Author's Note

Hello there! This is a Ishizu-centered fanfiction involving a few different characters and follows her relationships with each as she changes...hopefully for the better? Or perhaps not in some cases? Please read on and find out :)

Content Warning: Graphic sexual scenes (but nothing violent) and mild swearing, alcohol usage, if you spot anything else that you think requires a mention for readers, please feel free to leave it in a review!

Excursion

Part I.

Plotinus once said that knowledge has three degrees: opinion, science, and illumination. The means of the first is sense; of the second, dialectic; and of the third—

"Intuition," breathed Ishizu, finishing the quote of the ancient philosopher aloud. She gingerly touched her collarbone, then traced a finger along her neck, feeling the smooth skin that had once been weighed down by her millennium item. The object's dainty form had belied the intensity of its power. The way the device had been able to conjure visions, often times both awesome and terrible, how it would have easily driven any other mortal mad, and how she had become used to its haunting abilities: all went unbeknownst to the regular passerby, who had thought it just a quirky family heirloom at most. Moreover, if intuition was the means to illumination, her divine instinct had been the fuel that lit the fire inside the item and had allowed it to show her what no one else could see. At least, that was what she reasoned destiny had inscribed for her.

However, despite having had a heightened sense of foresight for much of her life, Ishizu had trouble handling things in the present. Sporadic things that happened without warning could be magnificent, like freak occurrences that altered the course of a terrible fate, but they could also be much more trivial. And frustrating. Like, for example, getting into a fight with your boyfriend in a foreign city and then leaving the next day on a flight back to Cairo in a huffy, impulsive attempt to preserve your own pride.

"I've had it," Ishizu had seethed through gritted teeth, "I will no longer tolerate being where I am not wanted. I am boarding a plane back to Egypt first thing tomorrow. In fact, I think I'll purchase my ticket right no—"

"Consider it done, Ishizu," Seto had replied coolly with a wave of his smartphone, "I just bought you a ticket back home. Hope you don't mind business class."

The words he had spoken to her before she had been chauffeured away from his Spanish villa replayed in her mind. "I wonder if your necklace predicted this."

She balled her fists atop the seat's armrests. Seto Kaiba could have just let Ishizu leave on her own accord while still maintaining perfect nonchalance, but that just wasn't his style. His style was to let her voice her desire to leave, then facilitate her departure by flaunting his own wealth, while still maintaining perfect nonchalance. It was as if to say, "Go if you want, but not without the bitter taste of my superiority in your mouth." She would have been hard-pressed to find an affordable ticket less than 12 hours in advance on any major air carrier, and he had known that. The fact that she was on one of his planes for her return trip after that argument was a slap in the face more stinging than if he had just acted like he hadn't cared.

He wants to make me feel like a child, she thought, still stewing in her own contempt, but he is the one being childish. To get so worked up like that over…over…

Reclining in her Air Kaiba Deluxe Business suite, complete with a Saatva luxury futon, flat screen, and pull-out dining table, all not-so-subtly furnished with chrome dragon-themed décor, Ishizu stewed herself into an eventual slumber.

.

"Over something that is none of his business."

A voice like velvet caused her eyes to flutter open, and she found herself confronted with a face that was equally charming. Ishizu stared up at the man's elegantly-carved features, emphasized by the soft glow of the starlight that poured in around them. She felt the soft mattress beneath her and immediately knew she was in his bedchamber. Azure eyes, framed with long indigo fringe, regarded her affectionately. Her whole body trembled with sudden anticipation when he smiled.

"It's you again," she breathed. His irises became alight with laughter, and he bent down to kiss her cheek. She shivered at his touch.

"I was expecting a more excited response," he replied, "after all, it's been a while since we've seen each other last. You didn't sleep at all last night. Could it be that you have been avoiding me, Isis?"

She turned away to avoid his eyes. "I was too angry to sleep last night."

He frowned, reaching out to run a finger along her regal jawline. "Yes. That fool should pay for treating you like that. Such disrespect is unforgivable. He is undeserving of your love, Isis."

"And you are implying that you are?" she retorted, tone hardening.

"I have been trying to prove it to you, have I not?" he said, brushing his lips against her collarbone. She pushed him away, face flushed. Her own piercing blue eyes met his in a warning, but her lips quivered as if she was holding back a sob.

"I don't know who or what you are," she said, "but you are the reason that Seto and I got into that fight!"

The man looked crestfallen at her words. He quickly recomposed himself and nodded, voice steely. "If you mean I am the reason that you are beginning to distance yourself from that insensitive twit, then you might be correct."

"How can you say that," she said indignantly.

"Easily, Isis," he said, "and besides, I seem to recall that it was you who piqued that windbag, what with being so vocal while you slept."

Her blush deepened. "Stop that."

"I implore you to try and be honest with yourself, Isis."

Strong hands suddenly took her by the waist and hoisted her up. The man seamlessly flipped their positions so that she was now on top, straddling his waist.

"I hate seeing you distressed like this," he continued, "I want to make you feel only pleasure."

"Really," Ishizu sulked, "because I do not find my current situation very pleasurable."

His brows became knitted in concern. "Isis…"

She was silent. He sighed.

"I know I made a mistake in the past," he said, "but I am here trying to make up for it, if only beginning in the world of your dreams."

"What mistake are you talking about?" she asked, "Who are you?"

She was shaking. He reached up to steady her hips, trying to quell her nerves with the gesture. "I want...need you to remember…please…" he said.

His pleading may have been vague, but his words sparked something inside of her that she couldn't quite place. Soon Ishizu found herself slowly pulling at the robes draped over her torso, revealing the valley between her breasts and teasing the sides of them. He sighed appreciatively. As she continued to part the sections of the soft fabric, his gaze traveled downwards to admire her exposed midriff. He removed one hand from her and rested the side of his chin against curled fingers, leisurely watching her sensual movements. She couldn't pinpoint exactly why she was feeling so seductive all of a sudden, but the feeling was still intermixed with apprehension. His expression might have been gentle, but his eyes bore a clever glint in them that she thought was all too familiar.

"I want to remember," Ishizu whispered, bosom now completely bared. To him, she was a vision bathed in a moonbeam. The gilded collar that had once gathered her muslin gown was now the only thing she wore on the upper part of her body, and its jewels gleamed magnificently in the lighting. He watched her glide her fingertips along her nipples, a feather-light touch that made her shiver as much as he did looking at her. Ishizu ran her hands down her hips and the sides of her thighs, making them meet in the center of his chest as she leaned in, eyes narrowing.

"But I don't like being used," she hissed.

He formed a small grin. "I would never try to use you."

"And what do you call the past two times we've met?"

"You enjoyed that as much as I did…I'd say even more, since you have the privilege of a corporal form," he replied wryly, "some of us aren't as fortunate."

She looked unimpressed. Though, it was true; the first time he had came to her in a dream she had thought she had fazed into an entirely new dimension of sexual enlightenment, and that was putting it lightly. She had chalked the entire experience up to a well-deserved wet dream that had managed to gratify her in real life. Dating Seto could certainly make a woman wonder if she would ever achieve another orgasm again. Ishizu figured she had been so frustrated that she had imagined up a powerful figure to come take her in her nighttime fantasies. Upon awakening drenched in her own sweat, nightgown completely disheveled, and the image of a familiar Duel Monsters card still burned into her mind, Ishizu had initially been embarrassed. That being said, her dream man was mysterious, handsome, and utterly enchanting. When he had visited her a second time, she wanted to praise the Gods…at least until she had unconsciously vocalized how much she had been enjoying herself loud enough to wake her boyfriend.

"What was it that you were moaning last time?" he asked, snapping her out of her thoughts, "'You're amazing, mage! Please, please, don't stop…my body is yours, mage...don't st—'"

Her hands slid to brace his throat in warning. "Enough!"

He raised an eyebrow in amusement. "You can be so feisty in private." The man lovingly squeezed her rear and pursed his lips in an enticing manner. Ishizu's expression softened slowly, and she bent down further to enclose her own lips over them in a chaste kiss. When they broke apart, she felt a bit dizzy.

"Are you ever going to tell me who you are?" she inquired, breathless.

"I think you know," he answered, finding the slit in her skirts and slipping his palm underneath to touch her warm flesh directly. "deep down."

Ishizu rested her forehead against his, shuddering a little when he slipped a finger inside her moist folds.

"I don't understand these feelings…" she murmured.

"You will," he replied simply, and as she found herself melting into him again, a distant voice in her hazy dream realm urged her to just trust him, for now.

.

Ishizu stayed curled up in the recliner of the business suite, her sleeping face a look of pure bliss; in slumber, she again ran her fingers along her neck, unconsciously drawing an invisible line in the place of her old millennium necklace.