Author's Notes:

I promised you songfics. I had so many small ideas that I thought it would be better and more interesting if I put them together to one story. Regard it as an experiment.

There will be a limited narrative, alternating between Seto's and Yami's POV. There will be a song for every chapter. I have the plot roughly planned and the songs already chosen, so I hope I'll finish this and not leave you with something that's only half done.

Disclaimer:

Who said they are not mine??? They come to visit me every night, I can prove it. Seto, talk to them!

Seto!! ...Please?

Come on...Don't let me down now...

I swear to you they're always there when I'm alone!

Who said I'm schizophrenic now???

Song:

"Dead Gardens" by Nightwish

Chapter 1 – Dead Gardens

The story behind the painting I drew is already told
No more tearstains on the pages of my diary

He was alone. Alone for days, alone for weeks, he had lost count. It had started when he had got his own little flat, near Yugi's. At first he had been overjoyed, for the first time since his release from the puzzle his own person, free to lead his own life. But all too soon he had noticed that his life was nothing but a fake. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get used to this modern world. He didn't want to bother Yugi any more, especially when he had one of his everyday-problems, usually involving some modern technology. Not to mention his lack of social skills concerning the people of this time and age. His friends were all he had. And that was just the problem.

The little group around his aibou had split up so everyone could go his own way, build up his own future. And Yami was just the one left out. The one who knew he would never fit in, because his time, his true life, the one he knew, had ended thousands of years ago. He felt his story was over, he didn't have a goal in life and he didn't know how to find one on his own.

To make it even worse, his past life hadn't been the best, and now that he had his memories back he experienced nightmares for the first time. He had made mistakes back then, and he regretted them deeply now. He had lost many people, people he loved. Of course, there were so many happy memories as well, but they just made him feel even more lonely and lost. Yugi had suggested he should keep a diary to get the troublesome memories out of his head. It had helped at first, but when Yugi had finally got together with Anzu he had all but forgotten about Yami, thinking he was fine and happy anyway.

The exact opposite was the case. No diary coul ever replace a friend like Yugi.

Tired but unable to give up since I'm
Responsible for the lives I saved

Sometimes he felt so tired of this world that seemed so strange to him.

When he had been a spirit his existence had made sense. He had protected Yugi and his friends. That had been enough for him, enough to make him feel important again. But now that everything was over they didn't need his help anymore. They had grown strong enough to handle things themselves. They had grown up, turning down his offers of help.

After a while it drove him insane to have nothing to live for, and he would have welcomed death. Only he knew it would hurt Yugi badly, no matter how seldom the boy remembered his yami now. He couldn't bear that thought. He couldn't make Yugi's life a mess now that he had saved it so often, now that Yugi had done the same for him.

The play is done
The curtain's down

Desperately, Yami was searching for something to do. An interesting job. Or studies. But how do this with only two years of school completed? No university or employer would take him no matter how great his knowledge. Which involved a lot of unimportant things anyway. Back in Egypt you simply hadn't needed to know about physics.

No, this wasn't why he had come to this world, into this age. But why had he come? What did the gods mean for him to do? To him it seemed that he had alread accomplished everything that was required of him.

All the tales are told
All the orchids gone
Lost in my own world
Now I care for dead gardens

But were there even gods like he had known them? Everything he had ever believed in had died along with his culture and was now nothing more than a number of tales that fascinated the children and dreamers. He remembered it all so well now, and it was a burden. Often he wished he had never got his memories back, although he knew he wouldn't have been able to live a peaceful life that way either.

In his dreams he saw the Nile, the sun on the waves, the sailing ships and barques, the papyrus and the pyramids. Tanned people walking along the Nile's shores, beautiful, dark haired women and tall men. His priests and servants on a journey through the country. And the orchids tended in his personal garden, his favourite flowers.

Dreams became daydreams, as he sat in his flat alone, or at the lake, or in the park. It didn't matter, because everything seemed foreign to him now.

He was the last living piece of ancient Egypt. His orchids had died long ago.

My song is little worth anymore
Time to lay this weary pen aside

The play is done
The curtain's down

Even duelling meant nothing to him anymore. What was the point in it? People were slowly losing interest now that it was always him and Seto Kaiba on top of all scores, constantly swapping the duellist champion's title, since no one else could reach their level anyway.

They had stopped fighting, and with it something in Yami had died. He lost his will to live.

All the tales are told
All the orchids gone
Lost in my own world
Now I care for dead gardens

Yugi and his friends didn't need him anymore, Seto Kaiba didn't fight him anymore, no one tried to take his now worthless puzzle anymore. He escaped his boring and meaningless life only in his daydreams and in his seldom visits in nightclubs, that were a distraction from his loneliness, a proof that he was still alive, even if he didn't really want to be.

One day he bought a small flower-pot with orchids planted in it. He tended them every day. Perhaps he gave them too much water, because it wasn't even a week before they were brown and withered.