Hey, sorry it took so long, but I've been at the hosp for some time, so I got good reasons. I wasn't able to write a word on any of my stories for three weeks.

Enough about that. Here's the third chappie. Enjoy.


3d chapter: Finding each other

"Hey, squirt. Where the fuck are you? I'm not in the mood of playing games now. Show yourself, you little pest. I'm going to skin you alive."

"I wanna see you try."

Bakura turned his head to the one who had spoken and his indigo eyes met a pair of amethyst ones.

"Yugi, you fucking little piece of shit. Don't you know how worried I get when you decide to play hide and seek without telling me first?"

"It's just so fun to see the 'heartless' thief Bakura run around looking like a mother." The boy's eyes twinkled in the light of the sun. Bakura had early learnt to love those eyes, filled with such innocence, power and beauty. There existed no other human with eyes like Yugi's.

"I have told you many times before, but I'll say it again; I…"

"Promised daddy to look after me, I know, I know," Yugi said and jumped down from the cliff. He was ten years old now, but already he started to take the shape of his father's body and face. Bakura already knew women would die for a night with this one.

"So stop acting so arrogant and reckless already," the thief hissed.

"Why should I? You're not my dad."

That one hurt. "What the fuck is wrong with you, squirt? Are you asking to die?"

Yugi just snorted and headed towards the cave they stayed in for now. Bakura sighed silently. He was only eighteen; and it was hard for him to look after the more and more rebellious Yugi. The first year with Yugi hadn't been this troublesome. And now it was four since Marik had lost his head. Still there were rumours going on around the kingdom. Whispers of guesses what the treasure of Marik's was. A priest had picked up the lord's last words, and they had somehow spread throughout Egypt. Bakura couldn't help but worry about it. The world wasn't completely filled with meatheads. Sooner or later, if Yugi kept up his reckless acting, he would be figured out and, in the worst case, brought to the pharaoh. The mare thought made Bakura's blood run cold. He knew he couldn't protect Yugi forever.

The thief was just about to turn around and walk over to the cave and throw something together so they could eat tonight when he suddenly picked up the sound of footsteps.

Not taking any chances, Bakura rushed over to the cave and hissed at Yugi to hide before he himself pulled himself into a niche just big enough for him. It covered him from sight form above and inattentive travellers that passed the river. He could just hope Yugi was smart enough to actually stay hidden. There were things he knew he couldn't protect the little one from.

The army of the pharaoh for example.

But of cause the gods was never on his side during the day. The people were going down to the river to let their camels drink. Bakura managed to catch a glimpse of them. Priests of Set(1), he thought.

The white-haired thief quickly counted the days of the year and realized it was only a week left for the day when the priests of Set had their rituals and celebrations. This really wasn't his day.

"Seven more times for Ra to wander under Nut and we have only two sacrifices," one of the priests hissed to his comrades.

"I know," another said and spit on the moist ground. "We need three more to fill the list. Little innocent lambs. They are too hard to find, if we don't go into a village and buy their children of cause."

"Why do that when we can take the children of the homeless?" asked a third one. "They are for free after all."

"Too bad we have to stay friends with Horus(2) and Isis(3). Those two will bring us bad luck and short lives if we aren't honest with our sacrifices."

"Yes, it would be the worst thing to anger Isis," the first one said and tensed. "She will cut down the popularisation of Egypt again, weaken our powers and send illness upon the land if we anger her again."

"And if the sacrifices are not the right ones, Set will bring unfortunate upon the kingdom of Egypt, and the pharaoh will blame us for it."

I beg you, Geb(4), with all I have and for everything I am. Hide Yugi from these men's sight, Bakura prayed silently over and over again.

"Let us use the staff of Set once again and let it lead us to our next sacrifice," one of the priests said.

Geb, Shu(5), Bastet, Horus, Set… Bakura went on with his prayers.

There was a sound from where the staff was thrown into the air, and then how it landed.

"It points at the town of Carell," a priest said with a sigh.

Bakura breathed in silent relief.

"No, wait. It is pointing in the opposite direction. In that cave is our next sacrifice."

Bakura's blood became ice. He had to get out and save Yugi. But he couldn't. He was stuck where he was. He couldn't get his foot free, and if the priests saw him before he was completely free he would be sloughed like an ox right at that spot. And then they would take Yugi and give him to Set.

Geb, please, I beg you. Release me. I have to save Yugi. I must save him. I… I won't be able to live with myself if I lose him. I won't be able to live at all. Please Geb. Please!

"LET GO OF ME!"

Yugi's angry demand made Bakura pull his leg roughly. But a sharp stone cut into his flesh and nailed his foot at place. If he wanted to keep his foot he needed to take his time to get out.

"Be still. You have been chosen by Set himself to become one in his home. It is a great honour. Now come with us and…"

"I WILL NEVER ACCEPT THIS. YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT. LET ME GO IMMEDIATELY OR YOU WILL REGRET IT FOR THE REST OF YOUR DAYS UNDER THE EYE OF RA!"

"It is a really noisy sacrifice, this," said a priest who passed close to the niche where Bakura was hiding.

Pushing down his raising panic Bakura fought to think clearly. He could save Yugi, but not now. He wouldn't let Marik's son be sacrificed to any god.


Yugi stopped fighting after a few hours. He wondered why Bakura hadn't done anything. The thief he knew would come running from the end of the world if Yugi was in trouble… But then again, they had fought just before this. Maybe Bakura was angry with him.

"Why should I? You're not my dad."

"What the fuck is wrong with you, squirt? Are you asking to die?"

The memory hit him hard. Bakura was the closest to a father, or brother, he would ever have again. Yugi knew that had been uncalled for, but he couldn't help it. Had Bakura decided to actually let him die?

As night fell and Tefnut shone down at her son from under her daughter's hair, Yugi had lost his voice from his own bitter thoughts. Along with him were two others, both boys in his age, who also would be sacrificed to Set. All of them were bond by the hands, just in case they tried to flee. None of them had tried to talk to the other, but as the night fell the other two started to quietly whisper.

"Hey, who are you?"

Yugi just glanced at him with empty eyes.

"You were found in that cave at Nile, weren't you? Are you a traveller?"

Yugi just hung his head before he shook it in denial.

"Are you a thief? Then you must have some kind of knife, don't you?" the other asked eagerly. "Then we can get out of here and back to where we belong. My father will be overjoyed to see me again."

The words cut deep in Yugi's heart.

"Don't you have a father at home?"

Yugi shook his head and made a sign with his hands.

"Oh, sorry," the boy whispered. "What about your mother?"

Yugi made the sign again.

"Don't you have anyone?" the first one asked unbelievingly.

Yugi shook his head slowly, fighting down his tears. He was saved by one of the priests who came over to them. He started to tell them the honour of being sacrificed to his god, Set. Yugi didn't need to listen. He knew Set from before. It was him who had taken his father from him in the first place, through the pharaoh.

After the speech they were given bread and water to eat. It wasn't much if you wasn't used to a very limited diet. Yugi was, the other two weren't.

As a thief, you start by learning the three holy rules. One of them was to never share food given to you. Yugi hadn't gone against any of the rules before, and he wasn't about to start now. If his fellows were starving, it wasn't his problem.


It was late the day they arrived to the temple. It was an impressive building with grotesque paintings on the walls. War, soldiers, monsters of death… everything was about blood and death.

"See and respect the temple of Set," one of the priests said to the five sacrifices. Four of them stared at the building in aw, the fifth one had stopped listening to the sounds around him long ago. His amethyst eyes were dull and lifeless.

"Tomorrow you will go through the ritual and join the almighty Set in his home," the high priest started his speech. Yugi just stared in front of him lifelessly.

Bakura…

That night all the sacrifices were supposed to pray to Set and have his blessing and allowance to arrive at his home. All five of them knelt in front of the altar, made of red sandstone, and lowered their heads silently waiting for some kind of sign.

But Yugi didn't pray to any god. He prayed for his father to save him.

Daddy, why didn't Bakura save me? Why haven't he come to my rescue yet? Is it because what I said to him? Did I anger him? Please, daddy. I must know.

Tears started to fall down his cheeks, which the priests took as a sign he was accepted.

No one noticed one of the priests disappeared.


Yugi was in his room, waiting for his father to join him. Malik had gone to bring him something to eat, and had promised to return with something great.

Marik entered the room with a soft smile on his face.

"Daddy!" Yugi called and ran into his father's arms.

"My son. How are you tonight, light of my life?" Marik said as he lifted him up in his arms, moving towards the bed.

Yugi giggled at the name. "Am I your light?" he asked, eyes wide and hopeful.

"You will always be my light, my little treasure," the lord said with a loving smile and kissed his forehead. "Nothing is more important to me than you."

Malik entered the room with tray with food. "Good evening, my master," she said and bowed. Compared to the other women in the castle, Malik moved with ease and pleasure. Yugi loved to see her make those simple moves other women did so clumsily.

"Great, you've brought us some snacks. It is like you read my thought before I had formed them," Marik said with a delighted smile. Malik blushed deeply.

"Did you bring me something good?" Yugi asked eagerly.

Marik laughed at this and kissed Yugi's hair lovingly. "I love you, light of my life."

"I love you too, daddy." Malik sat down on her knees in front of the small table she brought to her masters. "And I love Malik too."

The girl gave him a wonderfully happy smile. "And I love you, young master."

"There are few who does not love you, my treasure," Marik said as he grabbed a grape to pop it into his mouth.

"Bakura doesn't love me," Yugi mumbled and snuggled deeper into his father's chest. In there he could hear the safe heartbeats.

"Of cause he does, Yugi," Marik said softly. "He loves you more than he is willing to admit."

Yugi woke up from a cold touch on his cheek. The cold thing jumped away from his face so that he could see what it was.

"Malik?"

The purple eyes in front of him were identical with Malik's. But the pupil didn't look right. It was long and thin, like…

"A cat," Yugi whispered to himself. In front of him stood a very small cat with cream coloured head and paws, and bronze coloured body and tail. It was really cute with its big, purple eyes and exited expression.

It moved closer to Yugi again and put its cold nose on Yugi's cheek. It seemed to decide it liked this human boy, because it moved down to under his chin where it curled into a furry ball and yawned.

Yugi smiled to himself. At least he wouldn't be alone tonight.

He thought of the dream he'd had. Had it been a message from his father? Did… did Bakura really love him?

…Or was everything just a trick made by his tired mind?


The ritual was supposed to be held in the evening, when the eye of Ra shone right into the temple and gave the altar the infamous colour of blood. During the entire day the sacrifices was not allowed to eat anything. But it didn't matter to them. They were brainwashed by the high priest and his promises about a new home with Set. Except for Yugi.

The kitten he had found, or who had found him, Yugi decided to call Malik. It was a male, but his eyes were so like Malik's Yugi couldn't think of another name. She had always been a lovely girl with warm and playful eyes. Yugi could really imagine Malik to be reborn as Bastet's child. It gave him hope. Malik wouldn't come to him if he was to die. Something would happen that would set him free. His father wouldn't let him die like this. He would definitely get away from this.

…but to where?

Bakura was the first thought that popped up in the amethyst eyed boy's mind, but truth to be told Yugi had no idea of where the white-haired thief could be.

Bakura, he thought silently to himself as he saw Ra lower down towards the end of the world, letting his red-golden light slowly fill the temple of Geb and Nut's bad son. You always tell me you must protect me because of the promise you gave daddy.

The sacrifices were lined up before the altar. One after one they would offer their blood, lives and souls for something greater than their minds could comprehend with.

But you never say a word that you do it only for me.

A staff made of wood that smelled strangely familiar touched Yugi's chin and lifted his face to look at the holy statue of Set. From the corner of his eye he saw the glint of metal, reflecting the red light of Ra, and a soft mewling was heard from inside his cloths.

The one who held the staff started to mumble a prayer in the holy language of the gods… and Yugi's eyes snapped wide open. In a flash he realized three things: he wasn't bond, his key to freedom was right under his chin, and that Bakura hadn't abandoned him.

As the knife lowered to cut up the small boy's throat, Yugi grabbed the staff and hit the poisoned metal out of the priest's hand.

"I WILL NEVER LET YOU KILL ME!" he yelled as the end of the staff hit the stones he stood on and a bright, violet fire blew up from under him.

"A monster!" a familiar voice yelled.

Bakura, disguised as a priest, grabbed a hold of the material of Yugi's cloths from behind and raised a knife to stab the boy's heart. But as the thief stood behind Yugi, no one noticed how his hand moved up over the little boy's heart, and therefore stabbed his own hand.

Yugi, as concentrated on his own task as he was, didn't notice any of this and just wielded the staff over his head, lifting up himself and the one holding him away from the temple.

The oasis where Yugi landed was too small for anyone to live around it. Here, Ra had almost sunken below the end of the world, leaving Tefnut (6) alone with the stars to lighten up the night. Yugi opened his eyes just as Bakura pulled the knife out of his hand.

"Bakura! What did you do?"

"I gave those fools a reason to never touch you again," Bakura said calmly, but his face betrayed his pain. He sat down, leaning against a tree.

"Let me take care of that," Yugi more or less ordered as the thief started with his cloths to bandage his hand.

Bakura was about to protest, but all that came out was a loud hiss of pain as the younger grabbed his hand quite roughly.

"Why did you do this?" Yugi asked again as he slowly let his magic flow through his hands. The soft, blue violet light eased the pain and slowly healed the wound.

"I would have helped you from the beginning, had Geb not stopped me," the indigo-eyed thief said slowly, letting his eyes slide shut as he leaned his head backwards. "I guess it was to protect the both of us. I wouldn't have been able to help you back there. I was unprepared, upset and out of focus. It took me half a day to get out of that niche." He stopped a moment to look up at the darkening sky, seeing the stars be lightened one after another. "I never got a chance to help you before you reached the temple. Maybe you didn't notice it, but you were protected, and guarded, by a magical barrier only the priests could get through. At the temple I switched places with one of the priests. He told me the order of the ritual from beginning to the end, letting me know everything about it from word to word. I took his place and then I suppose you can figure out the rest."

"Did that priest teach you the language of the gods too?" Yugi asked, more to keep Bakura talking than out of curiosity.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," the white-haired teen said lowly.

"Try me," the smaller boy said.

Bakura laughed shortly. "It was before I met you. I was about six or seven years old when I sneaked into a temple to hide from the soldiers outside. In there I met a fellow… I suppose he's dead by now. He was the apprentice of the high priest of Re-Atum. The guy was about as old as I am now. He took me in and taught me everything he could."

"Why did he do that?"

Bakura grimaced at the memory of that day. "Because he fell in love with me."

Luckily Yugi was just done with the spell when Bakura told him that. Otherwise the thief could have lost his hand, and his entire arm for that matter. "He what?"

"I know what you mean. I thought I was going to die when he finally told me. Not that I didn't like the fellow, but in my eyes he was my brother or something. After all, I stayed with him for almost a year. Through that time I grew quite attached to him, and he was a great teacher. I guess that answers the original question of yours."

Yugi just nodded, but he knew it wasn't true. He still held on to Bakura's warm hand. "I thought… you didn't like me anymore," he half whispered, going back to what he wanted… no, needed to know. "When you didn't come… I thought you had decided to leave me. I thought that you were mad at me."

"But it saved you," Bakura said, out of all things. Yugi looked at him, ready to cry at any moment. "I kept my eyes on you from a safe distance. Even though I couldn't hear the words, the way a priest handles with people about to be sacrificed is the same wherever you turn. They brainwash you to believe that your death will be for something high and mighty. I could see you weren't listening. I have been trying to teach you some theory, so I know the signs. You were worried about that, weren't you? That I wouldn't come after you at all?" He opened one eye to glance at Yugi, who nodded. "That's bullshit," the thief started again, causing Yugi to look up. "If something happens to you… I will probably go insane. I knew from the beginning it was a mistake of mine to take you in, but now that I have, nothing the men or the gods can do can make me leave you."

"Why… why is that?"

Bakura gently grabbed Yugi's head and made the little one rest it at his broad chest. "Because you are important to me now. Because I love you, my very own little magician."

That was when Yugi's dam broke. Until he finally fell asleep, he cried loudly into Bakura's chest.

"Your father was right," Bakura mumbled to the sleeping child in his arms. "I really do love you… more than you know, little treasure."


(1) I am sure all of you know this, but I tell you this anyway: Set is the god of war and disorganization.

(2) Horus is the god of the living, the son of Isis and Osiris, and the opposite of Osiris. He fought with Set for the throne of Egypt

(3) Isis is mosty known as the sister and wife of Osiris. She's the Goddess of... I don't know the word, but she is the one you pray to if you want a lot of babies. She has great knowledge of magic and is the only god, beside Ra himself, who knows the secret name of the Ra.

(4) Geb is the god of the earth, or actually, he is the earth. Originally it is the word for Earth.

(5) The God of the air. His purpose was to keep his son and daughter, Geb and Nut, from melting together.

(6) Goddess of the moon. There is a moon god too, but he has another function too, so I let Tefnut be the moon.