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They say that distance makes the heart grow fonder... Yugi wasn't entirely sure that that was a true statement.
                          
During  the five years after Yami left, and the four years after Yugi stopped  initiating the contact, Yami never once bothered to reach out to Yugi.  Jou eventually stopped asking Yugi if he had spoken with Yami or if  there was any news on how Yami's work was going in Egypt. Yugi's  graduation from Domino University came and went. Yugi didn't ask Grandpa  if Yami would come to see him walk across the stage that day. He knew  that Yami wouldn't be there. Yugi had worked tirelessly on a new game  with Kaiba Corp and when it launched, there was no congratulatory phone  call. Even though Yugi had not expected an invitation, it still stung  when Yami didn't invite Yugi to celebrate Yami's graduation.
                          
Yugi  knew that Yami had been working on a large project in Egypt with the  Ishtar family. Isis had been working with the Cairo Museum and had  helped Grandpa get Yami settled in Egypt. Yugi made a point not to ask  questions about what Yami was up to. It was always too painful to hear.  But Grandpa would very rarely bring up certain things that Isis or Yami  were doing so Yugi wasn't always been totally in the dark. They had been  finishing up dinner one night when Grandpa brought him up.
                          
"Isis-san called the other day, she says that she and Yami finished up a very big project." Grandpa said watching Yugi closely.
                          
Yugi had been idly moving around a piece of leftover food on his place and flinched when Grandpa said Yami's name.
                          
This reaction was one that Grandpa didn't miss.
                          
"You should call him." Grandpa softly encouraged.
                          
Yugi  stopped prodding his food and laughed bitterly, "You know it's been  five years since he left? And he hasn't called me once. It's been four  years since I stopped bothering to try and get him to even communicate  with me. He never contacts me. I'm not going to force myself on him or  something. He's clearly moved on."
                          
Grandpa frowned at the uncharacteristic bitterness in Yugi's tone, "Yugi, I know you feel like he abandoned you but..."
                          
Yugi  stood up quickly from the table, stopping anything else that Grandpa  was going to say about the situation. Yugi picked up his plate. He felt  an anger rise up in his chest. He just wasn't ready for this  conversation, no matter how much time had passed. Yugi would rather  appear rude by running off over giving into the urge to start shouting  at his Grandpa.
                          
"Thanks for dinner, Grandpa, I'm going to go home now."
                          
Solomon sighed and closed his eyes, "Be safe going home, Yugi. I love you."
                          
"Love you too gramps," Yugi deposited his dirty dish in the sink, grabbed his jacket and headed out the door.
                          
Yugi  did truly love his Grandpa, after all, Yugi's Grandpa had been the one  to raise Yugi. Yugi's mom rarely was around and he didn't know his dad.  But Grandpa would just never understand the bond that had been broken.  The severity of the pain that Yugi lived with daily.
                          
As Yugi left  he felt tears forming in his eyes and cursed to himself. How could he  still have tears after all his time? He didn't need Yami. Not anymore.  Not for years now. He thought about his other friends briefly. Jou  worked for the Industrial Illusions sector of Kaiba Corp as a sponsored  duelist. Honda was working full time at the gym as a personal trainer  during the day and part time at night as a bartender, completely  determined to stay out of his Dad's factory. Ryou had gone to England  for school but returned to Japan with the British Embassy, his dual  citizenship had come in handy and he often times would visit with his  old friends when he was in Japan. Anzu did try to call or visit when she  was able to, but she had been busy with her career in New York as a  dancer.