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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
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Wednesday, April 6, 2005
Domino University
Yugi’s eyes widened and his blood ran cold in his veins as Atem entered the room, walking slowly with his arms wrapped about his body. The right side of his jaw sported a huge black and blue bruise, which looked very painful.
‘He musta gotten in a fight after school. But Bakura said he was able to beat up bullies bigger than him in high school. Maybe those two guys from before jumped him?’ Yugi wondered to himself as he watched Atem sink slowly into the seat next to him.
“Hi,” Yugi ventured softly.
Startled, Atem snapped his head to the side. Upon seeing Yugi’s friendly smile and large eyes, he visibly relaxed, as though he finally felt safe.
“Hi,” he returned in a small voice.
‘A one word response? Something’s definitely wrong,’ Yugi thought.
“You OK?” he asked, not wanting to directly inquire about the bruise for fear of setting the Egyptian off.
“Yes,” Atem returned flatly.
“You sure?” Yugi asked.
Before Atem could answer, the professor entered and everyone stood up for the “good morning”.
Lunch…
Yugi made his way over to the oak tree, worry weighing his heart down. Atem had been dead silent throughout their morning class, only responding with one or two words at the most. Ah! There he was, already under the tree.
“Hi, Atem,” he called to keep from startling his twin.
Atem looked over.
“Hello, Yugi,” he said without smiling.
“Can I sit?” Yugi asked.
At the nod from Atem, Yugi plopped down to his side. For several moments, neither of them moved or spoke. At last, the silence became unbearable for Yugi.
“Didja get in a fight?” he inquired.
A beat.
“No and I don’t care to discuss it,” Atem answered, the shortness in his voice squelching any further questions on Yugi’s part.
“OK…” sighed Yugi, now reaching into his backpack. “Wanna eat and do our homework?”
“Very well,” Atem answered, reaching into his backpack as well.
After eating some bratwurst and potato salad while finishing their assignments, Yugi and Atem fell into talking, as Atem didn’t seem up to dueling today. Soon, they stumbled into Ancient Egyptian theology, something they found they both loved, but Atem was way more knowledgeable about.
“In his jealousy of Osiris, Set killed his brother and dismembered him, flinging his body parts all over Kemet; an arm here, a leg there,” Atem recited to a wide eyed Yugi. “Wild with grief, Isis journeyed all over, retrieving Osiris’ body parts, and reassembled his body. She spent three days and nights chanting a spell to reanimate Osiris’ body, thus allowing him to journey to the afterlife.”
“What happened to Set?” asked Yugi.
“Patience, Yugi,” purred Atem. “Before Osiris went to the afterlife, he and Isis had a son named Horus. Horus grew up under the guidance of Osiris, who would frequently return from the afterlife to visit his family. When Horus came of age, he went to war against his uncle and slew him.”
“Sounds like justice was served,” said Yugi admiringly.
A dark shadow passed over Atem’s features.
“Yes, it was!” he concluded sharply.
Yugi flinched at the seemingly baseless harshness in the Egyptian’s voice. Silence descended upon both college students for a while, each seemingly lost in his own thoughts. At length, Yugi heard Atem take a deep, cleansing breath.
“Tell me, Yugi. Can you see any of the archetypes in the gods I just described to you?” he asked.
Yugi thought it over for a bit.
“Uh, yeah. Set’s kinda like The Destroyer, while Osiris is The Sage, Isis is The Caretaker and Horus is The Warrior,” he answered at length.
A smile lit Atem’s features. Yugi had been paying attention after all.
“Agreed,” he said, causing a smile to break out on Yugi’s features.
Atem and Yugi pulled out their textbooks and started leafing through the pages until they came to the subject the professor had told them to read about for tomorrow: attribution theory.
“What is attribution theory anyway?” Yugi asked.
"Ah, that’s a good one. Quite simply, in our quest to explain the world to ourselves and others, we attribute cause to the events around us, thus giving ourselves a greater sense of control. When explaining behavior, it can affect the standing of people in a group, especially ourselves. For example, when another person does wrong, we often use internal attribution, saying that their misdeed is due to their inherent personality. Whereas, when we commit an error, we use external attribution…” Atem explained.
“You mean we blame something that happened to us?” Yugi quickly put in.
“Exactly,” answered Atem with a patient smile.
“Isn’t that kinda like hypocrisy?” asked Yugi.
“Hypocrisy stems from this, yes,” answered Atem. “I prefer to look at it as just a flaw in our nature, rather than intentional hypocrisy. After all, no one wants to be caught holding the bag.”
“That’s just like those bullies!” spat Yugi. “They bumped into me and knocked me over, but got all pissed at me for ‘getting in their way.’”
Atem smiled ruefully and nodded.
“That’s a fine example,” he said, causing Yugi to smile.
The two lapsed into silence again for a few minutes.
“Have you lived in Domino City all your life?” Atem inquired.
“Yeah. I used to live with my Grandpa at the Kame Game Shop,” Yugi answered.
“I’ve seen that game shop. I’ve always wanted to enter it,” said Atem with another smile.
“I think you and Grandpa would get along great. He’s a world class duelist who taught me everything I know about Duel Monsters,” exclaimed Yugi.
“In that case, I would love to duel him someday,” replied Atem with a dreamy smile.
“Maybe you could come see it this weekend,” proposed Yugi, eyes lighting up at the prospect.
At this, the smile disappeared from Atem’s face and he looked down.
Remembering how Atem had reacted when pumped about the circle, Yugi wisely dropped the subject.
“These days, I live in an off campus house with my best friend, Jounouchi Katsuya,” Yugi continued about himself. “Jou’s a laugh riot. Like, when we were in 11th grade, there was this huge yo-yo craze at our high school. Everyone was bringing in yo-yos and showing off their technique. Jou bragged that he could do the white buddha, but when he tried it, he just got his arms all tangled up in the string so bad that we had to cut him out.”
Yugi dissolved into a giggling fit at the memory.
“Ha ha ha!” Atem threw his head back and laughed, a glorious, rollicking sound that made Yugi’s heart flutter. “The white buddha is a technique that gives even many yo-yo masters a headache.”
“Yeah,” agreed Yugi.
“This Jounouchi seems like quite the character,” remarked Atem.
“He’s hilarious. Me and him’ve been friends since tenth grade. He was always getting in fights and shooting off his mouth. He got more detentions and expulsion threats than the entire tenth grade combined,” laughed Yugi, pausing for a moment. “He also likes to play Duel Monsters.”
“Does he? Well, perhaps someday he and I might have to duel,” mused Atem.
Yugi’s eyes lit and he took a breath to speak again.
Beep beep beep!
“I must go,” Atem said with a regretful glance at his watch. “I’ll see you tomorrow in class.”
“Atem! Wanna exchange email addresses?” Yugi asked impulsively.
The smile left Atem’s face and he looked away again, causing Yugi’s heart to feel heavy.
“I’ve no email,” his voice rumbled.
“All the students are given email addresses by the university,” Yugi pointed out.
“That may be, but I’ve no computer with which to access it,” rumbled Atem, features downcast like a stormy day.
“Phone numbers?”
Yugi’s heart sank even further when Atem again shook his head sadly.
“Aw. That’s OK. We’ll just talk here,” he said goodnaturedly.
“I would like that. I enjoy our conversations immensely,” Atem said quietly as he fixed Yugi with that smile that made the younger boy’s legs turn to goo.
“Me too,” returned Yugi.
“Good luck,” Atem said, seemingly out of the blue.
“Huh?” went Yugi, blinking owlishly.
“You mentioned that you and Jounouchi will be dueling Bakura to gain entrance into your Duel Monsters circle tonight,” Atem explained with a patient smile.
“Oh, shit! That’s right! I totally forgot about that!” yelped Yugi, frantically feeling for his deck in his backpack’s side pocket and breathing a sigh of relief when he felt it. “I really hope I can get in.”
“You will. With skills like yours, how could you not?” said Atem.
'I could say the same thing to you,’ Yugi thought with a sad smile.
“Thanks, Atem. I’ll… letcha know how it went tomorrow,” Yugi said.
“I’ll look forward to it,” smiled Atem.
“See you then!” gushed Yugi.
“Yes, you will,” smiled Atem before heading off for his PM classes.
Duel Monsters circle
“Hazin’ time,” remarked Jou as he and Yugi entered the library, where the DM circle was being held.
They recognized the fluffy silver hair of Bakura Ryou, who smiled when he saw them.
“Hullo, Yugi. Are you ready for your initiation?” Bakura asked.
“Ready as I’ll ever be,” Yugi replied.
“I’m ready too!” chimed in Jou.
“Oh, yes, um…” Bakura screwed up his face, trying to remember Jou’s name.
“Jounouchi,” Jou frowned.
“Ah, yes. You can have your initiation after Yugi,” said Bakura dismissively.
With Jou keeping score, Yugi and Bakura traded decks to cut and shuffle. Formality completed, Jou tossed a coin to see who would start.
“Call it!” he commanded.
“Heads!” Bakura called.
“Tails!” returned Yugi.
Jou looked at the coin on the back of his hand.
“Heads!”
“I begin,” Bakura announced, going for his cards. “I draw Man Eater Bug in defense mode and one face down card.”
“My turn. I draw Alpha the Magnet Warrior and one face down card. Alpha, attack the Man Eater Bug!” Yugi called.
“Not so fast, Yugi. I play the face down card Just Desserts and take 500 of your life points!” declared Bakura.
“Damn!” yelped Yugi as he could only watch his life points drop.
Yugi and Bakura fell into their duel after this, Yugi concentrating hard on winning and getting into the circle. Even as he concentrated though, he couldn’t keep his mind completely on the game.
‘I really hope Atem’ll join the circle one of these days. It’d be good for him to make some friends and duel,’ he thought as he played his Monster Reborn card to resurrect his Black Magician Girl to stand beside the Black Magician.
“Black Magician and Black Magician Girl, destroy the Goblin Zombie!” he commanded.
With a sigh and a smile, Bakura watched as his life points dropped to null.
“Well played, Yugi. You’ll be an asset to our circle,” he declared as he gathered his cards.
“Thanks, Bakura. You’re no slouch,” smiled Yugi as he gathered up his.
“Alright, now for you…” Bakura trailed off.
“Grrrr!” growled Jou as he pulled out his cards and plopped them onto the desk. “It’s Jo-no-uchi!”
As they cut and shuffled each other’s decks, Jou was determined to use this duel to pound his name into Bakura’s brain.
“Thousand Dragon, finish off Bakura’s Necro Defendah!” commanded Jou.
Bakura gasped as his life points disappeared.
“HOT DAMN, I WON!” Jou cried as he jumped up from his seat.
Grinning ear to ear, the blond began dancing around the library like a maniac.
“Vic-tor-ee! Vic-tor-ee! Vic-tor-ee! Vic-tor-ee! Vic-tor-ee!”
“Shhh!” came the sharp, angry reprimand from the librarian.
“Sorry!” gasped Jou with a bow from the waist.
“Welcome to the circle, Yugi and Jounouchi,” announced the smiling Bakura.
“That was fun! I’m glad we joined,” declared Yugi as he and Jou pulled out of the parking lot.
“Me too. No way Bakura f’rgits mah name aftah t’night,” grinned Jou.
“I don’t think anyone could forget you after facing down your Thousand Dragon!” laughed Yugi. “Didja see the look on his face?”
“How could I not, wut wit’ bein right ‘cross from ‘m?” chuckled Jou.
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Darkness Before Dawn