Blissful oblivion

Chapter 4

   "So it's a pleasure to meet you," Yugi says gently. "I'm sorry that it's not under better terms." I merely sigh in response and cross my arms. The boy deflates slightly at my response and silence hovers between the two of us. I can feel the awkward weight of the silence pushing down on me. A groan claws its way up my throat but I quickly silence it.
   "Likewise." I grumble. Yugi's eye jump up to meet mine. His eyes glowing with surprise. I growl and drop my gaze. This is ridiculous.
   "Um...Yami?"
   "What?" I snap, my voice sounding harsh and crude.
   "Would you like to play a game?"
   "Game?" I ask incredulously.
   "Yeah, the get to know you game. I ask you a question and then you ask me one and we keep going until one of us eventually runs out of questions."
   "That sounds ridiculously childish." I reply.
   "Oh come on, it might be fun. Here I'll start...what's your favorite color?" I simply stare at him in silence. The boy fidgets under my scrutiny as I continue to stare at him unblinkingly. "Yami you need to work with me here." He mumbles wth a slight frown.
   A sigh slips past my lips. "Black."
   "Black?"
   "Is that a problem?" I growl in challenge.
   "No, I'm just surprised."
   "I don't see why you would be." I grumble, turning my face away.
   "Not very many of my friends like the color black...not that I have very many friends to begin with." I peer at him curiously out of the corner of my eye as his voice grows ever softer. Could it be that this boy is lonely? From the looks of his downcast expression that seems to be the case. I suppose not everyone can survive being alone.
   "How old are you Yugi?"
   "I'm sixteen." He replies with a small smile. "How about yourself?"
   "I am five thousand three hundred and twenty five years old." The boy's jaw drops as he gapes at me. "Does that surprise you?"
   "A bit yeah." He murmurs after a moment. "I mean you don't look a day over seventeen."
   "Nineteen." I correct.
   "What?"
   "The number you are looking for is nineteen."
   "So you're nineteen?"
   "Physically speaking yes." I answer dully.
   "That's incredible."
   "Absolutely awe inspiring." I grumble sarcastically. "Ask your question."
   "Oh, uh.... Where are you from?"
   I raise an eyebrow at his question. Did he really just ask me that? Is this guy dense?
   "I mean where in Egypt are you from?" He corrects with a red face that he tries to conceal in the darkness, but nothing can hide from my eyes in the shadows.
   "I'm from Thebes." I answer blandly. "The same as every other royal family."
   "Wait so you're-" A loud buzzing fills the room interrupting Yugi's question. My body grows tense at the sound of it. I instantly jump to my feet, adrenaline coursing through my veins in large quantities.
   "What the hell is that?!"
   "Yami relax it's just my phone." Yugi answers as he slowly slips out a silver rectangle from his pant pocket. "It's nothing dangerous." He holds it out just far enough that I can see the silver light of the moon reflecting off of its surface.
   "What is it?!" I hiss. "What magic does it require?"
   "It's a device that people can use to converse with one another no matter the distance. Here I'll show you." He hits a green button on the surface of the phone, the face of a blonde haired boy with deep brown eye pops up on the surface. "Hi Joey, how's it going?"
   "It's going well bud, you?" A slightly scratchy voice echoes through this so called phone. "I haven't heard from you in a while."
"Well yeah that's kind of what happens when you go on vacation on the other side of the world Joey."
"Yeah yeah, Yug." The boy grumbles, "You'll never let me live that down will you?"
"Not for sometime." He replies with a grin.
"What trickery is this?" I whisper to myself as I remain frozen in place, my eyes locked on to that strange device in Yugi's palm. The strange device seems to be producing light as he holds it. I think he called it a...phone?
"Yugi are you there with someone?" The voice from within the phone questions. "I thought I heard someone else's voice."
Yugi glances up at me in silent question. I remain silent and impassive as I return his stare, I don't quite know what he wants me to say. The way he is looking at me makes it seem expectant, as if I should already know what I should do. Yugi frowns slightly before returning his gaze to the bright screen.
"No, I think you are just hearing things."
"Time change must be messing with me." Joey laughs over the line.
"Yeah, I hope you have fun on your trip in the U.S."
"U.S.?" I murmur to myself in confusion as I lean against the opposite wall from Yugi. Amethyst eyes peer up at me at the sound of my question but he doesn't say anything to me.
"I'm sure I will." Joey answers. "You know you don't have to wait for me to call to talk to me? I feel like if I didn't call you we would never talk."
   "Oh come on, you know that's not true." Yugi grumbles.
   "Then prove it to me, call me tomorrow." The crackling voice challenges.
   "Yes sir." Yugi chuckles. "Since you asked so nicely." Both boys erupt into a fit of laughter leaving me to sit in a perplexed state of incomprehension.
   "Alright I'll talk to you later Yugi."
   "Ok, bye Joey." And with a tap of a red light the voice was gone. Yugi meets my gaze and smiles gently. "See, there was nothing dangerous there."
   "Don't patronize me." I growl dangerously. "I don't take kindly to being mocked."
   "I wasn't trying to mock you." Yugi says softly, a slight frown pulling his lips downward.
   "Doesn't matter anyways." I answer dismissively.
   "Yami, why do you hate me?" He whispers.
   "I hate many things."
   "And I'm one of them?"
    "You could say that." There is a moment of silence that passes between the two of us like mist over a hill. For some unknown reason just being here conversing with the boy feels natural. A force of nature that I am hopeless to stop. Even if it is natural needless to say it doesn't change my anger at this situation. I just want to return to my puzzle and wallow in the darkness perhaps if I'm lucky this time it will just simply swallow me.
   "What can I do to make you not hate me?"
   "Such a childish question." I mumble. "You already know the answer."
   "Disassemble the puzzle...but tell me this Yami," My eyebrow raises in silent anticipation of his challenge. "What will happen to you when the puzzle is disassembled?"
   "I...I don't know." I answer sheepishly.
   "Yet you are so desperate for it to be destroyed." Yugi's eyes narrow. "I won't deconstruct the puzzle." My eyes flash with hatred as I stare this boy down. He stares at me with blatant disregard of my dangerous expression. "I won't deconstruct it and risk destroying you, I wouldn't be able to live with myself."
   "You don't know anything about me! Why would that even matter to you?!"
   "It's just the kind of person I am."