Yes, I am still alive. And I'm really sorry for not updating sooner, but trying to juggle exams and studying with writing doesn't really work-not if I don't want to fall asleep in the middle of classes the next day. Now its all over, and I can finally relax-and write. I've worked on this chapter in pieces when I snatched the time, and Ive finally gotten 'round to putting it up. Sorry about the wait.

'Seto...it is good that the people come to you and you see them, but you can lean on others a little more. Your workload is starting to strain you, we can all see it.'

He scowled back at her. 'I'm perfectly fine.'

Isis stepped towards him and lifted her hand to his face 'No you're not-'

She broke off abruptly when he grabbed her hand and held it away from him.

'Seto?' Her voice held a quaver in it they both heard.

Seto-or Kaiba-narrowed his eyes. 'And you? Something wrong?'

Despite her complexion, Isis blushed and yanked her hand away. 'It's not me we're talking about.'

Seto was amused to see she was flustered. 'No?' He raised an eyebrow, glad to be away from the topic of himself, for now.

'No. Seto, you know you can't push yourself forever. Sooner or later you'll collapse.'

He folded his arms. 'I pride myself on being able to push without collapsing.'

'Pride can be a bad thing more often than a good one.'

'Really? Then what do you suggest?' He stepped towards her, aiming to gain the advantage with his height, but the move-because of Isis' same shift before-put him torso to torso with her. He did have the height advantage, but had to take the consequence of the awareness of her body pressed against his addling his thoughts-at least that was how he saw it.

Seto saw her gulp and move to step back. He reached out to grasp her hand. 'Afraid of something?'

Isis froze in position, and slowly looked up to meet his ice blue eyes, taking the time as she did so to clear her eyes of any betraying emotions. 'Should I be?'

'Perhaps.' He lowered his head an inch and noted the flicker in her eyes of...fear? Worry? Desire? He couldn't be sure. 'Perhaps not. It depends.'

'On?' Seto was satisfied to hear she couldn't keep her voice entirely neutral.

'What you want.' He dipped his head to hers, indulging in a fantasy that had been playing on and off in his head since he met her, but more and more frequently lately.

He wasn't prepared for the emotions that assaulted him nor was he prepared for the sudden fervour he wanted her with. Maybe she sensed this, but after yielding to the kiss for only a moment, Isis broke and-foregoing any poise-ran. Seto made no move to stop her, her was too busy trying to reign in his feelings, regain composure, and determine the consequences of what he had just done all at once...

*

It wasn't the birds Ishizu heard first thing the next morning. It was the front door of the house slamming closed. That'll be the boys, she thought sleepily, rolling over and fully intending to go back to sleep. She found her body pressed up against someone else's as she turned over. Suddenly she was wide awake. Things wouldn't have looked so bad if she was in Kaiba's room; she could have wrenched her clothes back on and made a dash down the stairs with her brothers none the wiser. But there was no way to explain Kaiba's presence in her room, in her bed, without telling them the complete truth if they came up now or anytime soon.

But she could buy herself some more time to think.

Quick as a wink, she darted out of bed and over to her clothes that lay discarded on the floor. Kaiba muttered crossly and pulled himself up to look at her as she did so.

Ishizu tried desperately to get last night's events out of her head. She couldn't decide whether she was sorry for what happened, just plain embarrassed or neither. Her judgement was clouded by the euphoria she was for some reason feeling. Either way, putting it out of her mind wasn't going to work and she could feel her cheeks heat up as Kaiba watched her.

He rubbed a hand over his face as she dashed out of the room, and tried to order his dream and reality in his mind. Unfortunately, neither was a topic that could be easily ordered.

***

Ishizu tried desperately to smooth her wrinkled top, already regretting not taking the time to change into a clean, unwrinkled set. Her mind was racing as she tried to think up what to tell her brothers. One thing she could not do was lie outright-her face always betrayed her. Even a white lie she wasn't comfortable with. The best thing to do would just be to leave whole segments of events out-and not try to find some other explanation to fill the gaps. Her choices were her choices, just like her brothers' decisions were theirs, and they all tried not to interfere in that. But Ishizu wondered how her brothers would take it if they found out she'd slept with Kaiba. She cursed mentally as her cheeks heated up again. And they would not be pleased that she hadn't told them over the phone he had come.

Racing down the stairs, she saw Marik dragging a large travel bag inside. 'Hey sis'.' He grinned up at her.

Ishizu took a deep breath as she cleared the last few steps to the ground floor, and cleared her throat quietly. 'Hello. How bad was the damage?'

'Pretty bad. We're going back in a couple of hours. I just stopped back to get some extra clothes; we'll be gone for a few days. And to see if you wanted to come along.'

Ishizu frowned. 'Why didn't you just call me? I could've driven out with your things. It would have saved you a trip.'

'True, but...' He patted the bag he had lugged in, 'I wanted to get these somewhere safe. One of the tents with a whole the major part of the books and scrolls for this dig got hit. I don't know how much of it is here, but what is is completely muddled.'

'So you brought it back to me hoping I'd do the tedious work while you were outside?'

'Jeez Ishizu, where did that come from? They needed a safe place, and I wanted to see if you wanted to help out.'

Ishizu bit down on her tongue, obviously her current state of emotional turmoil extended to snapping at people. Doing her best not to scowl at herself and-for some reason-her brother, she shook her head. 'I'll take the books, but I can't come with you right now.'

'I thought so as soon as I saw the jet. Why is Kaiba here? Or did Mokuba learn to fly it and come over for a visit?'

Ishizu carefully checked her voice. 'Mokuba's still in Domino at school as far as I'm aware. Kaiba flew in last night.'

Marik's eyebrows snapped together. 'Before or after I called?'

Ishizu met his eyes squarely-relieved that she could. 'Before.'

'I...' He looked past her shoulder and gave a nod. 'Kaiba.'

Ishizu turned as he came down the stairs. 'Marik,' he replied shortly.

Ishizu knew there would be tension in the air at some point or another, whether it was with her and Kaiba or Kaiba and Marik, she didn't know. But she didn't expect it now, when so little had been said. She couldn't even say where the unease came from. Me, Ishizu realised suddenly, and shook herself mentally, it's just me.

'Kaiba came to...' She trailed off, glancing over at him. 'It's not my story to tell.'

'I came to pick your sister's brain on ancient Egypt, as she so kindly put it when I arrived.'

'Uh oh, interrupted her work did you? She gets cranky when that happens.'

'I'm not sure.' He glanced at Ishizu, frowning a little because she had exactly the same reaction to him when he was interrupted.

'Suppose doesn't matter. Why are you here Kaiba? I thought you wanted nothing to do with us ever again.'

'I didn't. Circumstances changed. '

'Uh huh.'

Ishizu rolled her eyes as Kaiba danced around the topic. Kaiba dancing-that was a thought, she felt the corner of her mouth twitch. 'I'll let you boys chat and take hours to get the story out of each other, I'm gonna look through those scrolls.'

'Heavier than it looks,' Marik warned.

Ishizu's eyes widened as she tried the bag. She scowled, then decided to kill her shoulders and back to get it up the stairs and to get her some breathing room.

What's wrong with me? Ishizu thought as she slumped into her work chair after dumping the bag of books and locking the door. Oh gods, I'm so embarrassed. Why? Ishizu wondered suddenly. It's not like it's a crime to sleep with a man but...me... Ishizu rubbed her eyes, hard. She jumped when a knock came on the door.

'Who is it?' She called out warily.

'Me, come on sis', let me in.'

Ishizu breathed out in relief at the sound of her brother's voice. Slowly, taking the time to compose herself, she opened the door for him. 'Something wrong?'

'Are you okay about being alone in the house with Kaiba?' He scanned her face anxiously. 'I can stay.'

'Marik, don't worry. What's Kaiba likely to pull?' More like what am I likely to pull? 'I'll be fine. Besides, he's so cold to everyone but his brother,' he wasn't cold at all last night, 'We're unlikely to do more than exchange the occasional word until we find a lead to answer what he came for.' As long as we can both keep a leash on our desires, feelings or whatever they are. 'Did he tell you why he came?'

Marik shook his head. 'But if you don't think it's anything dangerous, I'll leave it up to him to tell me eventually or not.'

'That's fitting, and no, it's nothing dangerous. How long will you be gone?'

'I was gonna say a week, but with Kaiba here-'

'Marik...' Ishizu's voice dropped dangerously.

'Okay, we'll compromise. Five days.'

'Marik!'

'No more, but I'm okay with less.' When she just scowled at him, he sighed. 'Didn't think you would be. I'm gonna go pack, I won't be long. If he's gone in the next few days, come over to the camp.'

'I will.' Ishizu went up on tip-toes to kiss her brother's forehead. 'You be careful too.' She told him, knowing he would tell her the same thing if she gave him the chance.

'Yes mum.'

Ishizu chuckled. 'Don't forget to drink plenty.'

'As you're always reminding me. I will, I will, and I'll remind Odion. Happy?'

She simply smiled and dragged the bag of books over to her desk to have a look at. Marik left, and she began to sort. None of it was really new. Some documents she'd never seen before, but the content was practically the same as other texts she'd studied. Glad to have some structure back in her life, she sorted through them until Marik left half an hour later.

'I'm surprised you didn't go with him.'

Ishizu glanced over at Kaiba after she came inside from waving her brother off. 'Why?'

'I'd have thought you'd have wanted to avoid me.'

'You came here for my help. The journey seems pretty pointless if I leave and my brothers aren't here to help you either.'

'I could always go and come back.'

'Would you have?' Ishizu eyed him sceptically.

'Perhaps, if the dreams still persisted.'

Ishizu nodded. 'I'm going to make breakfast.' If it hadn't been for last night she wouldn't have bothered; she would have just told him to get his own bread-she was sure he could manage that without burning the kitchen down. All she wanted to do was buy some time, especially to think.

Kaiba snagged her elbow. 'Let me ask you something.' Her eyes narrowed. 'Are you trying to avoid me; first ducking away when I came down and now again?'

She could have said no, but it would have been a lie. She could have said yes, but that would have hurt her pride. She settled for; 'Maybe,' and jerked her arm out of his grip.

He wondered if he should tell her about his dream, but... to heck with it, he thought, he hadn't been acting normal or sane since he arrived the previous night, might as well put all the cards on the table, get the answers and leave, before he found anything to tie him to staying longer. He didn't know why he would; with any other girl he wouldn't have seen or been bound by any strings attached. But Ishizu wasn't any other girl, and because of it, Kaiba didn't want to think of the implications or consequences last night's affair would have. 'When you're done, I need to talk with you.'

Here it comes... Ishizu thought.

'I had some developments on the dreams.'

Oh! '...Okay.' Ishizu didn't know what else to say so she gave a nod and quickly made a beeline for the kitchen, leaving Kaiba staring after her with more than just confusion and frustration over his dreams plaguing him.

Tell me what you think. (Review!!)

And this time there won't be a five week break between chapters.