Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh belongs to a whole lot of people who are not me. I'm just playing with the characters for non-profit reasons.

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A Slice of Life

Bakura Amane was hiding. She wasn't playing hide-and-go-seek, though she could be if anyone were looking for her, she was just hiding. And, she was mad at her brother. He'd told her "Be quiet and don't bother Daddy!" but she couldn't help it if the stupid party was boring and it was late and she wanted to go home and play with her toys there and not sit around and be quiet and not touch anything (even though she knew that after all, Daddy was and Ark-ee-ologist and he showed her what she could touch and what she couldn't) at the museum with a bunch of old people. So Amane was hiding in one of the other display rooms with the Egypty stuff so no one would care if she was quiet and she wouldn't bother Daddy because she wasn't around. She was sitting on a nice padded bench looking at pretty pictures of Pharaohs and Queens and she could hide under the bench if anyone came in. unless it was Ryou and then she would come out and let him say sorry for being mean earlier. But no one came, not even Ryo, for a long time, so Amane sat there and swung her legs from the bench and pretended she was the Queen and that she could make laws that people didn't have to stay at boring parties if they didn't want to.

About the time she was making her eighteen decree (that older brothers should help their younger sister reach the yummy cream tarts that were set too far back on the table for her) the door opened and she barely had enough time to duck under the bench before anyone came in. While she was squatting on the floor trying to keep from getting dust on her pretty party dress, she saw a boy walk in. He looked a little older than Ryou and he was wearing a funny blue suit with really short pants. Amane was glad that Daddy didn't make Ryou wear those type of really short pants because he had really white legs and looked funny in them. Now he was walking towards the bench so she hid a little farther under it and waited until his legs were in front of her and she reached out and grabbed them.

He jumped away with a quick yell and Amane rolled out from under the bench laughing and not caring if she got dust on her dress anymore. The boy just stared at her and was breathing, trying to calm down from his surprise.

"What did you do that for!?" He asked looking really annoyed.

"You were going to sit on me," Amane responded still laughing.

The boy still looked annoyed. "What are you doing here?" he asked with a frowny-almost-pout on his face.

"I'm pretending I'm the Queen!" she answered pointing at the pretty pictures. "Do you want to be one of my servants?"

"No, I'd have to be the king," he answered, not looking quite so frowny.

"You can't be the king; you'd have to be a Pharaoh!" Amane answered knowingly. "You can be the Pharaoh if you want. what's your name?

"Noa," he answered, looking at her as if she were some new species of creature.

Amane smiled brightly at that. "Ohhh~! Like Noah's Ark? My Daddy studies things like Noah's Ark because he's an Ark-ee-ologist!" she said excitedly. "Do you have a boat to put animals on?"

Noa continued looking at her in confusion. "I think my father has some boats but I don't think that animals go on them."

Amane continued happily sitting back down on the bench and facing the pretty pictures. "You should try it then. it would be fun. But now you can be Pharaoh Noa and I'll be Queen Amane and we can make some more laws. I just made one where big brothers have to reach for cream tarts for their little sisters."

Noa sat down next to her and thought for a few seconds and the declared, "We should have a law that says that parties should have more fun games to play so you don't have to stand around and look at boring pictures."

Amane nodded. "That's a good one."

An so they continued to sit on the padded bench, being Pharaoh Noa and Queen Amane and making laws for their kingdom until the door opened again, admitting Amane's older brother, Ryou.

"There you are," he said walking over and interrupting their play-law making. "We need to go back to the party, or Dad will start to worry."

"Hey, Big Brother," Amane said, hopping off of her bench, "this is my friend Noa. He's the Pharaoh and I'm the Queen. Do you want to be one of our servants?"

Ryou smiled down at his little sister. "No thank you, we have to go back now." Then he looked over at Noa. "I hope she wasn't bothering you."

Noa smiled lightly as Amane took her brother's hand. "Not at all. She'll make a great Queen when she grows up."

Amane smiled back at him as Ryou led the way back to the boring museum party. When they arrived, Noa made his way to the desert buffet to get a cream tart for his Queen.

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Author's notes: This is for Loki-chan's pairing list challenge. This is the best I could do to make a Noa/Amane story and still keep it within the bounds of cannon. Please let me know what you think!

Riah-chan 12/21/2003