This is a Harry Potter/Yu-Gi-Oh crossover inspired by "King's Jackal" by esama. I have reached out to esama and received permission from her to use aspects of that story in this one. Therefore you will see similar concepts. While I know this one won't be as epic as hers I do hope you enjoy it.

Disclaimer: I do not own HP or YGO. Some concepts used within are borrowed with permission from esama.

Warnings: SLASH! Ryou/Bakura, Yugi/Atem, Malik/Marik pairings. At this point Harry has no pairing, too young. Maybe Seto/Isis, haven't decided.

Beta: Bicky Monster

Happy Birthday to Me! This is my present to all of you ^_^

Shadow's Ward

"Harry, try to keep up," Bakura called out as he lugged his and Ryou's luggage from the carousel in Narita Airport before starting to make his way through the crowds towards the subway stations. They would need to catch the train out to Domino City before grabbing a taxi home.

"Yes, Itja," Harry responded, trying to keep his eye on Bakura's white spikey hair as he followed him through the Japanese airport. He had never been anywhere with so many people before and he had to keep dodging around them as he went.

"You'll never keep up with him, Harry. Just follow me." Ryou spoke up from Harry's left, holding out a hand for Harry to grab a hold of.

"I wanted to try though. Itja is very fast." Harry pouted as he took hold of Ryou's hand.

"He has a lot of practice moving through crowds while holding things. Do you remember what that word means?" Ryou asked, and Harry looked up at him, thinking for a moment before nodding when he remembered that Ryou hadn't liked that Bakura wanted to be called Thief. "That was his life back in Egypt," Ryou explained. "The train won't leave without us though and if we miss this one there is always another. There is no need to rush, and I would hate for you to get lost here."

"Yes, Papa," Harry replied. He had settled on calling Ryou 'papa' during their last week in London and had been saying it and Itja often in order to get used to the idea that this was his new family, with new rules to follow. Better and different rules than the Dursleys had, but rules nonetheless; like 'no cooking meals' and 'clean your room only, but pick up your items everywhere else', they also made a rule about his Shadows. He was even allowed to play with brand new toys, not Dudley's old broken ones.

Ryou and Bakura had spent time going over the new rules, making sure that Harry would be ok with them. Both had explained that when they arrived at their home in Japan, a couple of different rules would be added but that they would be added over time. Harry was excited to now live in a different country where the Dursleys couldn't find him and where there were others with Shadows like him.

"Took you long enough," Bakura called out from the platform, where he was stood waiting with all their luggage. "The train will be here in a few minutes."

"See, Harry, we didn't lose Bakura." Ryou said as Harry raced forward to hug Bakura. Bakura, after many stern looks from Ryou over the past week, now would just pat Harry on his head instead of standing there awkwardly.

"Itja, why are there funny boxes all over with English letters below them? Are those words? Do I have to learn those?" Harry asked from his position, looking out over the train platform.

"Funny boxes?" Ryou asked looking around.

"He means the Kanji," Bakura answered. "Yes, Sa, you will have to learn lose. That is how people in Japan write. The English letters below those boxes are how you spell and say the words."

"Must you introduce him to Ancient Egyptian while I'm trying to teach him Japanese?" Ryou bemoaned.

"Better he learns it now and gets used to speaking three languages." Bakura responded as the train arrived. Ryou shuffled Harry onto the train and into a seat by the window as Bakura stored their bags for the trip. Soon the train departed from the underground station and quickly left the tunnel to show Harry his first look at a Japanese countryside.

"Harry," Ryou said drawing Harry's attention from the view outside. "Our first stop will not be to our home. There is a small welcome party planned with a just few friends that we are going to first. These friends you have seen once before and I work at the place we are going to. You will spend a lot of your time there so they thought you would enjoy a welcome party."

"Ok," Harry said a bit nervously.

"If things become too much, just let me know. I can get us out," Bakura stated as he sat down across from Ryou.

"Do not start a Shadow Game with Atem just to leave, Bakura," Ryou scolded.

"As if I ever start those." Bakura sneered.

"Just because you don't declare one doesn't mean you don't start them," Ryou stated, as a woman came down the row selling various foods and drinks. "We'll take three teas." Ryou handed the woman cash in exchange for the three bottles. He then passed one over to Bakura and opened another before passing it to Harry.

"Thank you, Papa," Harry said as he took the bottle. He took a tentative sip of the liquid. Deciding he liked it, he then took a larger swallow. Harry went back to looking out of the window at the passing scenery. He was fascinated by the different house types in Japan versus what he always saw in London and Surrey. Also, by looking out the windows Harry could watch the reflections of both Ryou and Bakura to see if he needed to dodge any slaps or punches, without looking like that was what he was doing.

About an hour after they left the airport, the train pulled into Tokyo. Getting off of the Narita Express train, Harry once again took Ryou's hand as the three then travelled up two levels to the main floor of the station before going through another ticket gate and up another level. There they caught a shinkansen coming from Kyoto with a final stop in Domino City. Just before they boarded the train, Ryou purchased three small bento boxes from the platform store.

"Are Pharaoh and the old man not feeding us?" Bakura asked when he saw the bento.

"I'm sure Mr. Mutou will have snacks prepared, but it wouldn't hurt for us to eat real food before arriving. Airplane food is never filling or filled with enough nutrients," Ryou calmly stated as he passed the bento out, making sure to hand Harry a fork since he wasn't used to using chopsticks yet. Harry took the box and fork from Ryou and glanced down at what was inside.

One half of the box held rice with something black sprinkled on top and a red squishy circle thing in the middle. The other half had a small section filled with mixed vegetables that looked kind of like a salad, thinly cut carrots and something that was white mixed together, and a last section with two small sausages and a breaded circle.

Harry poked at the red circle on top of the rice with his fork before looking over at what Ryou was eating. Ryou's box was very similar but held two long breaded things and no sausages. Bakura's the same; except, Harry noticed, Bakura had moved his red circle off to the side, leaving a small red tinted indent where the item once was. Thinking this was a good idea, since he didn't know what the red thing was, Harry also moved his off to the side.

Gathering his courage together, Harry scooped up some of the salad looking thing onto his fork. Taking a bite, Harry very quickly learned that, whatever the salad was, it was full of vinegar. Making a sour face, Harry decided he would avoid eating that ever again, and, if he could avoid eating it this time without Ryou and Bakura noticing, he would.

To help get rid of the taste, Harry ate some of the black sprinkled rice; which was much more familiar a taste. Taking a chance, Harry tentatively took a bite of one of the sausages. What he didn't notice, as he was so focused on his food, was that both Bakura and Ryou were making note of what foods he liked and didn't like. Their plan was to do foods he liked to get him used to Japanese cuisine before introducing some of the other, more non-European type foods.

The rest of the twenty minute train ride to Domino passed in relative silence between the three of them. When they arrived in Domino, they shuffled over and grabbed a taxi from the entrance of the station. The bags were thrown into the trunk of the car before the three of the slid into the back seat, Harry safely between his adoptive parents, as Ryou instructed the driver as to where they were heading. Harry once again took to staring out the window as they went.

In short order, the taxi stopped in front of the Kame Game shop. While Ryou paid the driver and Bakura got their luggage out, Harry looked at the yellow and green building, wondering if 'Kame' was the owner's last name or what meaning it might have.

"Ready to go in, Sa?" Bakura's voice broke through Harry's daze.

"Ok." Harry followed the push of Ryou's hand on his back. Entering the front of the shop, Harry took in the purple walls filled with shelves of board games. Towards the front of the shop were display cases, holding what looked to be cards. Walking closer to the display, Harry looked at the cards. They were not the playing cards he was expecting. These had a picture on the top with stars, numbers, and words at the bottom.

"Those are Duel Monster cards," a kind voice spoke up in Japanese from Harry's right, startling the boy. Harry looked over and noticed that the short man with spikey tri-colored hair looked familiar. Harry looked over his shoulder for either Ryou or Bakura and didn't see either of them. "Do you want to see any particular one?"

"Itja? Papa?" Harry called out, backing away from the smiling man. Harry looked around the room again, searching for his guardians.

"Itja? Thief? Is that what you call Bakura?" The man tilted his head in question. Harry still couldn't understand what the man was saying and started to worry that he had been left alone. Did he do something wrong? Did Papa and Itja decide he really wasn't worth taking in?

"Are you ok? Would you like me to get Ryou or Bakura?" the man asked with a concerned look on his face. "I think I will. Just wait here." Harry backed into a corner of the display case. Once the man had left the room, to who knows where, Harry slowly started sliding down the wall towards the front of the shop.

"Harry? Harry, are you alright? Where did you go?" Ryou called out in English as he entered the room. Ryou looked around trying to find the young boy.

"Papa?" Ryou looked around a display case to see Harry on the ground against a wall.

"Are you alright, Harry? Yugi was concerned he did something wrong. Do you want to go into the other room with everyone?" Ryou crouched down near Harry, trying not to crowd him.

"You weren't here," Harry whispered, hugging his legs to himself.

"I'm sorry, Harry. You just looked very interested in the cards so I sent Yugi out to talk to you about them. He has been playing with the cards for a long time. I forgot that Yugi doesn't speak English. Do you want some tea?" Harry just shook his head, curling up tighter. Ryou chewed on his bottom lip in concern.

"Ryou, can I try something?" Yugi whispered from where he was standing at the end of the display case.

"Alright." Ryou shifted so that he was sitting next to Harry. Yugi called forth a few shadows and sent them to play in front of Harry. He also pulled out his deck and called forth Mystical Elf. Once she was summoned, Yugi got her to start a soothing chant to help calm Harry down. Shuffling through his deck he also searched for Kuribo. Finding the card, Yugi also summoned forth the small monster. Once Kuribo saw Harry sitting against the wall he started going over, before stopping and checking with Yugi.

"Go on." Yugi waved the monster to the boy.

Kuribo drifted up to Harry and gently touched him on his head. Harry snapped his head up in shock at being touched.

With a gasp, Harry reached out a hand to pet the monster, who trilled in glee.

"Thank you, Yugi," Ryou said as he smiled over at the shorter man.

"I guess I should get Grandpa to bring down my English school books again. Atem and I should probably brush up on English, at least until Harry learns more Japanese," Yugi suggested and he nodded to Ryou before heading out of the room, leaving both monsters there for Harry. "Just come in when you are both ready."

It took Harry about thirty minutes to calm down enough to willingly join his welcome party. Mystical Elf disappeared as Ryou and Harry got up to move to the other room. Kuribo happily stayed with Harry, who was holding onto Ryou's hand as he was led into his party. Harry, while he understood that this is supposed to be a happy time, was too new nervous to really enjoy the situation. Secretly he hoped that they would leave soon.

HPYGOHPYGOHPYGOHPYGO

AN:

So I looked up information about where Domino City is supposedly located. It looked like the city was replacing Tokyo so I am moving it just a little so that there is Tokyo and then Domino City down along the coast. Also, describing a bento box is hard when the person describing it (Harry) doesn't know what the items are….

Narita Express – the shinkansen that runs from Ueno to Narita Airport or Tokyo (main/central station) to Narita Airport depending on where you get on.

Shinkansen – Japanese bullet train

Egyptian translations are brought to you via a Google searched site:

Itja – thief

Sa - son

Thanks for sticking around for this chapter and I hope you stick around longer. n_n

Reviews are greatly appreciated. So are kudos, favs, pms, bookmarks, and subscribes. Flames or negative reviews are fed to the plot bunnies to keep them multiplying (ie they help me with what I am missing). Please let me know if something doesn't make sense, it is how I know to add a scene with more info in it.