

“Thanks, Jou. I believe I can take it from here,” declared Atem, who had enough familiarity with the software side of things, thanks to his countless hours on Yugi’s computer.

“After you have your account setup, you can put all your files on this thumb drive and move them over,” said Yugi, holding out one of his thumb drives for Atem.

“Thank you, habibi,” purred Atem, his hand gently caressing Yugi’s as he accepted the thumb drive.

“Git a room,” Jou glowered.

This caused the tricolors to glare at him.

“In case you’ve forgotten, this is my room,” Atem glowered at the blond.

“Eh? Oh, yeah. In dat case, I’m headin’ t’ mah room. I’ll be ready t’ frag whenevah,” decided the blond.

“It’ll be a blast,” grinned Yugi.

While Yugi watched, Atem setup his user account (named Desert Rose), then went to Yugi’s room and retrieved all his files from Yugi’s computer. This formality completed, Yugi helped Atem to install the video games he wanted to play with CD-ROMs from Yugi’s collection and keygens so they wouldn’t have to pay a second time.
Later…

Blackmage and Dog of War spawned in the map and right away began fragging each other with flak and rockets respectively.

DesertRose3000 has entered the map.

KABOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!

Blackmage and Dog of War both found themselves fragged by a wicked Shock combo from DesertRose3000, who appeared as an Ancient Egyptian pharaoh in his shenti and nemes.

DesertRose3000: Salutations, friends!

Dog of War: salu ?

black_mage: he’s saying hi

Dog of War: o hey d00d how thy hangin

DesertRose3000: They’re hanging well enough to deal you this. :-)

KABOOM BOOM BOOM!!!

Poor Dog of War found himself being spawn killed over and over again by DesertRose3000’s relentless shock combos, until at last he was fortunate enough to spawn away from the marauding pharaoh.

Dog of War: fuq u!

DesertRose3000: I believe that’s what I was just doing. ;-)

black_mage: ROFLCOPTER

Dog of War: hus sid u on blk_mage?

black_mage: no one’s i’m just enjoying the show

That is until black_mage found himself being blown away by DesertRose3000’s combo attack. Upon respawning, he went for the nearest flak cannon and started stalking DesertRose3000, hoping to take him by surprise.

KABOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!

black_mage was against forced to respawn far away from his new nemesis and without even a flak cannon nearby. He went for the nearest weapon, a Link Gun.

‘Worthless!’ Yugi thought unhappily as he clicked and tapped.

The sound of rockets screaming toward him gave him almost no time to notice and black_mage took damage from Dog of War’s rockets. However, he turned around charged toward the canine warrior with his Link Gun’s alt fire, hitting Dog of War and dissolving him where he stood.

Dog of War: u lil fuqr ima gt u 4 tht

black_mage: talk is cheap

Dog of War: sos ur funeral

KABOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!

Once again, both friends found themselves snuck upon and blown away by the shock combo of DesertRose3000.

DesertRose3000: You snooze, you lose!
Later…

Jou was so engrossed in a cop dorama that he never heard the sound of bare feet padding over the polished wooden floor. Never noticed that is, until a rectangular piece of paper was dropped unceremoniously into his lap.

“Eh?”

Jou looked up into a pair of amused rubies and upturned lips.

“Temu?”

“The money I borrowed for Yugi’s cartouche,” answered Atem simply.

“T’anks, pal,” grinned Jou as he pocketed the money.

“No. Thank you,” said Atem with a smile.

“Temu,” said Jou.

“Hm?”

Atem looked back at Jou, to see the duelist holding out a brand new Duel Monsters booster pack for him.

“It’s yer birthday…”

“Thank you!” smiled Atem as he happily took the pack from the blond. “I’ll go add this to my deck right away.”

“Use it freely t’ kick mah ass,” grinned Jou.

“I’ll look forward to it,” smirked Atem with a wink before retreating to his room to stow his cards.
Later still…

Yugi sank into Atem’s arms as they let the warm water of the bathtub loosen muscles that were tired from a long day. He lay with his head on Atem’s chest, listening to the cadence of Atem’s heart for a bit, while Atem kept his arms wrapped protectively around Yugi’s shoulders.

“Je suisu desore,” Yugi mumbled after a bit.

“Hmm? Why?” asked Atem, looking down at Yugi.

“Cuz today was supposed to be your special day and you had to buy your own computer. We shoulda pooled our money and gotten you the computer,” sighed Yugi.
“You bought me lunch,” pointed out Atem.
“Not good enough. It was your special day,” reiterated Yugi.

“Alright. Then I forgive you. You can make it up to me on my next birthday,” decided Atem.

“OK…” sighed Yugi, laying his head on Atem’s chest again and closing his eyes.
That night…

A squeaky clean Atem snuggled under his light blanket and looked at the door, waiting for his habibi to come in and spend the night with him. Since he and Yugi had started sharing a bed, he had slept much better, with zero nightmares and always looked forward to having Yugi in his arms.

The door opened to reveal Yugi with what appeared to be a solid gold box in his hands. At this, Atem sat up and focused his attention on the younger man, cocking his head in curiosity.

“Happy birthday, Até,” said Yugi without preamble as he held out the box.

Moving gingerly, Atem took the box from Yugi, feeling its smooth, cool surface in his palms and the weight of it in his muscles.

‘This box is solid gold!’ he thought.

“Yugi?” he questioned.

“I wanted to wait till we were alone to give it to you,” Yugi explained.

“That’s alright. I don’t mind that at all,” replied Atem as he turned the box around in his hands, reading the hieroglyphs. “This says that the one who solves this puzzle will have their wish granted.”

“Yup,” said Yugi. “Open it up!”

Atem pulled the lid off, to reveal solid gold pieces of something inside, two of which he lifted out after setting the box on his lap.

“Grandpa gave me the box months ago, actually just before me and Jou… came and got you,” Yugi stammered. “I’ve worked on it since then, but was only able to get half of it done. Maybe you can finish what I started?”

With a hitching breath, Atem laid the pieces carefully back into the box, put the lid back on and set the box aside on his nightstand. Raising tear filled eyes to Yugi, he smiled and held his arms out for his habibi.

Upon seeing Atem’s tears, Yugi’s heart felt heavy in his chest, even as he climbed into bed with him. Atem had seemed happy about the puzzle, so why was he crying.

“You OK, Até?” he asked as he snuggled up with his dark over. “Dontcha like it?”

“Thank you, habibi. You’ve given me such a wonderful gift, the best since my cartouche from Papa,” Atem murmured brokenly into Yugi’s shoulder.

“Oooohhh. You’re crying cuz you’re happy,” said Yugi as it dawned on him.

“I don’t really… know why I’m crying,” admitted Atem in a nasal voice as his tears seeped through the cotton of Yugi’s pajama shirt.

Yugi pulled back and gently took Atem’s face between his hands, as Atem had so often done with him.

“Maybe cuz you’re all worked up after a long, exciting day,” he offered with a gentle smile.

At this, Atem managed a watery smile before snuggling down into Yugi’s arms and sobbing softly, releasing all the pent up tension and excitement of gaining his inheritance, getting his first computer and now this beautiful golden puzzle from his habibi.

‘He’s right. These are tears of joy,’ Atem thought as he sighed happily in Yugi’s arms.
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Darkness Before Dawn