Atem never aging past 16 years old. Atem visiting Yugi when he's 18, when he's 25, when he's 30. Yugi tries to not let it bother him but it does because it's a glaring reminder that Atem is dead and has always been dead and Yugi is full of life and change and opportunities and it's just not fair. Yugi silently almost self flaggatingly letting the grief and mourning for his Other Self to fester inside of him, like a wound that refuses to heal. Atem never ages, he's as unchanging as a shadow. Yugi growing older but a part of his heart his soul is untouched and as ageless as the Pharaoh who ruled it. Yugi sometimes talks about Atem in the present tense, as if he just talked to him the other day. His friends just give each other looks, but won't correct him. Yugi imagining Atem right beside him as he struggles to put together and improve his deck. He talks and imagines a response. It's not the same. Yugi forced to learn how to manage the permanent ache of loneliness. Yugi having a panic attack because he thinks he's forgetting. Oh right, we shared a heart, a body, I knew him as intimately as I know myself, how could I forget. Yugi dreams of his soul room, and when he goes looking for his Other Self, the familiar door that was once just down the hall is gone. Yugi refusing to duel for a long time because it's just not the same without him. Yugi subconsciously reaching up to cradled the puzzle at his chest but it's not there it hasn't been hanging from his neck for years but the weight of it is like that of a phantom limb. The Atem in Yugi's dreams always encouraging Yugi to move on, the world is safe and I'm at peace, you should be too. Yugi can only respond with I know I know but I miss you I miss you I can't stop missing you. Dream Atem promises Yugi that he will meet him when the time comes. Yugi wakes up with an ache in his chest that lasts all day. Yugi wears silver, lots of silver, because he remembers how his Other Self favored such accessories on him. The inside of Yugi's room is a decorated modge podge of Egyptian knickknacks and gaming toys and merch. Yugi experimenting with black kohl and eye shadows of bright turquoise and peacock green and blues. Yugi getting a cat and calling her Bastet. Yugi staring into reflective surfaces for too long, way to long. The word "partner" sounds cheap coming from anyone else. Yugi dealing with jealous possession of the name and memory of his Other Self, of Atem. Yugi collecting books on Egypt and Egyptian mythos. Yugi waking up from a nightmare of being this half-creature, cut down the middle, painful and bloody, clawing and dragging himself in search of his missing half. Yugi taking a class on ancient Egypt in college, maybe even minoring in it. Yugi experiencing strange bouts of understanding and translating ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs he finds in textbooks and photos. Yugi looking for another in the mirror. Yugi aging and no longer finding traces of his other self there anymore, he no longer sees Atem but some stranger looking back only sees himself and it's wrong wrong wrong. Yugi kissing his deck, particularly the one he had built with Atem, because if he can't kiss the puzzle this is a close second. Yugi dreaming of vast green oases amongst desert, an open palace with tall pillars and colorful murals. Someone sits at a throne, draped heavy with gold and stones, wrapped in white and blue linen, beckoning him. Yugi always wakes before he can reach the familiar figure calling for him. Yugi keeps the puzzle box and hides away notes and photos and trinkets. Memories and promises he'll take with him once he crosses over and finds Atem. Yugi lives his life, because he has to and he knows Atem would want him to. Because Yugi gets the privilege to age, and Atem stays a 16 year old boy-king.
