My appointment for the evening was cancelled, so I lucked out, I was able to write another chapter. Thank you, Pharaohs Girl18, for your nice review. I will certainly continue this story until I feel it's finished. Special thanks goes out to Hikari_Tart, once again for giving me the motivation to write on and ensuring me it's a good read. I hope this chapter is too, even though it's once again much different from the last.

- Chapter 4 -

All the subtle flavours of my life I become,

Bitter seeds and poisoned leafs without you.

You represent what's true.

I dream the colour from the sky

and turn blue without you.

- Faithless, We Come One

Getting to Egypt with Yami and Grandpa had proven to be a little bit funny. The airport, its traffic, rules and the various steps you had to take to get on the plane confused Yami and it was certainly a little funny to see the great former Pharaoh of Egypt, with thousands of years of life experience not understanding how he had to put his passport on the machine for identification. He also worried tremendously about his stuff disappearing after laying it down on the conveyor belt, not knowing where it was going and how it would get to Egypt with us.

During the flight, grandpa and Yami had great discussions about the Ancient Egyptian world. I'm really glad grandpa doesn't see Yami as a thread to his highly esteemed expertise. He is a true enthusiast after all, and this trip has given the both of them an opening to talk to each other more about their shared interest. Yami had a lot of interest in what Grandpa had found in all his years, how things were like, what remained, and what happened after his death according to history.

We arrived in Cairo pretty late, and it had already gotten very dark and a little chilly. We dumped our luggage at our rooms and went for a drink on the terrace, getting a bit of rest and calm before we were going to sleep. It felt like a little opening for our trip.

I don't think Grandpa realizes what he did by putting us two together in one hotel room, because the moment we were alone, Yami initiated intimacy, saying that he had had to hold back the rest of the day already. And let's be honest, who am I to deny him?

We went to the Valley of the Kings with a sort of open bus, or more like a train of carts pulling us. It was about forty-two degrees, or so grandpa said, and the sun was scorching the desert as though it was trying to say that no living being would be granted mercy. When we got out, I felt the harsh sting of the star I've been connected to as a pharaoh. It was the star we worhsipped like nothing else. It had seemed silly to me over the years, since I hadn't felt its great power in so long. But this demanding kind of sun, the one that takes up the focal point of every point in the desert, would let every visitor know in who's mercy they were.

The group was taking some time to assemble and people were talking to each other about the heat. Before me I saw great heaps of yellow sand and rocks, and the entrances to all the tombs. It was strange to see them this way, since they were never meant to be open, let alone all at once. My first instinct told me that the sacred tombs were left too bare, like naked priests, with their open entrances, stripped from the decency they were granted thousands of years ago. These places are not meant to visit lightly, if ever visited at all. The vision, unlike I expected, filled me with a strange kind of anger instead of the curiosity I had expected to feel. But I decided to keep it on the background for now, since I felt I couldn't afford to let these feelings take over now.

Suddenly, an overwhelming feeling overcame me. A vision of an impossible desire to stare at the sun in eternity, to lay in the vastness of the desert and it's devastating silence, only to hear the rays of the sun scream in a tranquil continuation for eternity. And I almost got mad at the people chattering a bit further away from us, unaware of the spirituality of this land as it lay right in front of them.

"Wow, it's really hot." Yugi said. Strangely, that comment seemed to bring me back in a good mood again. "You don't seem to mind much."

"Yes, it's strange how homely it is now that I feel it again." I said, feeling that this was true too. I should try to focus on these feelings more.

"That's amazing." Yugi said to me. I resisted the urge to take his hand, to take the only person that made me feel like I was not alone to help me through this journey. It felt like he was the only link between the old world and this world to keep me in reality.

"Oh, we're moving." Yugi said as he saw the group starting to slowly walk towards the valley.

During the lecture grandpa gave us I decided not to speak a word. I have to be careful of what I say amidst all these unknowing people. He told them nothing I didn't know before, but what interested me were the pictures he showed us on pieces of paper. The time at which these pictures were taken… The valley looked as it was supposed to. On it one could see the emptiness that complimented the meaning of the place.

What made me laugh a bit was a picture of the inside of my tomb just after opening it. It was obvious that grave robbers had gotten there before, even though my tomb was built in this place and not in a pyramid to prevent grave robbers from getting in. Priest Seto had debated long and hard with everybody to make this change in architecture and location happen back then. I also remember telling him that it didn't matter, that it probably would be robbed eventually anyway, but he insisted. It's funny to see that I was right.

After what seemed a good amount of introduction, we went into my tomb through the rectangular entrance. The hall connected to the entranced turned steep down the moment we were inside and it went down a long way. Time had taken its toll on the inscriptions on the wall, on which I could still make out some of the described festivities. A lot of it had crumbled down, and the rich colours that had once adorned the place in a lively lustre had faded like a crippled elder. After a while, going to either the right or the left led to small chambers that were meant as themed rooms for the perspective various gods had on the afterlife.

It felt very strange to visit my own tomb, as though I was on my own death visit, in a realm that was meant for a different me, a me that was meant to die a long time ago. At the same time, I could hardly control my laughter. Yugi seemed unable to contain himself. His eyes were big and he was staring at every inch of the wall, as though he was trying to absorb all the information presented to him.

"I wish I could read it all." He said, awe apparent in his voice. "It's beautiful."

"You don't have to." I said. "I can tell you most of what they've written down. After all, I was involved in the process of making my tomb. But I agree, it is beautiful."

"Right…" He said, looking at me in awe. "Of course you were."

After a moment, he continued.

"Yami, it may sound strange but… it's as though I'm visiting your room." He said, looking at me with such big eyes I could hardly resist him. "I'm so glad I'm here with you."

I smiled at him. "Me too."

He truly is a god send good person. I wanted to tell him everything, right here and now, but I also felt that it wasn't appropriate. I wish we had more time on our own instead of visiting my grave with all these other people.

When we arrived at my where my sarcophagus was supposed to be, there was an empty room. I felt it was so befitting that I was empty, since I wasn't dead anyway. It was however strange to see the place where the puzzle had obviously been stored for all those years I was trapped. The place seemed so unbelievable small and insignificant compared to the spatial emptiness inside the millennium puzzle. As though somebody told me that my experiences were just this tiny spot. And when just seeing it from the physical boundaries alone, it seemed like it was trying to tell me that everything was just an illusion, just a horrible joke.

Yugi was thrilled to see the spot where his grandfather and Arthur had found the puzzle and kept asking his grandfather how exactly it had been trapped inside the walls, and how they discovered it was there. I thought I'd be a little bit more thrilled too, but I realized I was not standing in my grave, I was standing in my lost prison. And as I thought of that, I wondered if it honestly was a good idea to be here.

When the others went to see the other graves, I told grandpa and Yugi I wanted to stay here for a little longer instead. Yugi of course, stayed with me, but grandpa had to leave to escort the students.

"What's up Yami?" Yugi asked once the rest had certainly left the tomb.

"I just wanted to stay a little longer here to say goodbye." I said.

"Say goodbye?" Yugi asked.

"To my prison." I said. "I don't know exactly how to explain this to you but, it is strange to me to see this space as a living human being. Even though I'm inside my prison, I stand here in this space as a free man now that I'm not trapped in a box."

"I see." Yugi said. "This is your prison…" He took a look around the room as though he was seeing it with new eyes. I saw in his face that he understood the gravity of my message.

"I've been meaning to ask." Yugi suddenly said, turning to me. I could see he was a little nervous. "You were trapped in that box for so long… I wondered if you still felt trapped when we met."

"To answer that question directly, I think I did a little bit, but you have to understand one thing, Yugi. The most important thing. Our time together when I was still in the Millenium Puzzle is what freed my mind, even though my spirit was still trapped. That period was the reason why I wished for a new life in the first place." I said. "In a sense of course it was still a prison to me, but like one can with any space, I started to call it home after a while. And our time together was nothing like the numbing prison I had felt here. I can't say I can compare the two."

"The longer I know you, the more I understand about your imprisonment." Yugi said. "I wish I could have taken some of it away from you."

For that comment, I just had to kiss him. "You already did." I said after our kiss ended. "Let's leave, I feel that I've stayed here long enough."

He smiled at me and my promising words and followed me out of the tomb. I felt a little sad to leave, not knowing exactly why, and so I dismissed the feeling. It already felt a little better when we stepped outside in the blazing sun anyway, as though the blinding light washed away any left over stuffy atmosphere that could have otherwise lingered.

Nothing what we experienced in the Valley of the King prepared me for the crowd around the pyramids that we visited next after another long trip. I remember these pyramids from my youth, but then with the bright white glow that originally covered them. But the view before me now was completely different. I saw people with camera's on places where houses had been, I saw people taking pictures on the stones that were so expertly carved on nearby quarries, and people trying to get a piece of stones to take home with them, of which its perfect form I can still hear being made by the clang of a chisel.

I walked around, but felt confused by all the people not paying attention to anybody else.

What is this chaos I find myself in now?

What is wrong with me?

What is it that keeps bothering me?

During the day, I kept feeling there was something off about Yami, as though something was building up. An atmosphere that kept getting thicker and thicker, until it blurred the reality of the events completely, comparable to trying to speak and listen underwater. I guess it started to really dawn to me the moment we arrived at the pyramids, and he had been awfully quiet during dinner. I had kept looking at Yami, looking for clues in his face, in his speech as to what that was. I knew something had been off, yet I certainly didn't expect this to happen.

As soon as we got into our room, Yami walked over to the bed, sat down immediately and had stayed completely still. I knew he had started to cry and that this wasn't a light issue. Maybe it was all a bit too much for him to take. It felt horrible to see him this way.

"Yami…" I said, sitting down next to him. "What's wrong?"

He held his hand before his eyes and I could tell he was trying not to make a sound. Without the tears revealing themselves down his hand, one might have been fooled he was just having a headache. He didn't answer me immediately, and instead kept quiet for a moment. Of course that was okay, and I wanted to give him all the space he wanted.

"I'm sorry Yugi." He said. "You did so much to get me here."

Those words stung me like a bee. Of course, he probably had felt obligated to react in a certain way because he felt he was in debt to me and Grandpa.

"Don't be." I said. "This is important to you, and you should feel the freedom to feel any way you do. That's the reason why we are here, and nothing else. What I feel is not important right now, please tell me what's wrong, Yami."

"It's just that…" He said, clenching his jaws. "Everything is gone." He added, biting the words down as though they were sour bites from an apple he eventually had to take. I laid my hand on his leg to let him know I was there for him.

"I don't know what I expected." He said. "It's been so long, it's not even real anymore. All my hopes and dreams, I can still feel them, but they mean nothing. There is nothing left to resolve."

"This world I remember," He continued, now removing his hand in front of his eyes, revealing an expression I had never seen on him before "Has been stripped of its dignity."

More tears streamed down his face.

"And the religion I strongly feel for has no right to exist, even though people claim they love it." He looked up at the slim line that was left between the closed curtains, squinting his eyes slightly as though in pain.

"I guess I expected to see home once more, but everything that made it home has left the place dead."

The contrast between his words and the silence before and after them was so strong that the emptiness of that silence seemed to bear a deafening sound.

"It's as if…" He paused, looking for words. "the world has changed so much that my memories have no right to exist."

It struck me hard then. This is why people die. The overwhelming sadness Yami felt at this precise moment was not meant for any human to grasp.

"I am so sorry," I said, "that you probably feel all alone in this sadness." I felt powerless and there was a lump in my throat.

"Osiris had forbidden it." Yami said. "I was naïve."

I don't know if it was to comfort him or myself, but I squeezed his leg with my hand.

"I know he must have felt that you were so strong that you were one of the few who could take it." I said. "But somehow that makes me even more sad."

"I'm so glad you're here, Yugi." He said, turning to me with still glistening eyes and a sad expression. "You make me feel not as lost."

"I'm glad you feel that way." I said and I just had to hug him, so I squeezed him tightly to me. "I hope you'll never feel alone again."

It's funny how a month ago this intimacy felt so unreachable, as it feels so natural now.

We stayed like that for a while, and after what seemed like hours, we slowly turned in to bed, still hugging each other close as if our physical contact could dismiss the cruelty that underlies every piece of passing time. I guess that is what love is eventually. To not be alone in that essential fear of being human.

Author's Notes:

Well, no lemon this time. I hope this chapter is a bit readable. I'm very much aware I didn't write much about their new relationship, but there's a limit to how much sappiness I can take in one go.

I am however thinking of writing another story in which that will be more of an interesting theme, thinking along the lines of another YugixYami and a KaibaxKatsuya. Also, next chapter I will probably write another lemony bit, because they haven't had real sex yet. Giggles are appropriate. But yeah, as much as I'm thrilled to write it, I'd better go off to sleep now.