Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ The Love of a Priestess ❯ A Lonely Pharaoh ( Chapter 17 )

As I said before, I hardly realized it was happening until it was too late. When I told her about it later, she said it was a reaction to marrying Kaiba. I needed and craved love, for the first time in five thousand years. I could not, or refused to, find that love in my engagement to Kaiba. And so I turned to Yami.

Considering all the events that followed, I think it was only meant to be. Sometimes I think I may not even have really been in love with Yami; it had happened simply because it was supposed to.

But most of the time, I think it was real.

~~~~~

It started out with me Channeling more and more often. As the day of the wedding approached I became more and more desperate. I sought many ways out of the confines of my relationship with Kaiba. I spent as little time as possible in the house. If I had to stay there, I worked in the gardens or read on the balcony. I went out shopping, not to shop but just to be out. And I Channeled every night before Kaiba came to bed.

Yami welcomed me every time. He waited for me to arrive, and when I did he led me through the maze of his mind. When I stopped before a door he could not see, he waited patiently for me outside. Sometimes, he would be able to see the door too. Most of the time, he declined to see the memory.

"If I am to see the memory, I will. If it is necessary to me understanding my fate, then I will be able to unlock the door myself, without your presence."

More often than not, though, Yami and I simply talked. I revealed few of my secrets to him, like the Crown and its powers, or the past five thousand years I'd seen. But we talked about Destiny and Fate, and the possibilities of his past. We talked about the present, and the daunting future.

~~~~~

When Yami discussed his future, he rarely thought too far in advance. I wondered how he and Yugi were going to make it through. What would happen to Yami, when his Destiny was fulfilled? How would Yugi's aging affect him? A whole multitude of issues arose from the fact that two souls shared one body.

He did, however, talk about what he vaguely remembered from his time as Pharaoh.

"I must have wanted to love, and be loved in return." I sucked in my breath sharply. Should I tell him what I had seen? He looked at me sideways, and shook his head. "Don't tell me anything. I must have wanted children," he continued. "Maybe I only wanted a son to take over my throne. Or maybe even a daughter."

"A daughter to raise to marry, or a daughter to raise to rule?" I asked curiously.

Yami smiled wryly. "More likely the former. But now I think that the latter would be equally as wonderful." I smiled inwardly. "After all," he continued, "that was how power was passed through the Temples. Women commanded greater power and communicated directly with the gods. The Priests revered their Priestess for that reason. I don't remember much of the religious hierarchy, but I'm certain the women were much more important."

"What else?" I asked curiously.

"I don't remember. Surely there were goals for my Kingdom, goals for my people and…" he murmured, returning to the original question.

"Personal goals, Yami. Nothing?"

He sat silently, looking down. "Nothing I can remember. Perhaps a family was the only thing important to me. Maybe love was what the lonely Pharaoh needed."

"Indeed. And maybe there was only one woman who could love him."

Our eyes met and locked, and we sat in contemplative silence.