Shadow: Part four in my Dragons 'verse, and…I'd probably read the other ones before embarking on this. This one's quite short, and mostly draws upon the others.

Notes: This is post-canon, about seven years after the series end. Chronologically, picks up a few hours after Copy Paste.

Hinted shonen-ai (boy x boy), heavily implied/stated shoujo-ai (girl x girl) and stated het. Don't like, don't read.

Story so far (as relevant): In Random Access, Anzu discovered Kisara was haunting Kaiba, and developed a crush on her, after Kisara kept visiting her in visions/dreams. In Copy Paste Anzu slept with Kaiba, for reasons insofar unknown (on both sides). Kaiba Noa discovered Kaiba had been making a virtual shell of the Other Yugi in the KaibaCorp systems – and Kaiba refused to say why. Yugi's in an established relationship with Mokuba.


Wifi

It felt a little strange to be returning to the Kame Game Shop after a night out, Anzu feeling remarkably like a naughty child as she pushed open the door, the bell above jingling her entry.

"Anzu-chan!" Mouto Sugoroku looked happy to see her, wrinkled face splitting into a welcoming smile as he waved at her from behind the shop counter. "Good morning!"

"Good morning, Mouto jii-chan." His greeting hadn't changed once in all the time she'd known him, whether she'd been coming to pick Yugi up so they could head to high school (ah, those years ago!) or staying at the house whilst she was visiting Domino from America. "Um…do you mind if I come back and talk to you properly later…?" She gestured down at herself – she was wearing the clothes she'd left the house in the day before.

"Not at all; not at all." Sugoroku only hummed to himself as the young woman went past him – "Ah, Anzu-chan?"

Anzu looked back at the old man; hand already on the doorknob that led to the rest of the house – and, blessedly, a change of clothes. "Yes, Mouto jii-chan?"

"Yugi's sorting things out in the storeroom, if you need him."

"Right." Anzu smiled to herself as she went through, amused by Yugi's grandfather's astuteness. He was the perfect proof for the saying that older meant wiser - even if he did still have his rather dotty days.

Even though she'd already washed that morning Anzu went for a shower, cleaning her hair through with shampoo and letting the suds trail down her skin. Their soft progress almost felt like fingers, just enough of a pressure to be there but light, feather-light.

"I somehow get the feeling that you are even more confused than you were yesterday." A soft voice at her ear, not-there, she knew, and yet she could hear it all the same. Was this how Yugi had felt, for so many years, with the Spirit of the Puzzle whispering into his mind?

"I'm confused, yes…" She spoke to the shower wall, damp with condensation. "But some things are clearer now as well."

"Such as?" Silver hair, somehow miraculously untouched by water, and a sweet smile could be seen from the corner of Anzu's eye.

Anzu turned, and met nothing but the falling spray. She was quite alone.

"He's not you."


Washed, dried and dressed, Anzu meandered down to the storeroom. As Mouto Sugoroku had said, Yugi was there, on the floor, sorting through stacks of cards and magazines, boxes and packets.

"…Having fun?"

Yugi looked up at her words, smiling. "You're back. Did you have fun last night?" She'd never told him exactly where she was going.

"Yeah…" Anzu trailed off a little awkwardly, standing to the side as Yugi rose to his feet, having finished sorting out a box. "Yugi, I really can talk to you about anything, right?"

"I'd like to think so." The young man started ascending some step-ladders so he could put the box back on one of the higher shelves – neither of the Moutos was exceedingly tall. "We've known each other long enough." He put the box down.

Anzu brightened a little, somewhat reassured. "I slept with Kaiba last night."

Yugi put his foot down awkwardly, losing his balance and falling backwards off the stairs. Anzu moved out of sheer instinct, quick reflexes a result of her dancer's training. She caught her friend as he fell – but badly, Yugi's weight sending both of them careening to the floor, sorted piles going everywhere.

"Ow…"

"What do you mean, 'ow'?" Anzu groaned, ungracefully shoving Yugi off her stomach, where he'd landed. "I broke your fall!"

Yugi pouted at her, still aching, sprawled out on the floor at her side. "You took me by surprise."

"You said I could talk to you about anything!"

"I wasn't really expecting to discuss the sex life of the guy who's as good as my brother-in-law!"

Anzu sighed, and flopped backwards, resting her head on the floor. "Can I talk to you about it or not?"

"Yes…" Yugi sat up straighter, sitting cross-legged and attentive. "But…next time, give me some better warning, alright?"

Anzu smiled, a little wryly. "Who said there'll be a next time?"

"So – it was a one night stand?"

"One night stand-off…" Anzu sung the words under her breath, waving a hand when her companion gave her a weird look. "Yes, I've spent too long in America."

"Anzu -"

"I don't know what you'd call it, exactly." The brunette cut her friend off before he could properly begin, staring at the ceiling as if looking for inspiration. "We – I…didn't go into it with all that much thought, and – oh…have you ever fallen in love with a part of someone, but not all of them? Things that you sometimes imagine you're seeing, and that you think are there but…" Anzu trailed away.

"…Like you and mon hitorou no boku?" Yugi suggested, a little carefully. "You…liked him. You liked Atemu."

"…A bit like that," Anzu admitted. "Actually, a lot like that. Except, with Kaiba-kun and me not liking Kaiba-kun, and this girl and – I'm not making much sense, am I?"

"Begin at the beginning," Yugi suggested, "and work your way through from there."

So Anzu began at the beginning. She started with the strange dreams she'd been having, haunted by the images of blue, blue eyes and the beautiful, never-ending sky. She talked about the wind, and dragons, dragonhearts and girls with silver-white hair. She spoke of Kisara, and the strange soaring sensation she had whenever she spent any sort of time – imagined or otherwise – with her.

"I…remember a Kisara."

Anzu looked up at Yugi's words, seeing the other deep in thought. "Oh?"

"At least…Atemu knew a Kisara. Vaguely. He only met her when she was already dead…" Yugi hesitated, seeing Anzu flinch. "Her ka was the Blue Eyes White Dragon; Zorc used her to try and turn the High Priest Seth against the Pharaoh." The games designer looked uncomfortable. "She was pale, with silver hair, and Seth cried because she was dead."

"…That's her." Anzu spoke with conviction. "That's the girl I keep seeing."

"And…she's the reason you slept with Kaiba?"

Anzu trailed off a little, thinking. "Kaiba-kun is very attractive…"

"But it was the girl?"

Anzu nodded, sitting up a little. "I…used him, and I think he knew it. He – I know it doesn't make it alright but…I think he used me too. He wasn't…all there with me." It was a strange reason to sleep with someone – that you thought you were in love with a spirit that haunted them; it could only lead to a strange relationship later on, between all three parties.

Thoughtfully, Yugi leaned back against the nearest wall. "…I don't think Kaiba-kun has been 'all there' for quite some time."

"Do you think…he can see her too?" Anzu sat up straighter, drawing her own legs in. She felt remarkably young once more, sitting gossiping about boys and girls in a little secluded corner. God, people never really did grow up.

Yugi paused. "I don't know. Kaiba-kun has never said anything – then again, he rarely says anything."

There was a brief lull in the conversation, both Yugi and Anzu thinking to themselves.

"Do," it was Yugi speaking again, "you feel better after having spoken to me?"

"I do, actually." Anzu's smile was warm once more. "It's good talking to friends, even if you do end up acting as their safety net when they decide to take up flying." Friendship was worth it, worth anything, a wonderful relationship between two souls that draped themselves across one another companionably, to twine minds and smiles through thick and thin.

Yugi poked her in the side, playful. "You make a good landing spot."


"And you'll phone?"

"Yes, I'll phone."

"And email?"

"Yes, Yugi, I'll email. As I always do."

"And come visit again at Christmas?"

"Who else would have me?" Anzu swivelled around, dropping the bag on her shoulder to the ground and putting her hand over her best friend's mouth, cutting Yugi off before he had the chance to get out another word. "No more questions." She withdrew her hand.

Yugi grinned at her, sheepish. "…Yes mother."

"Says the man with twenty questions." Anzu ruffled the other's hair when Yugi looked like he was going to protest, tousling the cropped bangs. "You know…you really do look dreadfully cute with this style; it's no wonder Mokuba's usually constantly attached to you."

"If only you'd said that four years ago…" Yugi smiled ruefully, bending down to scoop up the other's fallen luggage. "You'd best go – you'll miss your flight."

They were at the airport, a few days after their conversation in the Kame Game Shop storeroom, Anzu due back in New York for the next term in her dance academy. The place was quite busy – it was the end of summer, and people were leaving after visiting Japan, or coming in, after having been abroad. Anzu and Yugi stood amidst the throng, unmoved by the organisation three steps above outright chaos.

Anzu glanced up at the screen where the flight status' were displayed, and sighed. "…You're right; mine's boarding."

"I'll walk you to security?"

"No, it's alright. It's pointless you walking me there and hanging around." Anzu stepped forwards suddenly, hugging Yugi tightly and almost causing the male to drop the bag he'd picked up. She moved back after a few moments, taking her luggage, and flashing the other a brilliant smile. "I'll call you when I land in the New York!"

She waved goodbye and left him then, Yugi quickly vanishing from sight as she disappeared into the crowds. She could still feel him though, the warmth of him as he'd hugged her back – little Yugi, all grown up -, the care and friendship he sent after her always.

Smiling to herself, Anzu headed for her flight.


It felt like singing in her skull, the musical lilt of the wind playing through the cracks in high mountains, fluting about her ears. The song of the breeze, and the creatures that soared into the faraway blue heights of the sky.

"Come with me…" hands at her waist, light and cool, lips gently touching the nape of her neck, brushing back the sweep of brown hair.

"That's a little awkward right now…" Anzu bowed her head, murmuring the words. Even though no-one was really all that close to her, she still didn't want to be taken as a lunatic mumbling to herself in the corner.

She'd been back in New York for a week. One long, slightly lonely week – although she'd caught up with her American friends once more, there was still the ache of leaving others behind in Japan. The voice in her head – Kisara – had quietened down more and more with every mile they flew away from Domino, dying down to the occasional sentence when they landed on US soil.

At least…until Anzu had wandered into the Egyptian section of the Metropolitan Museum, wanting to do something a little different for a change, and finding comfort in memories of the past. The singing had started then, the sound of the wind and the sky. Dragonsong, delighted at being back in this mimicry of the land of its birth.

Anzu spoke to the singer, crouching down on her haunches before a broken sphinx to look into the statue's ancient face. "Why've you been so quiet recently?" She vaguely missed Kisara's presence.

"Distance…can make things difficult."

"Distance from Japan?"

"From Seto."

A stab of mild jealously shot through Anzu at the mention of the connection and name, the flash of an image of bare skin, eyes slits of blue-silver in the night. Sharp bones, heated breath, the feeling of wings beneath the thin veil of skin –

Who exactly had she spent the night with - Kaiba Seto, or Kisara? It was an issue either way, a complex, tangled knot of a relationship with both. She didn't think she was going to pursue anything with Kaiba; even friendship with the man was pushing a lot of boundaries. He was…handsome enough – alright, exceedingly handsome -, but his personality still grated against hers too much for there ever to be anything lasting. And…Kaiba hadn't exactly seemed interested enough to be hunting for anything of the more permanent nature with her anyway. (Vows might've been a tad awkward anyway. 'No, darling, I don't for you, but I definitely do for the girl who says she lives in your heart and your head.')

Fingers curled with hers, an invisible touching of hands. "I swore I'd look after him."

Yes, a complex relationship. Friendship – but both a step beyond and a step behind. She'd slept with him – not something 'friends' usually partook in -, but anything warm, anything intimate that usually built up to that…there was nothing. A wobbly truce, where Anzu thought neither of them had a good enough grasp on just what was going on in each other's minds to pursue it past the deed.

She wanted Kisara, anyway. In a totally awkward, separate from Kaiba, currently impossible, sort of way. Not a friendship, but – but a wanting. A simple, clean-cut bonding without a mediator in the way.

Anzu lowered her voice even further, aware of a few people looking at exhibits nearby. "He seems pretty capable of looking after himself."

An incorporeal mouth curled up in amusement. "Didn't you know? Appearances can be deceiving…"

"Kisara -" A tug to her wrist, and she was pulled...elsewhere. Somewhere – in, out, roundabout, dizzying, lost and found all at the same time.

A palace of ice – that was Anzu's first impression. Rock and ice on a mountain so high she stood above the clouds themselves, breath freezing as it left her lips, mouth numb. The sky above was endlessly blue, refusing to be dominated even by the craggy mountain-tops that soared up to meet it.

Warmth pressed against her back. "Beautiful up here, isn't it?" Kisara. "In a wild sort of way."

Anzu nodded, grateful for the heat against her spine, curling around her stomach. "…Lonely." She shivered, still feeling the chill. "And cold."

Kisara looked at her thoughtfully, stepping away (and taking her body heat with her). "…I don't feel the cold."

Anzu shivered again, noting the way the other female stood unmoving against the wind. "I can see."

"Come with me." Kisara took her hand again, pulling the brunette into a large crack in the nearby mountain-face.

It widened out inside but the temperature seemed to drop even further, sheets of thick ice coating the walls. The sheets almost acted as mirrors, daylight streaming in from outside reflecting oddly of the ice, rebounding at odd angles so the cave was full of strange blue shadows. A pale glow seemed to come from within as well, lighting the ice and guiding the two women in to the heart of the cavern.

Anzu looked around herself, not understanding what she'd been brought to see. "What-?"

"Shh," Kisara hushed her, leading the dancer around a piece of ice that jutted from the walls. The air breathed with something that seemed almost holy.

"But -" Anzu stopped speaking suddenly, silencing herself. They'd reached the heart of the cave.

Before them was the source of the inner glow – a long, thin white candle, perfectly formed, with a flame as white as snow. Anzu didn't quite know how that was physically possible – candles didn't burn hot enough to produce white flames -, but there it was. Small, but strong, forming a circle of ethereal light around the rock it was set upon.

Not far away from the candle lay a mound of white fur, a slim figure dressed in contrasting black nearly drowning in the mass. A familiar form, to all accounts, fast asleep with his face tilted towards the candle, light picking out his high cheekbones, black lashes, the gold of his fringe mixed with the darker red of his hair.

Anzu swayed slightly, knowing who the one sleeping was at once. "That's -" She faltered, fumbling for words, attempting to steady herself by placing one palm flat on the nearest ice-covered wall.

Kisara nodded. "…I have to guard the treasure and the flame."

Anzu wobbled, still a little unsteady seeing someone before her who'd been dead going on seven years, vanishing into the light with all her teenage dreams of romance. "I -"

"It's like you can almost hear them speak, isn't it?"

Anzu jolted out of…wherever she'd been, a stranger's voice burning her ears – and yet, it wasn't really a stranger when she tilted her head, still in her crouch near the floor.

Blue eyes widened. "Ishizu?!" Thoughts of the strange, lonely mountain she'd seen, the sleeping soul that Kisara guarded…all was pushed to the side of her mind. For Kisara to guard such a place surely meant that it was dear to Kaiba and –

Talk about carrying a torch. Or a candle, in this case. A plain, simple candle, hidden by layers of layers of ice in a place no mortal soul was supposed to reach.

Kaiba really had problems. Problems Kisara was bound up with, watching over the solemn sleeper at the heart of – well, she supposed that had to be Kaiba's heart. Or soul. (Although Atemu – or rather, Yami, as they had known him at the time –had had a soulroom, not a soul-mountain.)

Ishizu Ishtar, the woman Anzu had last seen when the Pharaoh had walked through the doors after his Final Duel, looked down at her, vague smile flitting about her lips. "I apologise, Miss. Mazaki. I have clearly disturbed you whilst you were deep in thought."

"I – no, I -" Anzu stood up quickly – too quickly, vertigo kicking in as her vision blacked out for a second, thighs screaming in complaint after being stuck in one position for too long. "Sorry…I was just lost in my head."

A sage, amused nod from the older woman. "That…does tend to happen to us all, now and then."

Anzu extended a hand, pleased when Ishizu shook it. "It's a pleasure to meet you again. What brings you to New York?"

"Work," Ishizu simply replied. "I was asked to overseer parts of this exhibit whilst it was on loan to this museum…the Egyptian Council of Antiquities is most keen to get its precious artwork back."

Anzu glanced around herself again, noting all the beautiful, ancient statues, vases, jewellery… "I wouldn't want to lose any of it either. Um -" she paused suddenly, realisation of the opportunity that was open to her with Ishizu there touching the edge of her mind. Ishizu was knowledgeable of the ancient world and, more specifically, Atemu's reign. She knew spells, and enchantments, mystical even with the Millennium Tauk that had once adorned her neck buried firmly under the Egyptian sands. Perhaps she knew about Kisara – or, more specifically, a way to resolve the situation with Kisara…? "Ishizu-s -" They were in America. "Ms. Ishtar?"

Ishizu carefully regarded her younger companion, wise. Unmoveable. The woman should've been one of the statues adorning the room – Ishizu could've been born of any age. "Yes, Miss. Mazaki?"

"I…" Anzu took the plunge, wanting resolution. She was going to go insane if the situation remained as it was, with Kisara incorporeal, tied to Kaiba. Friendship with the brunet CEO would be painful with things as they were; his personality and her…desire for the dragon-heart that haunted him would only build into an unpleasantly explosive reaction. She'd once threatened to hit him with her high heels for his arrogance; unless things got sorted out she'd probably end up clubbing him to death in her frustration. Anzu didn't like 'complicated'; she'd had quite enough of complicated in her life. Anzu wanted simple, and she wanted Kisara.

Ishizu was looking at her still, silent. Expectant.

Anzu drew a breath. "I was wondering if you could help me with this…problem I have…"