Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Paradise ❯ Chapter 1: Hope ( Chapter 1 )

Paradise

By Citrus Luver

Author's Note: I feel so bad… I'm starting another fic… with so many incomplete. Actually… none of my fics are complete… but they will. That I know. Uh… what to say. Besides that strangely enough… this idea was been in my head for a really… really long time… and I actually have an outline for how it's suppose to turn out… from beginning to end. ^^ So finally… after a really long time… for being in my mind… I have finally decided to write it down on paper… hopefully… it's original.

Oh yeah. Japanese names are used in this fic. ^^ I like them better… and I can barely remember what the English names are or how to spell them any more. -. -''' I've been watching Yu-gi-oh, the original Japanese version, for so long. Oh and uh… the not so nameless three thousand-year-old Pharaoh will be called Atemu. It was either that or Yuugi… and I thought that would be too confusing.

Oh… and uh… Atemu has a body in this fic. Not Yuugi's body… his own body. Basically… this fic happens right after the whole ancient Egypt saga in the anime/manga… through I don't know how many people know this but in the manga… they didn't go to Egypt immediately. In the manga… the slate was still in Domino Museum… and there was a three month intermission between after discovering Atemu's name and actually going to Egypt for the ceremonial battle. The nearly two years time that Atemu speaks off… happens in those three months. So now everyone is in their senior year in high school.

Oh and finally a warning. There will be shonen-ai in this fic!! I repeat shonen-ai… which is boy X boy. Not comfortable with couplings like that… I suggest that you trek carefully. This is your first and final warning.

Summary: The essence of time and illusion, two years early… in a game of wrong identity… Yuugi was brutally murdered in front of Atemu. Fleeing for their lives, Kaiba gave both Atemu and Surogoku new identities… hoping to divert the evil, yet now a strange calling has brought them back. With Surogoku … trying ever so hard to regain his business… Atemu returns to school… to see that much has changed since he was last there. All seems peaceful in haven till strange, mysterious and deadly events start occurring… the 'marking'. Yet with each new victim… Atemu finds paradise… with Yuugi… each time drawing him closer and closer to… eternal slumber…

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-gi-oh!

Chapter 1

Hope

The city of Domino, just like the name implies was a city of lust… illusion… and magic. It was a gem… a jewel beyond a jewel. A beacon of light in a thick ever engulfing sea of fog… it stood out before all others… drawing in all from the hinder lands. It drove the rich… the weak hearted. Founded for its five-star hotels, exotic cuisine… and technology. Funny, how time could corrode anything. After all Domino City was like that no more… a gem? No… more like a burnt piece of coal. It was no longer lively… no longer the haven for all… a place to go home not an ounce richer… but a pound happier. Yet once it did draw in people… like a magnet… yet now… it was as if the magnet had broken… leaving a town filled with dark spirits… and dark hopes.

Something that he knew all to well.

His piercing crimson eyes were turned towards the window, absorbing in every detail that passed by. Their color was stunning not the normal blood thirst that was associated with red, but a different type of red. It was like the red of a newly bloomed ruby red rose, a shade more mysterious than romantic, yet they were tainted with a trait that didn't belong. Utter loneliness filled the souls of his pupils. A long slender, tanned hand pressed against the window. The faint drops of rainwater falling lightly. It's rhythmic beat falling ever so slowly on the ceiling before sliding down the windows creating smoothing cascades of water. Long blond bangs flowed over his forehead falling to his nose. Long ebony black hair framed his tanned face radiating defiantly. The ends of each piece tinted with the same redness that matched his eyes.

An elderly man sat beside him. Wrinkles covered his once flawless and youthful face now aged by the passage of time. A pair of torn green overalls adorned his body. A black handkerchief adored the top of his head like a cap, streaks of gray hair sticking out here and there. Two small white symbols imprinted upon it. A small bag was sitting on his lap.

Silence dwindled in the small cab engulfing the two passengers and driver. The elder man blinked before opening his mouth. He licked his lips moistening them from the dryness that they had become caused by the cold, wet weather outside. "Atemu," he said quietly breaking the dreadful silence. "How does it feel to finally come home after all these years?"

Silence followed the question. The young man blinked. His hand slipped from the window to his lap. Once again he blinked before shifting in his seat. "Kyoto's my home," he replied simply, a hint of annoyance and anger fueled his words. A small sigh escaped from his lips.

Once again the old man tried, this time with a different approach. "Atemu, you promised you would give Domino a shot, again..." The young man stayed silent. His eyes flashed at the window, the same loneliness eloped them once more. "Please," the old man pleaded, now betraying his desperation.

"Where're we staying?" The hollow words flowed out of the young man's lips.

Now it was the old man's turn to be uncomfortable. He shifted in his seat and readjusted the bundle upon his lap. "The game shop."

A long pause followed. "Why?" A simple word escaped the young man's lips betraying his emotions of hurt and loneliness. "Why, Ji-chan? Doushite?" pleaded the young man. His hands left his lap as he grabbed his grandfather's hands. "Why? Why? Why?" he moaned… each time more and more desperate as slowly tears began to form. "Doushite? Doushite? Doushite?"

The elder man didn't comment but instead looked away. He focused everything on the small water droplet stuck to his window as he tried to black out his grandson's wallowing pleads. His hands still locked in his grandson's iron grasp.

A while later, which had been spent in nearly pure silence, the taxi pulled up to a broken down store. The paint was slowly peeling away from all sides of the store. The sign was falling apart as some of the lettering had already eroded away from the forces of nature. Nature had ensnared the once vibrant store filled with laughter and the chattering of gaming fans. The windows were boarded up with planks… mostly now hanging limply from the careless nailing that had been done. "You sure this is right place, mister?" the cab driver asked a hint of disbelief evident in his words as he stared at the game shop. The old man looked at his grandson who was once more pleading with him to say no.

"Yeah," said the elder man simply. "Atemu, come on. We're home," said the old man softy undoing his grandson's dead grip from his hands before exiting from the cab. The young man soon followed. The cab driver already unloading the luggage and setting it on the curb. Once done a simple 'arigato' and a handsome amount of yen was dropped into his hands. With a tip of his hat, the cab pulled away leaving a horrified young man with his grandfather, who was digging for the keys to the building.

"Ji-chan, what did you do that for? We… we…" cried the young man collapsing on to the sidewalk. The rain soaked into his newly paid for leather pants… yet the young man paid no heed… not caring.

"Atemu… get off the ground. It'll ruin your clothes," the older of the two snapped… trying his best to avoid his grandson's cries.

"Ji-chan! Ji-chan! Are you mad? We can't stay here… we…."

"Atemu," Surogoku snapped. "Just stop it! Stop it! It's been a long ride. I'm not in the mood for this. All that matters is we're home… home," the old man's words lingered… dissolving into the night's air.

"I rather see Osiris," hissed Atemu under his breath. Sarcasm and irony lingered in the air as he dug a finger into the mud that covered the street creating ripples each getting bigger and bigger.

A sigh escaped the old man's lips as he watched his grandson's depressed actions. "Atemu."

"Yes," the younger spoke… looking up… hopeful.

"Come, it's not good to be out in this weather."

The younger nodded… knowing there was no turning back… his grandfather was intent on coming home. He like Atemu must have heard the calling of Domino… of the ever lingering… and undying love of the young boy who had died here… almost two years earlier… in this house… in front of him… his aibou.

The young man sighed… as he walked into the dark… damp abyss… a lone dark image stood before him. "Come Atemu. I will call the electrician tomorrow… I brought some candles, and we can light a fire in my bedroom tonight." The elder man stated… his face seemed to have aged a thousand years as he limped up the stairs. The young man watched his grandfather's retreating figure… his crouched over back… his wobbling hand has it grasped tightly to the staircase railing. Atemu shook his hand slightly… knowing Surogoku's vow of entering his grave… without a cane. He knew the elder man longed for his acceptance… both crushed and broken by the events nearly two years ago. Yet Atemu wasn't ready to give his apology just yet… how could he when had broken his final promise to the one he loved… yet never got to tell. His aibou… his dear beautiful aibou had died… never knowing his profound and undying love.

Moments later Atemu to transgressed the stairs… his vision lingering upon a door to his left. The faint moonshine that cast through from the window… shone on the door. Its wood framing was charred and burnt… the wall paint around the door frame… gone leaving only that of the burnt cement. The young man stood at the door… for the longest amounts of time… just starring… starring at the mark… the mark of the devil itself. He gulped raising his hand… hovering over the door knob… as he had done many times in the past. And for the split second… the burnt smell dissolved… the wood once again retained its vibrant coloring. And the faint sound of music playing could be heard… a smile appeared on Atemu's face… one of longing as his finger tips nearly glazed the steel knob. For a moment everything that had happened in the last two years dissolved away.

And for a while… bliss transgressed his aching heart. His mind… his heart told him two separate things… yet… this time… he went with his heart. All he had to do… was open the open… and he would be there. His mind ached… telling him it was wrong. That the dead couldn't… wouldn't be revived. Yet… his heart told him another. After all… hadn't he himself… defined all laws of nature… hadn't he himself transgressed time… and space? Hadn't he himself transgressed not only a hundred years… but three thousand years? To be reborn here… within the soul of another? Hadn't him… somehow… instead of perishing along with Yuugi… like most expected… instead… lingered on in this world… in the body he had gained? His soul… his spirit had survived the passage of time… why couldn't others?

For the longest time… Atemu expected… no knew… that the moment he pulled open the door before him… he would find Yuugi sitting in front of his desk or on his bed. The faint glow of heavenly light would transpire in the room. His cherubic head would be bobbing to the music… his angelic voice singing along. A beautiful sight… one that he always cherished. But all would be broken… for Yuugi always knew… And… and the moment he would take another step into Yuugi's bedroom … his aibou would look up. All thoughts of studying for his next exam would vanquish… and a smile would glaze on his aibou's face. He would bound up from his bed… and run to give him a hug. And he would sit on the ground… while his aibou would pull out one of his infamous board games… and the two would play. They would play for hours… till a winner would emerge.

Tears fell from Atemu's eyes… rolling down his cheeks. His fingers were mere centimeters from the knob…

"Atemu!"

Atemu gasped… his lungs throbbed… he hadn't noticed it…but… but he had been holding his breath. His lungs burned as he fueled them with air. Surogoku watched his grandson stumble back from the door… his hand lingered in front of him… his eyes dimmed over… as if in a trance before seconds later dissipating.

He glanced over at the door that the younger had been at moments early. His face clouding over… what had the younger been doing? More like seen?

"Atemu! Come… I made you a room in the guest room." Surogoku snapped drawing the young man up. The younger made no notion to constipate… still stunned… still longing to have opened the door. But just as Surogoku drew him into the guest room… his eyes caught a flash of the charred door… no longer friendly but ominous… not ominous… but pain? Atemu gulped before sliding into the bed… a box lunch was sitting on a dust covered table… a lone candle sat beside it… giving off comfort. He hadn't noticed that his grandfather had gone around… lighting all the candles in the house. "Eat!" The elder urged… placing a pair of chopsticks in his grandson's hands… Atemu nodded. Still stunned from remembering… remembering his aibou… and for a second… felt as if time had reversed taking him back… back when times were good. It had a been a long time since he remembered his aibou… saw his features that clearly in his head. Just months earlier he had been afraid that he would someday totally forget what his aibou looked like, sounded like, and felt like.

Would being here… help him? Would… dare he say it… home? be the cure that he longed for? To smooth his aching heart… and walk into the light that he dared not believe was there any longer? Or… would… Atemu looked up… and watched his grandfather leave the room… for the one across the wall. "Ji-chan!" The boy called.

"Hmm." The elder man asked… turning around… his face masked with pain and suffering.

"You were right. It… it is good to be home… home." Atemu whispered lingering upon the word… pushing aside the in pain look the door had given off just moments earlier for the friendly… vibrant look when had just walked up the stairs.

"I'm glad. Oyasumi Atemu. If you need anything, I'll be across the wall. I left your suitcase in the closet… there should be running water in the bathroom."

The young man nodded… watching his grandfather exit… his door swung shut leaving him alone… alone again in his bed… with his boxed lunch. Yet hope had transpire through his core… he would go through that door… he would open it… soon.

And… and Yuugi would be there on the other side… waiting for him. A smile glazed on his face. He would feel his hug… smell his strawberry scent. And they would hug… hug like there is no tomorrow. And… and when he tells him everything… Yuugi would laugh. He would laugh and say … it was 'all just a dream'. His imagination was getting the better of him...again. And all would be well again…

Yes… that was all he had to do… open the door….

Open the door…

To paradise.

A/N: Well? How is it so far? Bad? Good? Remotely interesting? I have no idea. Should I give it up… or continue? Is it even original? I know there are tons of fics out there where Yuugi has died… but I decided… I don't know. Give a spin to it… :shrug: Worth continuing? I have no idea. It's your choice.