The Morning After

Disclaimer: I hereby acknowledge that I in no way, shape, or form own anything that has to do with Yu-Gi-Oh or it's characters. Everything in the story that you are about to read is fictional and is written solely for your enjoyment and entertainment. I stand to make no form of profit what so ever. All I ask is that you read and review, both for my personal gratification, and for future reference.

"Speech"

'Thought'

As eleven chimes of the living room wall clock sounded throughout the house signaling an hour before noon, rays of golden light penetrated the room's few existing windows as they carried with them gentle waves of warmth that ended up washing over the previously prone, but now stirring form of one Ishizu Ishtar. As twin orbs of sparkling sapphire spread open to meet the fading morn, she rose up and let her covers pool around her waist as she took in her new surroundings. After recognizing the scenery, Ishizu's focus fell to her current state of dress, or lack thereof. Pulling the blanket up to her chest, she began looking around for her clothes as the questions of how she got home, and noticing the bandages, how she received treatment consistently flew through her mind. Realizing that her clothes from the previous night were nowhere to be obtained, she found that a baby blue robe with white trim had been laid out on the arm and backrest of the sofa for her. Casting her blanket to the side, Ishizu slipped on the soft fabric before tying the sash off at the waist.

Remaining conscious of her injuries, though a good night's rest helped a great deal, she pulled herself up before making her way slowly but surely towards the kitchen, where the sounds of someone making breakfast... or by now lunch... were being made. Halting in the entryway, she found her brother in a pair of old gray sweatpants and a white tank top as he stood before the stove preparing a small variety of dishes for the upcoming meal. As if sensing her presence, Malik turned from his work to find Ishizu staring back at him. "Ah, so you finally woke up, I was beginning to think you'd sleep all day." Pacing forward to take a seat at the table, Ishizu groaned softly as she held her head gently in her left hand as she propped the adjoining arm up on the tabletop as a small headache befell her. Prepared for such a situation, Malik offered her a glass of water and a few small aspirin tablets that she accepted gratefully. After a few minutes, the pressure in her head lessened to a fairly comfortable level.

"Thank you, what happened last night, and how did I get home? Malik seemed mildly surprised, and perhaps lightly amused by her question. Checking the food once to make sure it wouldn't burn, Malik took a seat across from his sister.

"You mean you don't remember? When she shook her head lightly, Malik sighed before trying his best to explain what happened, based on the limited information that Joey had provided last night. "Well I don't know all the details myself, but from what Joey told me, you were attacked by a few punks on your way home. He stepped in to help, and then brought you home." Listening to what he had said, Ishizu then glanced over her wrappings before looking back to Malik. "Once again, Joey, he patched you up as well, I would have done it myself, but my skills in first aid as you know are lacking to say the least." Closing her eyes as she leaned back, Ishizu ran her brother's words over in her head, trying to remember anything from the previous evening. Soon the images of last night's events began to circulate in waves through her mind; leaving the museum, her run-in with the trio of would-be muggers, and then from out of nowhere Joey charging into the fray like her own personal white knight, fighting them all off in order to save her, and finally, guiding her to within shouting distance of her house before she passed out. "Ishizu, you okay?" Malik asked, trying to get his sister's attention as she opened her eyes.

"Huh? Oh, yes I'm okay, just remembering what happened to me last night." Hearing this, Malik tried pressing her for a recap, giving in; Ishizu told her brother all that she could remember while he stood to attend lunch. By the end of her recap, Malik needed to sit down again as he listened to some of the things Ishizu had said. He knew that she had gotten into trouble, but if it wouldn't have been for Joey showing up when he did, things could have been much worse.

"I think we owe Joey more then a simple thanks for what he did last night, especially after everything you just said, I knew he helped get you back home, but doing everything he did... he deserves our thanks at least." Malik certainly wasn't prepared to hear Joey being made out as the hero type that his sister ended up describing him as, he was going to haft a have a few words with the young brawler in private, and soon. The sound of running water shutting off just down the hall drew the attention of both Egyptian siblings, the eldest of whom gave her brother a questioning stare, silently asking for an explanation.

"He's still here?"

"He fell asleep almost immediately after treating you. I didn't think it would hurt to let him crash here for the night, considering everything that previously happened to you. Getting up to finish preparing their meals, Malik threw a casual look over his shoulder to Ishizu. "I also invited him to stay for lunch, being as late as it is, would you go and let Joey know that it's ready please, thanks." Pushing her chair out as she rose, Ishizu tentatively moved towards the living room.

Re-entering the living room, Ishizu's gaze swept the room before landing on a sight seemingly straight out of some sappy romance novel. Standing before the pane glass window with his back to her, and the sun's light casting his shadow upon the floor, Joey stood upon the thinly carpeted floor in his socks and pants. Using a bath towel to finish drying his shoulders and damp hair, Joey laid the towel over a chair before looking down and to the side to pick up a fresh shirt Malik had left for him, in order to replace his white tee that got damaged from yesterday's fight. It was one of Malik's own violet silk vests, and as he slipped it on, the cutoff at the bottom leveled off at about the middle of his abdomen, much like it did when Malik wore them during the Battle City Tournament.

Unaware of her transfixed gaze, Ishizu continued to stare, mesmerized by the smoothly flowing motion of her brother's shirt as the semi-glossy material slid against Joey's torso. Well-toned by years of street life, and hard headed stubbornness, among other things, the soft silk material embraced his body snuggly, practically a second skin, and with sunbeams fluttering around him, casting a tanning illusion at all the right angles, to the casual observer he could have almost passed as an Egyptian, but despite the idea, the young woman unconsciously admiring everything about his appearance, only one notion seemed to cross the young curator's mind; the guy was extremely handsome.

With her attention focused solely on the young man before her, Ishizu was completely unaware of her brother's presence directly behind her until he leaned over and whispered softly into her ear. "Like what you see?"

Ishizu gasped, quickly followed by a small tinge of pink in her otherwise moderately tanned cheeks. It was bad enough realizing that she had been staring so intently at their guest, but to have her brother end up catching her in the act just increased the embarrassment and personal mortification that she had been feeling.

Alerting him to their presence, Joey turns around to find his temporal hosts staring at him from a small distance, one with amusement boldly written in his features, while the other comes off looking like someone who was just caught with her hand in the cookie jar. "Hey, morning you two."

"Morning Joey, I see the shirt fits pretty well, did you sleep okay?" Malik asked.

"That's an affirmative on both counts, feeling pretty good actually." Switching gazes, he turns to look at Ishizu as a small amount of concern swirls in his eyes. "How you feeling Ishizu, you sleep okay?" Ishizu began fingering the sleeves of her robe where the bandages covered parts of her arms, hidden underneath.

"Um yes, quite comfortably in fact, thank you," Ishizu responded with a light smile of gratitude. Malik clamped a hand gently on her shoulder and gave them both a somewhat lopsided smile.

"Well I think that's about enough standing around for now. Lunch is ready and I made plenty for all of us, so lets eat!" Malik began ushering them into the kitchen before Joey held his hand up in protest.

"You know, that's a mighty tempting offer, one I'd normally take you up on, but I've got to get going before the gang starts wondering where I am, I said I'd meet them at the game shop at noon, so I better get going." Slipping his black and white sneakers on and tying them, Joey grabs his jacket off the back of the chair and starts heading for the door.

"Hold on a minute Joey, I'll see you out." Malik turns to Ishizu and tells her to go on into the kitchen and that he'll be there in a few minutes. With a small nod and a wave of her hand she bids them both goodbye as she leaves, pausing at the entryway one more time to glance back at Joey who failed yet again to notice her gazing.

The two duelists slipped outside as Malik closed the door behind them, hearing it click in place, he let go of the handle before looking up to speak, but was interrupted by Joey. "Hey Malik, thanks again for letting me crash at your place last night. I guess I was a little more tired then I thought." Not hearing an immediate response, Joey turned around. "Malik?" The name no more then left his lips before Joey found himself embraced rather tightly around his neck by said Egyptian. Somehow shocked didn't quite say what was running through the brown eyed brawler's mind. Managing to fire off enough neurons in his head to get the message across, Joey tentatively reached around a silent Malik and patted his back a couple times before the usually emotionally reserved tomb keeper pulled back enough to stare at Joey, keeping his hands on the other's shoulders as if he'd otherwise fall over.

"Thank you Joey."

"Huh?"

"Thank you, for saving my sister, bringing her home, treating her, everything." Noting the sad smile on his face and the single tear that seemed to be pooling in the corner of his right eye, Joey tried to speak but was cut off as Malik raised his left hand to silence him. "I know, I'm not acting very normal right now but, Ishizu is the only family I've got, and even if I don't show it much, I care about her more then you know. I don't know what I'd do if something happened to her." Seeing the sincerity in his eyes, Joey smiled himself.

"Well at least now you won't have to find out right?"

"Yes, because of you Joey," Malik emphasized his point by lightly jabbing Joey's chest with his finger. "Because of you." A minute of silence passed before Joey withdrew himself from Malik's light grasp.

"No problem, always happy to help a girl in distress," Joey exclaimed, giving the tanned blond a thumbs up along with a wink.

"You sure you don't want to stick around for lunch?" Malik pressed.

"Yeah I'm sure, I've got to meet the guys anyways." Joey turned to leave again.

"At least join me and Ishizu for lunch tomorrow then." Joey chuckled under his breath at Malik's persistence before turning sideways with his hands in his pocket and nodding, signaling his acceptance. "Great, where should I meet you?"

"Just pick me up in front of the game shop when you're ready."

"11:30 tomorrow morning then. I'll let Ishizu know.

With their plans established, Joey turned back to the road and started pounding the pavement towards his house. Malik continued to watch Joey until he was out of sight. "I was hoping for more progress by now then this," Malik spoke, seemingly to himself.

'Patience Malik, it's a start. Now we'll just have to build on what we've got.' A light frown of worry graced his face.

"With everything that's at stake, failure is not an option. You think we can pull it off?"

'Positive, when the time is right, everything will fall into place, but for now, you've got some news to break to your dear sister.' Malik sighed in mild annoyance at his newest task, but if things were working out like he hopped they were, he doubted Ishizu would have few if any objections. Smiling as the gears in his mind began turning once again, Malik opened the door and disappeared into the house to join his sister for lunch.

End Chapter 2

Author's Notes: That's it for chapter two everyone. I'm sorry for the long wait on this story's update and updating in general. It's been a wild year for me with too many ups and downs. A couple things I wanted to point out before you all point them out to me is that 1) yes I know Joey has that Brooklyn accent and no I didn't include it, I for got it in chapter one and didn't want to throw off the balance of the story by starting with it now. 2) Malik does seem a bit OOC at the end of the chapter, but considering that he almost lost his sister, I would think that some emotion would be expected.

Just as a future note, I'd like to say that I've already written the rough outline and summary for the remaining chapters of this story including an epilogue, so it's only about eight more chapters to go, unfortunately it may still be awhile before I finish this story entirely because now that this chapter is done, I'm looking towards writing the next chapter of my Dragonball Z fanfic. Love and War, and starting on the third installment of my Tenchi Muyo series, the first two which are entitled Rainy Day Lover and the sequel, Lovers Revealed. I intend to eventually finish both projects, though the matter of when has yet to be decided.

Finally, I urge everyone who reads any of my stories to review, tell me what you liked, disliked (hopefully nothing, lol), and what I might do to make my stories better in the future. I hope to hear from many of you, and that I'll be updating as often as I can, though I like to take my time o ensure good quality, as well as a decent quantity. So, until next time, this is S. S. Shadow signing off.