A/N: Hey! Welcome to the sequel to Over The Rainbow! Once again, Waffles4eva very kindly offered to write me the sequel for Christmas and here it is - Tomorrow Never Knows. You don't have to have read Over the Rainbow to understand what happens in this one, but you might be at a slight advantage if you have.

Disclaimer - I only own Alyssa and Izzy and the odd reference to any of my orginal characters. Waffles4eva owns the plot and storyline. We don't own anything else.

Tomorrow Never Knows

Episode One- Dreams: The Fading Shade of the Past!

The lights on the Christmas tree flickered on and off, enchanting the little girl at the foot of it. The lights were winking at her, promising great things. Her younger brother was more interested in the brightly wrapped presents, poking them inquisitively. Their mother came to join them.

"Mommy," Izzy said. "Are the lights broken?"

"No, they're supposed to do that. Mike, leave that alone, it's not for you."

"Is it for me?" Izzy asked hopefully.

"No, it's for the children."

'The Children' was a familiar concept to Izzy. Her mother had once explained to her that the big house full of children on the hill wasn't a school but was a place for all the children without mommies and daddies. At Christmas, though, it was nice if these children could come out and spend the day with a family, so that's what they did. Every year, Izzy and her brother shared their Christmas- and their parents- with some children less fortunate than themselves.

This year, however, was more difficult than most. The younger of the two boys was cheerful enough, having fun and getting more and more excited as the day went on. The older, however, just got quieter and quieter, and wouldn't play with Izzy no matter how much she tried. Eventually, half way through Christmas tea, he exploded.

"Shut up!" He yelled at whichever of Izzy's parents had just been speaking. "Stop pretending to be so kind and caring! If you really cared, why are you sending us back there?! One day isn't enough! One day doesn't mean anything!"

That was the moment Izzy realised Seto was lonely. It was also the moment she resolved to be his friend for life, no matter what.

It was amazing how much pressure a laptop keyboard could take. Alyssa always gave hers a good beating as the mess covering the rest of her small room spread across even there. Izzy's had to put up with a lot too, in this case acting as a pillow all night.

"Sorry, Seto..." She mumbled in her sleep, just as she had back then. There simply wasn't room in the house to keep another two children...

"Izzy!" Alyssa yelled again, banging on the door. "Don't make me set off the fire alarm!"

Finally, Izzy woke with a start, looking around, disorientated. Her laptop was still humming away, her chin had been pressing down of the spacebar and preventing it from going into hibernation. The only thing open on the screen was an instant messaging window. It seemed Seto had gotten quite annoyed at being ignored before finally giving up and going offline. It wasn't her fault he was nine hours behind and she couldn't stay awake long enough to talk for very long. Still, as Alyssa would say, he had the moods of a pregnant woman. She should probably apologise later.

"Izzy!" Alyssa's voice was urgent now. "How long do you plan on sleeping?!"

Izzy looked at the laptop clock and screamed loudly enough to set Alyssa into hysterics on the other side of the door to E203. Hastily clicking shut down and grabbing her bag- thankfully packed the night before, Izzy looked down at herself doubtfully. She had fallen asleep in her uniform...

"We have to be there in three- no, two minutes, Izzy." Alyssa said, warningly. That settled it. Izzy threw the door open and set off at a run, the long-suffering Alyssa hardly able to keep up.

"Fall asleep in your clothes again?" She panted, laughing.

Izzy groaned. "Please tell me you at least have a hairbrush in your bag."

Alyssa snorted. They both knew that was unlikely.

It didn't matter that Izzy had now been in Japan for just over a year; their schools still started too early in the mornings. The October morning was crisp and cool as they ran the short distance from the dormitories to Noburo High.

"I can't wait for graduation." Alyssa moaned, trying to keep up with her quicker friend. "No more of this!" They entered the school building and began to run up the flights of stairs, towards the third year classrooms on the third floor.

"You just want to spend more time with Marik." Izzy returned, laughing, pulling the door of the classroom open. "Wasn't a whole summer working in the convenience store with him enough?"

"It's nothing to do with him." Alyssa said, collapsing into a chair. "I just hate those stairs!"

Izzy was forced to smother her laughter and stand as the teacher entered. They'd been just in time.

This wasn't what Izzy had imagined when she had taken on a six-month placement abroad the previous year. She certainly hadn't been expecting to still be here. But what had begun as a mission to set Alyssa up with the senpai she had been so clearly in love with had somehow ended up with the entire class stealing her passport which had in turn lead somehow to her kissing her now-boyfriend on the school roof. So.

There had been a lot of ups and downs in that time, of course, not least Marik and Atem coming to blows because the former thought the latter was cheating on Alyssa who the latter wasn't even dating to begin with; or Izzy's brief sham of a relationship with Bakura in an attempt to protect her friends from his constant bullying. She shuddered slightly at the thought of him, but reassured herself she was unlikely to ever have to see him again. Last she heard, after being expelled from Noburo, he had settled in surprisingly well to his new school and was keeping his head down and staying out of trouble. Something in her doubted this very much, but she hoped it were true. He had done some cruel things in the past, not only trying to get Alyssa and Marik blamed for his crimes, but also trying to get revenge on them- and Atem- for catching him out. The less misery he was causing the better. And who knew? Maybe when he stopped causing misery he would be able to find his own happiness. Rumour did have it he had been seen with a girlfriend. Izzy just hoped this girl would beat him sufficiently to keep him on the straight and narrow.

Bakura wasn't the only one to be doing better, though. Freed from his bullying and with the added bonus of her best friend and boyfriend, most were agreed they had never seen Alyssa happier. The class, aware they had wrongly blamed her for stealing the money and treated her harshly in the first year, were still trying to compensate for it. Izzy smiled to herself as she heard the whispered teasing and arguing going on between Alyssa and Hachiro, which showed no signs of stopping until Honeka- recently re-elected as class president- smacked him round the ear. Izzy just shook her head, knowing the two had a whole summer of banter to catch up on. Alyssa had spent that summer working almost constantly, but Marik worked in the same place, and she knew the two had enjoyed it an awful lot. The trip the four of them had taken to the beach at the end of the holidays had given her time to observe them closely, and she could tell they were still as much of the 'stupid love couple' as always. It made her smile. She somehow knew they would end up married one day, as long as Marik could stop blushing and stammering long enough to ask her. Those two were so useless, they'd probably need someone else to say 'I do' on their behalf. Smiling at the image, Izzy tried and failed to listen to the lesson going on at the front of the room.

Instead, her thoughts turned to her own relationship. Atem was hardly what she had imagined her 'ideal' boyfriend to be, but then Atem had come along and surprised her. It hadn't started out like that. In fact, he'd admitted that at first she was little more than an annoyance to him. This was mostly because he had chosen to be alone and she chose not to let him. Her persistent friendship attempts had eventually gotten through and turned into something more. She had found out his reason for staying away and distancing himself from people wasn't arrogance or pride or cynicism, but fear. Atem had been too scared of hurting anyone to get close to them. Izzy still wasn't sure he had told her everything, but she knew some. Atem had- or believed he had, she wasn't quite sure- a strange effect on people. The shadows and the dark places of people's hearts just reacted to him. Some hearts were stronger than others, he said, but sooner or later all of the shadows with regular contact with him would grow, like plants given water. If they grew too much, that person was consumed by the darkness.

Izzy wasn't quite sure what to make of that. But she knew one thing for sure, and that was that Atem was not evil. He was getting more confident too, more confident his could control this power, this curse, whether it was real or not. He still wasn't entirely comfortable being around others, and displays of affection were rare, but Izzy knew the feelings were there in his heart. They hadn't been able to swing jobs as Marik and Alyssa had, but he had still come to see her when she was at work in the library and he had time off from the post office, just as she went to see him when she could. When neither of them were working, they went and did things that were fun. Like that daytrip to the beach. And then at the end, as the sun was setting on the ocean and the beach was empty, and they were beginning to accept it was time to leave; when Marik and Alyssa had disappeared to look at the rock pools (although the giggling suggested that far more teasing and tickling was going on than was necessary for this); when she had turned around and realised Atem had been watching her the whole time, when, for no reason and with no prompting, he had said he loved her for only the second time and... She realised she was blushing badly at the thought. From the seat behind, Alyssa tapped her chair legs with her foot and whispered:

"Izzy's thinking about her boyfriend...!"

"Oh, shut up."

It was a little lonely, Izzy thought, being back at school without Atem there. She wondered if Alyssa felt the same way about Marik. Still, the boys weren't far away, both at the local University. They had all the time in the world to spend together. That thought made her happy.

The boys in question met by chance that day on the University campus. Their lectures were held in the same department, so they often ran into each other in the hallways. Marik was weaving his way between people, his nose in a book. The words were beginning to blur slightly. He really would have to get reading glasses... Then he was forced to an abrupt stop as something pushed into him. He looked up and saw Atem's arm, and the lamppost it had just stopped him walking into.

"Ah, thanks." He said, smiling. "How's it going, Atem?"

"Fine." Atem replied. "How's the course?"

"The science parts are a little tricky, but it's fascinating." Marik said, referring her to his archaeology degree. "Actually, I'm feeling rather proud of myself. My test results for the first half term have been high enough that I've been given a chance to go on the excavation for the second and third terms!"

"Congratulations." Atem answered, surprised to find he felt genuinely pleased. "When do you leave?"

Marik shook his head. "That can all wait until I've graduated."

Atem sighed and took a wild guess. "Alyssa?"

"Of course." Marik said, smiling. "I couldn't go so long without seeing her." This Atem knew well. Marik had got into but turned down his first choice of University because it would have meant moving away from his girlfriend. Not that Alyssa knew this. She thought he hadn't got in.

"It's getting serious between you two, then?"

"I wouldn't date her if I wasn't serious."

"Right." Atem was unimpressed by this. "Still, I can't help but notice Alyssa, who has never shown any interest in jewellery before, has been wearing a ring lately..."

"It's not what you think!" Marik blushed, immediately turning scarlet. "It's just a promise ring! Yumika-chan told me all the high school girls are into them right now!"

Atem, of course, was not a high school girl. As such he had no idea what Marik was talking about. "What?"

"It's a ring you give to symbolise a promise you've made to them." Marik said, blush fading slightly. "For us it was... well... that we'd have more times like this summer."

"Hmmph." Atem snorted. "You know, I don't think Alyssa will be happy as a kept woman. She'll want her own job. She won't follow you around the world on digs."

"Sure she will, she can make the tea." Marik joked. "Anyway, we can work that out later, it was just a ring. You should get one for Izzy."

"Izzy doesn't need things like that."

"Still incapable of showing affection, huh?" Marik teased. It didn't work.

"Yes, but Izzy knows that. It works."

At this point the conversation was interrupted by a very pretty girl coming to join them.

"Ah, Marik-kun, are you headed home now?"

"I can't." Marik shook his head. "I have to go to my Aging Artifacts seminar this afternoon."

"Oh well." She sighed. "I'll see you on the train tomorrow, then."

"Bye, Yumika-chan."

Yumika, who lived off campus reasonably close to Marik himself and happened to be enrolled on the same course, swept away in a swirl of long legs and short skirt, turning the head of every male student there.

"Tempted?" Atem asked Marik.

"Not on your life!" Marik answered hotly, but still jumped guiltily when his phone rang. There was no doubt as to who it would be. It was the High School's lunch break. Atem rolled his eyes and left Marik to it. He and Izzy felt that speaking on messenger or meeting up in the evenings was quite enough. Apparently those two did not.

"Hey, Alyssa." Marik said, confirming his suspicions. "How's school?"

Atem shook his head, waved briefly, and left. He didn't have time to wait. His Ancient History lecture was waiting.

Izzy tossed slightly in bed. She was having the same dream as the night before, but it was different somehow. Everything seemed darker, or gaudy, menacing, somehow. And then during tea Seto turned to her, not her parents , and he was suddenly older, as he had been when she had last seen him, and he looked at her with hurt in his eyes.

"Izzy," he said, anger replacing the sadness. "Stop pretending to be so kind and caring! If you really cared, why leave?! It wasn't enough! It didn't mean anything!"

Izzy awoke with a jolt and an acute feeling of guilt. There was no need to rush this morning- although it was almost afternoon- as it was a Saturday. Getting lazily up, even as she carefully showered and dressed she found the feelings of guilt still didn't dissipate. In all these months, she had never really given Seto a completely adequate explanation of why she had to stay. He was probably worried. She wandered over to the laptop, deciding today she would. She spent some time deliberating over the contents of the e-mail, but eventually had something she was happy with. Sending it, she checked her watch and smirked a little. It was time.

She moved out of her room and knocked on Alyssa's. She was glad they had managed to secure the same rooms again for this year as the year before, but this only made sense being as they had both stayed there over the summer. Alyssa had now been living in E204 for three years, and it was easy to forget the place wasn't technically hers. Sometimes they wondered who would have it next, but then Alyssa always got upset, so they moved on fairly swiftly. Alyssa opened her door, sandwich in her mouth- transferred to her hand once she got the door open- and a book in her other.

"Ah," She said, swallowing. "The creature emerges. How can you sleep so late?"

"It's the weekend." Izzy shrugged. "And we don't have anything to do till tonight, so..."

"So I'm going to stay here and read my book." Alyssa said, glaring. "Marik's reading it too and I want to finish first so I can threaten him with spoilers."

"Tough." Izzy answered, cheerily. "Come on, it's time to go see Miki-chan!"

"No!" Alyssa moaned. "Not again! There is nothing wrong with my furisode!"

"Yes there is." Izzy sang cheerfully. "You know wearing spring colours in Autumn is a cardinal sin!"

"But she'll make me pretty..." Alyssa whined.

"That's the idea." Izzy said, grabbing her arm. "Now, you can come willingly when you've finished your lunch or you can come by force now. Don't you want to look pretty for Marik?"

"....fine." Alyssa untangled herself. "Come sit down while I finish."

Izzy smirked and went in. Before too long they were on their way to S311, Alyssa complaining all the way. Izzy, however, wasn't convinced she actually minded. After all, she had been excited about the Full Moon festival from the day they returned to school and this was all part of it.

Had it really been a year since they had done this? It didn't seem like it, but in other ways it seemed like much longer. Ah well. Miki opened the door grinning happily.

"Izzy! You caught her!"

"Suspect apprehended." Izzy answered cheerfully, pushing Alyssa into the room. "She's all yours, Miki-chan."

"Yay!" Said Miki.

"I hate you so much." Said Alyssa as she was forced behind a curtain with a folded furisode in her arms.

It took some time to get both of them dressed to Miki's satisfaction, but that was part of the reason they had arrived so early. Miki was widely viewed as the school's stylistic expert because not only did she know what was in and what was not, she knew how to dress someone to look their best regardless of fashion. Moreover, she usually had the clothes somewhere in her extensive collection to do it- or at least could tell you where to get them. Alyssa had asked for her help the previous year for Izzy, and had found herself being subjected to Miki's treatment into the bargain. This year Izzy had taken the initiative and although it had taken a long time, she was pleased with the end result. Izzy had wanted to wear the same red and gold furisode as she had the previous year, but Miki had been so scandalised at the idea that she had changed completely to the other end of the spectrum and Izzy found herself looking good in blue and grey.

"Ravenclaw this year, is it?" Alyssa asked, but was swiftly kicked.

Alyssa was not so pleased, dressed as she was in pink and white, hers sporting a flowery pattern completely different to the leaves and rivers on Izzy's.

"How is this not spring like and mine is?" Alyssa moaned.

"Yours is green." Miki answered.

"But this is pink! Pink!"

"I know, but you look cute in pink."

And there was to be no more arguing. Especially as Izzy had entrusted Alyssa's door key to the rest of the girls on the rest of E2 floor and had instructed them to hide all Alyssa's clothing.

In this way, they ended up waiting at the festival gates, dressed up and waiting for their respective partners to appear. Atem was going to be a little late, however, because he had a lecture that usually overran thanks to the teacher's incessant talking and apparent disregard for the clock. There was a general consensus that someone should find a way to get in there and put his clock forward by at least fifteen minutes so they could actually leave on time. Marik, on the other hand, had no reason to be late. So when he didn't appear Alyssa began to get a little jumpy.

"Alyssa." Izzy said. "He's only five minutes late, so don't worry."

But five minutes turned to ten and ten to fifteen. Fifteen saw Atem appear, but no Marik. By now even Izzy was starting to get a little worried. Marik was the best time-keeper of all of them.

"Maybe you should call him." She said.

"Yeah." Alyssa agreed, pulling her phone out. After a moment or two, her face fell. "No answer..."

"Maybe it's just out of battery." Izzy tried to reassure her.

"But then why is it ringing?" Alyssa said, worried now. "I hope he's okay..."

"I'm sure he is." Atem said.

"But... what if he's not?"

"He is."

"You don't know that!"

"Yes I do."

"How?!"

"He's right there." Atem said, pointing. And indeed, Marik was running towards them, fighting through the crowds at the gate.

"Sorry I'm late." He panted. "I was asleep! I'm so sorry! I must have dropped off while I was reading..."

"Did you leave your phone behind?" Izzy asked, amused.

"Oh..." He checked his pockets. "I did sort of run straight here... I must have done."

Izzy tutted. "You made Alyssa think you were dead."

"I didn't!" Alyssa protested, but it had crossed her mind.

"I'm sorry." Marik said again, hugging her. "I'll try to get to bed earlier from now on."

"You'd better." She answered, somewhere in his chest. Feeling slightly left out, Izzy reached for Atem's hand and clasped it.

"Shall we go in?" She asked.

The festival was just the same as she remembered, with the carnival games, the food, the fortune telling, the stars. They wandered around, talking and laughing and having fun together, but Izzy felt a little troubled; thanks to a throwaway comment made by Alyssa.

"Hey, this is the anniversary of our first date!" She said, cheerily.

"We weren't technically dating then, any of us." Atem sighed.

"Don't be such a spoilsport!" Alyssa frowned, and as the argument escalated, Izzy found herself thinking back to that time. It was the first time the four of them went out together, it was true. Still, it wasn't the happiest of days...

"Well, look at you, all dressed up." He sneered. "What a pity Marik still won't ever notice you."

"Go away." Alyssa muttered, looking at the floor.

"Go away." Izzy echoed, far more sternly.

"No." Bakura replied, suddenly shoving Alyssa back and pinning her against a tree. "I want to have a talk with you."

Alyssa struggled, but he held on.

"Let go!" Izzy yelled.

"No." Bakura smirked. "Isn't it about time, Alyssa, that you felt some pain in return? Some fear?"

"You..." Alyssa started, angry. Even so, she couldn't shake him off. Izzy booted him hard in his shin, but he didn't seem to care.

"Isn't this fun?" He smiled, laughter hanging on his words. "I haven't been able to play with you for some time, Alyssa. Maybe I don't want to hurt you. Maybe I just like seeing the fear in your eyes. Or maybe I will..."

"Let go of her!" The voice was so furious that for a moment Izzy didn't recognise it as Marik's as he and Atem ran over. Atem took a much less subtle approach, grabbing Bakura by the collar and hauling him off. Bakura wrenched out of his grip, and stumbled back into Izzy, who fell into a tree herself, dropping the goldfish bag as she did so.

"What do you think you're doing?!" Marik yelled. "Did you come here just to cause more trouble?! Let it go!"

"Ha. Maybe I enjoy it." Bakura snarled, eyes narrowed. "What are you going to do to stop me?"

"I don't recommend you find out." Atem said icily.

"Oh, I'm so scared." Bakura said, picking up the goldfish. "Did you give this to her earlier, Atem?" With that, he ripped the bag open. Water spilt over the floor. The goldfish flapped uselessly on the ground. No-one moved, but the tension was at it's peak.

"Oh, poor thing." Bakura said, with mock sympathy. "Let's put it out of it's misery."

He stamped down hard.

Izzy shuddered at the recollection, but then thought again. Bakura had been wrong, after all. Things had all turned out for the best.

"Marik-kun!" Someone was saying in delight. "I didn't know you were heading out here tonight."

"Yumika-chan," He greeted, smiling happily. "I should have guessed you'd be here. Your kimono is lovely."

"Thank you." She smiled back, giving a little twirl. "Anyway, Marik-kun, you should come over and say hello."

"Oh, sure." Marik answered, and the two disappeared into the crowd.

"Ditched." Atem said, not sounding too bothered either way.

"Who was that?" Alyssa asked, trying to keep the hurt out of her voice.

"I think her name is Yumika. She's on his course at University."

"Oh..." Alyssa said, looking at her feet. Yumika was very pretty. "I guess they must be his Uni friends."

"It's nice that he found them here." Izzy pondered, not noticing Alyssa's hurt expression. She was thinking of her own friends, of Seto. She should really go back and visit soon...

"Well, forget about him." Alyssa said in annoyance, leading the way. "Let's just go."

"Alyssa!" Marik, of course, came running to catch up with them a moment later. "Geez, I go for two minutes and you disappear! Come on, I want to introduce you."

"Are you sure you don't just want to go round the festival with them?"

"Huh?" Marik seemed confused. "But I came with you guys. Anyway, come on, they all want to meet you, they've only seen pictures before."

"You showed them pictures?!"

"Yeah, well when I told them about you they seemed interested so..."

"Geez, you're so embarrassing." Alyssa grumbled, but it was obvious she was secretly rather pleased.

And so, that year, they ended up in a much larger group. With the four of them and Marik's university friends, there were nine of them in total. Izzy threw herself into the festival, enjoying it as much as she could, if only to stop thinking about the last time, to stop feeling guilty about neglecting Seto. As such, she didn't notice Alyssa's worried glances in Yumika's direction.

She was having fun here in Japan, so it was all okay, wasn't it?

Hey Seto!

Sorry for taking so long to mail back. It's all been mad around here, but I can't complain- I love it! Atem's doing well at university too, I think. His course sounds really interesting, I'm thinking of taking it myself next year. It's a shame that we can't go to classes together, though. I hope the two of you can meet sometime, he's such a good guy, I know you'd like him. It's weird, I stayed in Japan so I could be with him, but since then I've found a lot of other reasons to be here too. Don't worry, he's still the main one! He makes me happy.

Is that a weird thing to say? Sorry. I just realised that I hadn't told you really why I stayed yet. But he makes me happy, so I had to stay. Something like that!! I hope one day you'll have someone like that too. Anyway, sorry for this short (and random!) e-mail, but I have to go now. We're off to a festival tonight and I have to force Alyssa to look pretty. I'll mail properly soon, I promise!

-Izzy-

Seto read the message that had arrived in his inbox. Was that it? No apology? Nothing about disappearing on messenger or basically ignoring him all this time?

Seto did not take kindly to being ignored. Not bothering to reply to the e-mail, he changed the browser window to Google and searched Air Japan. His friend had been reduced to some sort of giggling fangirl, an absurd mockery of everything he had thought of her.

Enough was enough.

A/N (Waffleseva): Okay. This is not my fault. I refuse responsibility for this one. XD This is for everyone who asked where Seto was in the last one. He's here. Now. Yes. This time, Bakura gets cut! Yay! You know, for a Christmas story this isn't really very Christmassy. Ah well. As before, it's over several weeks, so it'll be Christmas by the end, I promise. With snow and everything. (Is that a spoiler?)

A/N (scooby2408) Well, there you go... a bit of a recap episode I think... and lookie, it's Seto! He's finally here! I hope you enoyed it and as I did with Over the Rainbow, I will leave you with the trailer for next time:

"This is so not fair..."

"I think this gonna be fun...

"How is this possibly going to be fun?!"

"Because I get to mess with Seto!"

"I don't think it's that sort of story, Alyssa."

"Sure it is, it's right there in the plan. 'They are soon engaged in their ususal banter- as well as Alyssa teasing him', see?"

"Fine, but lookwhat else it says."

"... What?! No... I..."

"....... Someone come help me do the preview, Alyssa's fainted."

"Ahhh! What happened?! Alyssa!!"

"She saw this part of the next episode."

"Ahhh! BUt! No! I!"

"And there goes another. It's not even the main plot line of the episode. "

"Why do we have such sad music for such a stupid preview...?"

"Because you're all grossly incompetent?"

"Why are you even here?"

"I get paid a six figure sum."

"Pfft, like you don't make that in a day."

"I was being saracastic, is that too complex for you?"

"Why is it we have a preview twice the length of last time and yet we still don't talk about the episode...?"

"Next time! The love triangle emerges!"

"Oh, you're awake."

"Insecure affections!"

"If you're just going to yell again, we really should change the music."

"I don't care too much for money, money can't buy me love! The rivals meet! A head to head battle! But who will-!"

"Alysssa, the preview finished. Quite a while ago."

"... Oh. Next time on Tomorrow Never Knows - Contest: The Entrance of a Rich Love Rival!"