#almakhtar

“tch... so you came.”

“Magic itself isn’t evil. A human can be, though.” He closed his eyes for a moment, but he opened them again and stared at the other man. “You’re not stupid. I don’t expect you to know what I am, but you should know what I’m not. I’m not Ryou Bakura, and I’m not the thief king, either. 

It started out as innocent, youthful curiosity. The little prince bathed in gold, the little servant boy with the odd, white hair and too pale skin. They were just little then.

Ryo didn’t know when it had blossomed into... More. 

There were plenty of women, and even men, sex workers hired specifically for the royal family to use as they wished. All were exceedingly beautiful and, well, experienced. 

But here his prince- no, Pharaoh- was... Kissing his cheek, shutting the door to allow them privacy. It made his pale cheeks flame into a deep red when he felt contact. It was only a cheek kiss, but as chaste as it was, it made Ryo’s heart soar.

Iset remembered a few fleeting scenes from directly after her death. Her father crying, her brother declaring intent to avenge her. That man's body, after he'd been slain. But for the most part she'd slept since then, guarding her eyes silently in the depths of her tomb.

Trying to forget her life and resign herself to eternity.

That was why it was such a strange sensation to Iset to feel something calling her, pulling her spirit out of her tomb and back to the halls of the palace that she had at one time called her home.

What was she here for? Something bad was definitely coming. She could feel it. But she couldn't tell what it was, or how a ghost- even one bound with magic like hers- would be able to stop it.

"...Ugh. I should just go back to sleep." Iset complained, trying to kick a pebble that had somehow ended up on the palace floor. Her sandled foot went right through the stone.

Snow seemed like such a strange thing to see in this part of Japan. In fact, it had been years since it had snowed in Domino city. The raven haired dice master could see his breath as he loaded the last of the boxes into his father's van. Even with gloves on, his fingers were almost completely numb. There were so many clouds in the sky raining down the powdery white snow that Otogi could hardly even seethe moon.

"That's the last of it, pops. You sure you don't want me to come to the shop with you and help you unload it?" He asked, patting the side of the van.

In the cold weather, his father looked even more weak than usual. At this point, thanks to having played the Devils Boardgame years ago, he was nearly 90. Even with the mask on, Duke could see how tired the man was. As much as he didn't want to think about it, he wondered just how much time his dad had left. Even still, the clown-masked man gave him a smile.

"No no, you've done enough for tonight. I've got a few other workers waiting at the shop to unload everything. You need to head home and get some sleep. I can drop you off on the way," the old man said kindly.

"Nah it's alright. I kinda wanna walk. It's not like it snows often and I'd like to see what the city looks like covered in it," Otogi replied, shaking his head.

"If you say so. Just be safe, my son. And thank you."

His father's gratitude made a soft smile form on the dice master's lips. He made sure the old man made it into the truck safely before he began to walk back towards their home. It was so late that most of the people seemed to be off the street. Only overnight workers and Duelists with no sleep schedules seemed to be roaming around. Yet there seemed to be an odd sensation of someone following him.

Otogi glanced over his shoulder to see if there was anyone there... but here was nothing.

With a shrug, the young baker continued to make his way down the sidewalk. Yet that eerie feeling continued on. The longer he walked, the closer it almost seemed to feel. At this point the pretty boy didn't bother looking. Fear gripped at his chest as he felt a breeze behind him and suddenly he took off like a shot. Home wasn't too far. He was sure he could get there before anything or anyone had the chance to grab him. Without thinking that maybe turning down a dark alleyway wasn't such a good idea, Otogi did just that.

He'd never really been the smartest guy in town. Sure he was a genius with game design, dice tricks and baking, but running away from someone? Nope, he had no idea what the hell he was doing. He let out a loud curse as he tripped over a trashcan.

The feeling of falling was far greater than it should have been. Where was the floor?!

The darkness in the alley opened up around him and suddenly seemed to swallow him whole. Terror wrenched his way through his chest, gripping his throat so tightly that Otogi wasn't sure if he'd actually managed to scream out for help. And just like that, there was no one in the alley. There was no evidence of him even being there.

Everything melted into darkness around him as the fall continued. His brain raced with so many thoughts he couldn't even keep up. What happened?! Where was he? Why was he still falling? The raven haired teen's body toppled over itself in what felt like a never ending cycle.

Suddenly, where there darkness had been, a blinding light opened up before him. The shock was so great that the dice master had to cover his eyes with his arms. Finally he managed a scream of terror as the cold around him suddenly became intense heat. But that scream didn't last for long. Water surrounded the duelist as his fall was finally broken by..some sort of river? It had to be, from the way it was moving. Quickly Otogi clamped his mouth shut for fear of swallowing any more of it as his body was dragged along roughly with the fast-paced current.

He tried desperately to reach the surface, only managing short breaths of air before he was tugged down again. But the time the water finally slowed, he was exhausted. The teen choked and gagged slightly as he dragged himself up onto what felt like a stone surface. Everything around him was blurry. All he could see was gold, blue and sand tones.

If he was being honest with himself, he was still reeling from the sudden change. Just looking down at his hands, Bakura saw the two tones fading into each other like he was being devoured continuously. It had all happened at once, but there was no time yet for him to slow down and take it in.

Apparently Kings don’t need to knock. Such was what could be deciphered by how completely casually Atem decided to wander into a mutual friend’s home to lay on their couch and eat junk food. Soft violets looked up at the other, and the image brought a smile to his otherwise unhappy look. There was something so innocent about how someone looked when they wake up that he couldn’t help appreciate it. He shifted the blanket in a silent invitation (as if Ryou needed to be invited to his own couch).

He sighed and caught the other’s image with a sideglance. “You don’t need to present yourself just for me, Ryou. Here, I’m just a man.” A grumpy one that just wanted to fill his face with chips.

There was a slow sort of blink, the kind where the individual’s brain had clearly stalled and was struggling to reboot itself, and it took him several long seconds to even move, much less actually respond. Fortunately by then, he’d managed to disengage himself from his companion, and was seated with both hands on his own pajama clad knees several inches away on the couch.

“... M’sorry, hah. Just, er... thought  you were... someone else...” He paused for a beat, then seemed to panic just a bit and continued, “--Not that I’m not happy to have you over, of course. I just, ah--”