Return of the Kings

Chapter 34

They continued on, Yugi leading the way through various dangerous traps and puzzles and as they went the architecture became older, less designed... more like a dug out tunnel system than a planned tomb.

They finally reached their destination when they came to a large cavern, lined with iron braziers, riches and weapons, chests and jewellery, all Egyptian made. Golden furniture such as chairs, shelves, model boats and animals, fine clothing mostly eaten and decaying... this was a tomb filled with possessions fit for a king, only none of these things belonged to Bakura. He was the thief King... everything here was stolen and buried with him.

"This is incredible." Joey breathed.

"A handful of this stuff would set us up for life." Tristan agreed.

"Guys..." Yugi said sternly. "If any of this is going anywhere it's getting donated to science."

Atem smirked, he was so proud of Yugi.

At the end of the cavern surrounded by piles of gold coins was a stone coffin. No carvings, no writings, no anything... just a stone coffin. That was Bakura's remains. The room was too small to perform the ritual though, they'd need to exhume him and carry him out, at least back to the Hall. He could do with his expedition team about now but he doubted Bakura would wait for them to fly out from Japan.

"Is Bakura's body in there?" Tea asked him.

"Yep. I'm trying to think of how to get him back to the hall."

"Why there?" Tristan asked.

"I'm going to need room to perform the ritual... with all this in here it's too small." Yugi said simply.

He winced then, recoiling back just enough for them to notice.

"Are you okay?" Atem asked him cautiously.

"Yes... he wants out."

They looked to one another, exchanging silent words before Joey and Tristan approached the coffin to try pry the lid off.

"It's okay Yugi. I promise not fight with him. You need your rest right? Let him take over... we'll get his body and prepare an area but you need rest." Atem said to him gently.

Yugi hesitated, searching his eyes but in the end he sighed and agreed. "I'll try to make sure he behaves."

He took in a sharp breath then, slapped Atem's hand away and stood with ease, grinning wickedly in intense excitement.

"Finally. Your boyfriend is a lot stronger than I gave him credit for. I was right to want to kill him. But now at last we're here and I will walk this earth again same as you, Pharoah." Bakura said smugly. Atem paid him no mind, leaving to help his friends with the coffin.

"Yugi's doing you a massive favor Bakura. And so are we. You need us to help you with this. Don't forget that." Tea said to him sternly.

"And you need me to keep little Yugi alive. Don't forget that missy."

They finally managed to drag Bakuras corpse back to the Hall. They needed to wrap him in the old clothes around and drag it back but they managed to bring everything safely.

Now they waited in suspense as Bakura seemingly argued with himself over how to do this and when. He didn't seem to notice that he was talking aloud to spirit Yugi instead of internally but this at least provided some entertainment for them.

From what they could understand Yugi wanted to wait but Bakura was insisting that with his strength he would be fine enough to handle it. Eventually after Bakuras voice was raising in anger Yugi took over, swore in Egyptian and snapped at him in frustration, telling him to fuck himself in Egyptian to which Atem laughed.

"Eeevverything okay, Yug?" Joey asked.

"Yes Joey. It's fine." Yugi snapped angrily before he crouched, hands to his eyes as he rubbed out the frustration and focused on breathing.

"For the love of Ra, shut up." He said eventually, glancing over his shoulder and smacking the air away.

"Okay... I'm not doing this yet but I can at least get it ready if you'll just, be, quiet!" Yugi snapped at the air again. "I swear to Ra when I bring you back Im killing you again myself." He said under his breath.

"Need a hand Yug?" Joey asked him.

"I need a gun Joey..." Yugi sighed.

"Can't help ya there man." Joey said as they came over to him casually.

He sighed and clapped his hands together.

"Okay. I need to draw in the symbols, we need to make some room."

"We're doing this here?" Tristan asked.

"Yes. There should be enough room for everything and the stones easy enough to mark." Yugi said as he began carving the large circle with another sharper stone.

They went back to the hotel after Yugi had finished with the runes and had dared Bakura to even attempt a simple spell. Only after did that fail did he agree to allow them to return so Yugi could rest properly. He slept solidly on the way back, nestled in to Atems chest as his heart beat lulled him to sleep.

They settled him in peacefully in bed once finally back in Cairo and ate dinner gratefully afterwards. For now they were just relieved most of the work was done so quickly. They had no idea how long it would take to find Bakuras body, lost in Egypt after so many thousands of years, but to find it in a day was something they could all be relieved over. Idealy having Yugi free of Bakuras pestering would have been preferred, but theyd rather not risk his safety and thankfully so did Yugi. Bakura was becoming impatient but so long as Yugi could rip back control from him he had no choice but to wait.

And while they waited for Yugi to recover it was now Atem had decided to tell them they he and Yugi were seeing one another. At first Tristan and Tea were surprised but they quickly agreed that in retrospect it was actually obvious. In fact Tea admitted that she had wondered while they were dating that perhaps Atems loss was one reason Yugi's past relationships never lasted, even theirs. She said he was always somewhat reserved but whenever he was in Egypt or doing work on Atem's exhibit he was a lot more lively and himself. Even in the car ride home they hadn't seen him be any form of affectionate with any of his other partners.

Atem had asked about his experience with others and they laughed, reminscing about his days in college. It was true Atem was not his first sexual experience but any partners he did have were usually during drunk college parties. They agreed when all of this was over they would have a real proper celebration at home and he would get to see Yugi drunk first hand; according to them he was riot under influence, a tremendous flirt and cockier than Joey at the best of times. He looked forward to seeing this.