Author's Note: The idea struck me the other day and I couldn't let it go. Blame my hyperactive brain. This fic is already done, but I think I'll post a chapter a day for the next week or so. The length of this first one makes me want to cry, but they're all relatively short, so I'll get over it eventually. This is puzzleshipping/blindshipping, whichever way you want to see it. I personally see Yami Yugi and Atem as the same person, so I don't see why there needs to be two different names, but that's just me.

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh, and I most likely never will.

Introduction

When Atem was just two years old, a peasant and his wife from the lower district of Memphis gave him a gift that, for a long while, the prince could not appreciate.

A quiet, amethyst-eyed child had been the offering, a boy of only four with downy hair of black, maroon, and blond that the peasants had called Yugi. Atem learned later on that Yugi's parents had owed a debt to his family – what kind of debt, though, he had never been told – and as payment, they had given Yugi to the throne, offered him up as a slave to the young prince.

Those who had been around to witness the event often spoke of how distraught the child's mother had been, how tired the father had looked, and how Yugi simply stood by with one pale finger in his mouth, sucking the digit silently while the unoccupied hand gripped tightly at the cloth of his mother's robes. Atem's father, Pharaoh Aknamkanon, had accepted the offer graciously and assured the pair that Yugi was appreciated and would be well cared for throughout his days of servitude, then sent the couple on their way.

Yugi was said to have reacted in a rather peculiar way. He had released his mother's clothing without resistance when she had told him to, withstood the hugs his parents forced upon him, then silently watched as they turned and left him standing in the throne room, the sound of his mother's sobs echoing off the walls. The child had watched the spot where his caretakers had left for some time before removing his finger from his mouth, uttering a single word. "Bye."

It was the first word Yugi ever spoke inside the palace.

And for quite some time after his arrival, it was also his last.