The Bittersweet Fate Of A Duelist

Chapter 11

"Yugi! Wake up, Yugi! It's snowing!".

Abruptly snatched away from his (for once) good dream, Yugi lethargically lifted his eyelids and performed a huge yawn, rubbing his sleepy eyes.
The room was dim, barely lit by the white-ish glow coming from outside, so Yugi reached out to turn on the bedside table, protesting for the sudden wake-up call: "It's not the first time you see the snow, Pharaoh. You could have at least let me sleep a bit more".

The spirit's gaze, however, so absorbed and amazed by the tiny snowflakes slowly falling from a clouded sky, made a smile emerge on the lips of his host.
The first time Atem had seen the snow, when Yugi was still the fifteen years old boy who had completed the Millennium Puzzle and was just discovering the wonders of having a dead Pharaoh's spirit living inside him, he stood still in place, watching it fall with an utterly ecstatic and surprised expression.
When Yugi allowed him to exchange bodies, the Pharaoh had not waited a moment before running out of the house and putting his feet in the snow, a soft blanket piled during the night. He had stared at it wide-eyes, stunned by how cold it was to the touch.
Of course, the day after Yugi had found himself with a horrible fever and a cold no one would ever envy, but he had finally managed to make the spirit happy, stealing him from his constant melancholy and fear of being forgotten.
Indeed, the Pharaoh's constant apologues helped raising his feelings. Atem stayed by his side until he had felt better, worrying about his health and never stopping his "sorry" and "it's my fault" or "let me suffer that, I've been the reckless one", but Yugi shrug it all off.

"It was about time. It's almost Christmas, and this is the first snow of this winter", Yugi said, approaching the window to take a peek outside. The glass clouded over the very instant the man's breath touched it, given the temperature difference.
The road, or at least the portion visible by the window, was quite clean thanks to efficient plows, and the endless traffic prevented the snow to set down again. Everything else, though, was completely covered by a soft, white mantle, dotted here and there with footprints belonging to animals and people.
With an amused smile, Yugi noticed a cat leap right into the snow, whilst trying to reach a less covered place to stay.

"It's beautiful", Atem said, a ghostly hand resting on the window's glass. "Who knows how it would have looked, covering my palace".

For a moment Yugi tried to imagine the immense palace lost in the sands of Egypt, no longer drenched in intense sunlight but covered with layers and layers of freezing snow, its pure white in high contrast with the golden decorations and the brown and ocher building.
The idea of a desert palace blanketed by cold snow was so absurd it made him giggle, be Yugi couldn't deny it would be a splendid sight, if not totally incredible. But unfortunately, impossible.
"If snow would have fallen out of the blue, back in Ancient Egypt, don't you think someone would have traced the phenomenon back to an angered god? I mean, a sudden wave of cold weather in generally warm land, as cool as nowadays people think it is, would certainly be the cause of a sudden and general panic", Yugi considered, with a shrug. "I'm pretty sure if you had lived only in that time, without experiencing the modern world attitude, you would have been the first to try and do something to appease the gods. Or am I wrong?".

Atem nodded: "Not completely wrong. But I have to admit, living in this time is opening my eyes more than I had ever imagined", he replied. Then, the Pharaoh turned his back to the snowflakes to stare into Yugi's eyes: "So, we're going to talk today with Joey?".

Yugi walked away from the window and disconnected his phone from the charger; it was 10:30 am, and dozens of notifications, texts and e-mails were flashing on the screen, so the man began checking them before answering affirmatively to the Pharaoh.
After sending one last confirmation to a very promising concept art, sent to him by one of his best concept artists, Yugi stretched his arms above his head and headed towards the bathroom, already looking forward to a hot and steamy shower.
"You know, I still don't know what I'm going to say, exactly", Yugi admitted, turning on the water so it could heat up.
Meanwhile, the man grabbed his toothbrush and squeezed his favorite mint toothpaste on it, brushing energetically his teeth before rinsing his mouth. The faint scent and taste of mint lingered, freshening his breath.
Then, seeing the water was hot enough, he dropped his pajamas on the ground and stepped into the shower: "It's a rather... bizarre situation? I don't know how else I could define it", Yugi added to what he was saying.