[It's true. Ryou's right. Atem'd stab himself in the heart first.
Not if there was. You know. A third option, a way to skirt around whatever stupid situation was trying to force him to make that choice and stab the person who set it up in the heart. But. That's not the situation they're in.
The situation they're in is, Ryou is trembling under his own weight but still pressing their foreheads together, and Atem does take a second to shut his eyes, to listen to what's being said instead of thinking about hypothetical revenge, and...and also, instead of thinking about how close their faces are. A flush rises in his face again, and...instead of doing anything about that, instead of so much as letting his tongue flick out, he listens to and processes what's being said.]
Of course I won't!
[He says as he reaches out for Ryou, pulling him into a hug, getting one hand under and around his shoulders and the other around his waist. He is going to get Ryou off that overworked arm, get his head on Atem's shoulder, and hold him there a moment, doing his best not to jostle the injury too much.]
I don't think I could. Not when there was a single person here to fight for!
[What would that even look like? The kind of paralysis he experienced in Death-T? Atem would have to be terribly alone to feel that kind of despair again.]
Besides, [he says, since Ryou's words remind him of what had happened in reality, of what Daniel had been so frightened of but that the other Yugi knew was his element,] the darkness is a part of me. So, of course it can't beat me!
[Silly, he is the night. He's Atem, yes, but not Pharaoh Atem, not the living king ready to sacrifice himself to seal away evil. Maybe part of him is that, but another part of him is still the rising tide that carried him to Yugi's enemies when Yugi was truly angry, that let him understand what would rebalance the scales, what harm and revenge he could visit that would make things right again.
That's an easier thing to be, sometimes. It's not all he is, or he wouldn't be holding a different sort of shadow right now -- he's something like both, and neither, something capable of holding and supporting a beloved friend while also reminding that friend that his power came from a dark place, and that Atem doesn't mind that.]
no subject
Not if there was. You know. A third option, a way to skirt around whatever stupid situation was trying to force him to make that choice and stab the person who set it up in the heart. But. That's not the situation they're in.
The situation they're in is, Ryou is trembling under his own weight but still pressing their foreheads together, and Atem does take a second to shut his eyes, to listen to what's being said instead of thinking about hypothetical revenge, and...and also, instead of thinking about how close their faces are. A flush rises in his face again, and...instead of doing anything about that, instead of so much as letting his tongue flick out, he listens to and processes what's being said.]
Of course I won't!
[He says as he reaches out for Ryou, pulling him into a hug, getting one hand under and around his shoulders and the other around his waist. He is going to get Ryou off that overworked arm, get his head on Atem's shoulder, and hold him there a moment, doing his best not to jostle the injury too much.]
I don't think I could. Not when there was a single person here to fight for!
[What would that even look like? The kind of paralysis he experienced in Death-T? Atem would have to be terribly alone to feel that kind of despair again.]
Besides, [he says, since Ryou's words remind him of what had happened in reality, of what Daniel had been so frightened of but that the other Yugi knew was his element,] the darkness is a part of me. So, of course it can't beat me!
[Silly, he is the night. He's Atem, yes, but not Pharaoh Atem, not the living king ready to sacrifice himself to seal away evil. Maybe part of him is that, but another part of him is still the rising tide that carried him to Yugi's enemies when Yugi was truly angry, that let him understand what would rebalance the scales, what harm and revenge he could visit that would make things right again.
That's an easier thing to be, sometimes. It's not all he is, or he wouldn't be holding a different sort of shadow right now -- he's something like both, and neither, something capable of holding and supporting a beloved friend while also reminding that friend that his power came from a dark place, and that Atem doesn't mind that.]