Happy Not Happy (Part 2)

DIMENSION: ANIME (The One That Pays to Save the Day)

"Yes, The Greatest Pharaoh That isn't called The Greatest Pharaoh?" Masika said through the door.

"How about a game?" Atem didn't hear her reply. "Your choice." He watched the door open up.

She didn't look pleased at all. "Why?"

Why? "Games are fun."

"I am sure that I as a player will be too lowly and inexperienced to play anything challenging to The Greatest Pharaoh Who Isn't Called The Greatest Pharoah."

"Will you stop cursing me out? Honestly, I've heard Dark Bakura be nicer," Atem told her. "We are stuck, in a no-win situation."

"I am not," she said.

"Yes you are, Yugi wants Téa, and Téa feels more comfortable choosing Yugi."

"Oh, the direct approach." She actually seemed impressed.

Well, then maybe this was the way? "Téa has dated Bakura twice, while she's dated Yugi over ten times. Bakura is not reaching for any dates. Our vessels would rather choose each other." Atem was laying it out.

"Hm." Masika played with her new scarf, twirling it around. "Where do you think this conversation is going to get you? If I was not shoved into this sacrificial position, then I would let Téa have full command. As it stands, the only thing that I have the tiniest control of? Is whether I choose someone I trust, or whether it is the immortal and mortal enemy of the friend I sacrificed my life for."

"Not quite," he corrected her. He always had a hard time getting a good read on her. Maybe, a more gaming approach would be wiser? "You indicated that your friend Bakura was possessed by the spirits of Kul Elna and got worse as time goes by. That means that by the time I actually met him, your original Bakura was long gone."

Masika rubbed her ear briefly.

Yes, that strategy was working. ///Atem: Make her see things in a new way.///

Then? She continued. "You wore the pendant of his sacrificed village, and you killed my cat."

Oh, of course it went back to her cat. "I did not know where the pendant came from."

"If it wasn't stuck to Yugi's ribs, would you continue to use it, knowing where it did come from?" she asked.

Oh. "Yes I would, because we are paying every day for that sacrifice." It no longer had anything to do with the village. "I apologized about your pet as well. Your cat accepted-"

"A goddess possessed Ebonnee." Masika moved from the door and actually brought Ebonnee over. He didn't see the cat for long as it made a strange 'mrowl' sound, crawling over Masika's shoulder and jumped backwards. It had moved so fast that it must have left scratch marks on Masika. "Uragh." Yep, scratch marks. "Living has so many downsides and upsides at once," she groaned. "Feeling pain is a gift, but it's a gift that hurts. Anyhow, as you can see, the real Ebonnee is not okay."

Hm. Okay, a dialogue of understanding was starting to form. A different move needed to be used. "If I become friends with Ebonnee, will you give me a chance?"

"You don't really want that." She looked like she could read him. "You want Yugi to be happy, but if you are involved in this, you won't be." She shook her head. "I am stuck with this. Téa is stuck with this. You are willingly trying to make yourself unhappy, to make Yugi happy."

"Like you said before," Atem admitted. "Where is this conversation going to get you? We know each other's true feelings about this. We know what our vessels want, and we know what we actually want. You don't want to choose anything, but it isn't a choice for you. As much as I don't want to choose this, I would rather do that and let Yugi be happy instead of miserable. I care about my friend, and he is the closest. He loves Téa more than you know."

"I don't know Yugi that well," Masika said to him. "And? Bakura." She looked like she was debating something. "If I tell you something, you cannot tell your vessel. It will make mine upset."

Upset Téa? "I won't tell Yugi anything Téa wouldn't want him to know."

"Bakura is not an easy option for just me," Masika told Atem. "I don't know Téa's memories beyond what I peeked out from her soul, but she knows mine. She knows more about Ancient Egypt than she lets on. She remembers Bakura as well."

Oh.

"She will be telling Yugi her decision tonight," Masika revealed. "Do you still wish to play a game?"

-----

Restaurant . . .

Téa stabbed at her fish a little. Poke. Poke. "Yugi?"

"Hm." Yugi wasn't in the best mood.

"It's just that . . . I . . ." She didn't want to tell him.

"It's just been two dates," Yugi said huffily. "Two with Bakura."

"I know, but . . .?" She couldn't tell him.

"But what?" He scooted from the table. "You'd rather go to New York again and just start a new life with the Bakuras?"

"No." Oh. "I like staying with you, Yugi. You're one of my best friends," she said. "We've been through a lot together."

"Then I can be here for this with you." He tried to grasp onto her hand. "Téa? I know it's selfish, but I really don't want you to leave me, and I don't like the way the goddesses phrased it. What if the loser is actually separated forever instead? I could figure out something in my work, and I can tag along to New York if you really want it. Just, don't pick the Bakuras."

It wasn't about New York. "Yugi? I?" She had to, he just wouldn't understand if she didn't. "Masika and I aren't just the same pieces of green on the rubik's cube. You know? We actually were green, and I remember being green with her. I? Masika didn't get my memories, I got . . . hers." There, she said it.

She could see from his expression that he was starting to understand slightly. "Oh."

"It's more like a reel of film playing in my head," she told him. "Atem's father hurt Bakura's village soooo badly. I gave up - she gave up!" She stopped. "We gave up our life to save someone who saved us so many, many times. I mean seriously, there wasn't a whole lot worth living for. He was the only bright spot that kept us going, and he would be leaving, and then what for me? For us? Bakura was our absolute hero, you'll never understand-"

"-No, I guess I won't." Yugi couldn't stand to hear it. "He killed a bunch of people!"

"With Zorc," she added softly, almost like a pathetic whine.

"Without Zorc too!"

"Well, not everyone was innocent!" She yelled back. "I mean? Some." She was quiet for a little while. "I'm not going to be with the Bakura that you'd see as dangerous."

"No, no, you'll be with the sweet and nice and perfect Bakura." Yugi was miffed.

"It's probably a fricking fusion, Yugi!" She yelled back at him. "We've always been good friends. Learning to be together in the same soul would be so weird. Plus, Atem isn't into the idea at all. This kind of thing, it's best between alike souls. It'd just be more punishment."

"Well, Bakura isn't part of your original soul either."

"No, but our soul has history with him."

Yugi was holding his head in his hands as they were folded up. "You said Bakura wasn't just a friend, he was your absolute hero. So, if you don't mind joining with him, then he was more than a friend? Right?"

"Not . . . well?" She was pausing so much. "Oh, Yugi. It was . . . we had to survive in a bad environment back then and learn how to act real well. It was a hell without knowing what to do! He helped train."

"Train to be good actresses? Trained to be loyal?" Yugi questioned.

She hated to. It might be close enough for him to know, but she'd try to wiggle the line. ///Téa : This is the way it should stay with Yugi. Don't hurt him./// "To keep our master husbands happy?" Yeah. Yugi stood straight up. He stared at her for a little while and then walked off outside. She could see him out the window. He wasn't moving from the window.

Téa moved outside toward him. "Yugi." He didn't answer. "I could still see you on the outside. Maybe six hours. Maybe it'll shift into days like now between everyone, and I'll get a full day?" He still didn't answer. "I like being with you on the outside."

"But we don't even know if the fusion joining is what it is! Nobody has said it for sure," he reminded her hotly. "It's a game, a puzzle they gave us. Choosing might not be the fusion we are thinking, it could be something else!"

"Like what?"

"I don't know. But? We've always trusted each other to get through things. You've always been at my side, cheering. I'd rather risk being infused with you like I am Atem, than losing you in a huge mess."

"You could visit, I guess," she reasoned. "Different soul rooms."

"Yeah, I can," he persuaded her. "It's a puzzle, Téa. Please?" He held her hand. "Give it time to figure out the puzzle."

It was just so much harder with Yugi! ///Téa: I don't want to be a part of him, I want to . . . be with him, on the outside./// Then again, would she and Masika keep either of their bodies? What if they changed to the Bakura's bodies? Would Yugi still give her that dreamy look like she was his everything?

"We can still go to New York if we do join. I'll figure something out with Mokuba," he assured her.

"Atem hates this idea."

"Well, Light Bakura hates it too. He got used to one spirit that was demonic, felt traumatized for a long time, and got over being scared of another one. If it is fusion, I doubt he'll feel good about two more." Yugi sighed. "Atem has a room where he can stay away from everyone. So do I, thanks to the cursed puzzle. He and I have had a lot of time to talk about what this could all mean over the last month."