I shouldn't have been surprised at Atemu's actions and yet here I laid on the bed, frozen in disbelief and whimpering softly. Looking up, I found that the Pharaoh was leering at me, strong hands kneading my breasts as though they were made of dough that he were going to bake into bread. I closed my eyes and whined, covering my eyes so that I wouldn't have to see that face he was making at me, that smug smirk that sent shivers up my spine. Sharp, panicky gasps escaped me, both from the pressure with which Atemu was squeezing my chest and the shock of being subjected to this.

A few moments earlier, I had been eating a delicious breakfast for the first time in years while Atemu informed me that I would no longer have to report to his room every day for menial duties and my work would instead be spread out to only when he explicitly requested it. I had been ecstatic, but now it occurred to me as I felt the light moisture of lips wrapping around my nipple, that this meant I could have no idea what to expect anymore. For all it meant, Atemu could order me to spend hours with him in the bedroom or the whole day! I couldn't tell if the shudder that overtook me then was due to that thought or the sudden feeling of short nails digging into my skin as Atemu jostled my tits further.

It wasn't as though Atemu didn't have the option to do this before. He was the Pharaoh after all, but despite all of the power he had, Atemu had never been known to be abusive of it, respecting everyone who respected him. It was one of the reasons why the kingdom was shaping up to be a better place to live every day. Criminals were prosecuted swiftly and given fair punishment while taxes managed to remain relatively flexible, that is, it would never force a family to go hungry. If it wasn't for his cheeky charm in my company, he would remind me of my own regal mother.

I had cried deeply for my mother when I had lost her. Our time together had been brief, but blissful. She had passed on just before the tension between this kingdom and my own had reached its peak. I often wondered if it was the stress of losing his wife that forced my father's chaotic string of foolish decisions that eventually led to my capture. It wouldn't have been surprising, my mother was truly a great woman.

I had always admired her graceful qualities and had attempted to emulate her whenever I could. Of course, despite my efforts to maintain an air of calm and serenity it was so hard considering the situations I was forced into. I was fairly certain that my dear mother would have never been able to imagine her daughter in this position, essentially a concubine for a kingdom that had once warred against my own.

Thinking about everything, my breathing came faster as my life raced through my mind and Atemu squeezed my breasts together. I thought about my mother, dead now, unable to ease to my suffering. I thought about my father, also far away from my reach, cursing himself for his fatal mistakes. At last, I thought about myself, head spinning, chest tingling and stomach heaving.

"Stop it." I said softly, raising shaky hands slowly. "Stop!" I said again, my voice stronger this time, and my hands grabbing at Atemu's wrists, desperately wanting those grabby fingers off of me. My fingers tightened around his wrists, willing to hold them away as long as I could if I could find the strength to do so. "Stop it! STOP!" I cried.

Atemu looked at me for a brief moment and I returned his gaze. Staring at my reflection in his eyes, I could see the fear etched into my face. A haunted look, as though I had seen the affairs that would proceed upon my death. I was looking into the Pharaoh's eyes again. This had to stop before it became a habit. It would be terrible if anyone else caught me doing this. Atemu may have developed a tolerance for my insolence, maybe even be apathetic to it, but I was certain that if Seth were to spy me peering at Atemu with such intensity, I would have been spat on.

To my surprise, I felt Atemu's grip on my chest loosen up considerably, and before I knew it, he had released my breasts. No longer supported, they slid back, nestling to the side and seeming smaller. He watched me carefully, no longer smiling, but not frowning either. It was a look that Atemu held often. One of sheer curiosity. Looking aside, I flushed and let go of Atemu in turn, as though his skin had suddenly turned too hot for me to old. "T-Thank you." I said meekly, tearing my gaze down and frowning.

Atemu nodded. For a fleeting moment, I felt a coil of guilt start to tighten and wind up inside of me for being so sharp with him, especially after he had been so kind to me. I was angry that I had to be here in the first place, in this bed, and being expected to constantly react with the utmost gratitude for being given basic human rights.

"Why do you act as if I intend to hurt you?" asked Atemu gently. My fingers curled, the sheets bunching up where I pulled them. I refused to look up, but in doing so I was only overcome with even more shame. This was unbearable, having to constantly battle myself over the simplest of things.

"I don't want to be here." I said quietly, pulling myself to sit up. As the words escaped me, I realized that this made it sound as though I really had made an attempt on my own life when my room had been set on fire beforehand in my attempts to pray to the Gods for a companion. Even so, I kept chattering, unable to stop myself. "I don't want to wear dirty clothes and live in a tiny, cold room with a nasty old bed. I don't want people to look at me like I'm covered with mud, or talk to me like I'm a monster! I don't want any of it!"

My eyes filled with tears and my voice cracked as I felt a pang in my chest that had nothing to do with my breasts. I felt the pain below the flesh, below the bone, in my heart. I put my hands on my cheeks, hating the wetness I felt. "What I want is... I want…I want my mommy!" I was so ashamed for acting like a child, shaking and weeping for having everything I didn't want and nothing that I did. Atemu had already addressed most of these issues downstairs, complaining to Solomon about how horribly I was treated, but he didn't know that I had listened in on their conversation. Even though I had heard those kind words, I still felt terrible and disgusting, as though he had only said those things to impress Solomon.

I felt foolish for reiterating everything he already knew, but perhaps I thought that telling it outright would make it all better. It would be as if voicing my concerns would suddenly poof, have my mom rise from a tomb, poof, have my wonderful dresses returned to me, poof have servants at my disposal for a change, telling me how wonderful I was. Atemu pulled me into a tight and warm embrace.

"I'm sorry." Said Atemu, squeezing my close. "I know. I despise the way you've been treated as of late. If I were in your position, I might have attempted to run away, or worse, resorted to flat out violence. I admire you." Pulling back, he lifted my chin up so that I could look at him. At his face. Into his eyes. He smiled at me.

"Things are going to get better." He cooed. "I'm going to look over you, make sure no on bullies you- you'll have nice clothes, a better bed! In fact, I'll have the designers completely refurnish your room. Don't fret Ryou, it's going to be different…"

Being told all of this directly was so overwhelming, my body trembled at the prospect. Before I even knew what to do, the coil of guilt that had tightened in my belly sprang up and released.

"I'm sorry for yelling at you!" I yelled, startling Atemu for a moment before he smiled.

"It's alright." He said soothingly. "I like you, Ryou."

My face burned hotter. "I was scared, it wasn't your fault." I rambled, tongue moving miles before mind could catch up. "It's not that I was hurting, even though I was, but here." I said, placing an open palm on my left breast and pressing it down. Atemu raised an eyebrow. "Not here!" I insisted, "Here, Here, my heart. I thought about my momma, daddy and me. You see? I-"

My mouth felt significantly warmer than it normally was. To my astonishment, the prime reason for this was because of Atemu's firm grasp on my mouth with his own, lips still sticky from the syrup at breakfast. Out of instinct, my tongue sought out this sweetness, lapping it up and leaning forward, closing my eyes. Atemu and I had kissed often in our time together, due to the consequences of our relationship, but this was the first time it had the feeling of…I had no words to describe it.

This wasn't awkward or stilted, nothing routine. I had no idea why, but it felt as though I suddenly had the skill of a prostitute. My tongue slid so easily, my teeth not even an issue as our mouths melded. At last, Atemu held my face and pulled himself away, brushing the hair away from my face. He seemed happy. Mirroring his joy, I returned a smile and blushed softly. Suddenly, my breathing faltered and I shuddered when I felt Atemu's hands cupping my breasts again.

"They're very lovely." He said endearingly. I felt Atemu's cheek press against mine as he kissed my neck. "And they're all mine."

"Excuse me." I said in an almost arrogant protest. "But they belong to me!" Placing my hands on top of his I didn't pull them away but instead lingered, feeling the coolness of his skin. Atemu laughed sly, pulling his hands away and nodding, only smiling at me, his eyes occasionally glancing down at my chest.

"You only possess them." He said, holding my chin and giving me a kiss on the cheek. Suddenly he gasped as though he had suddenly remembered something. "I have just the thing for you… a token. So that you can be sure of the change your life is going to take."

His words made me curious and so I leaned forward to find Atemu was shuffling through some fabric in the dresser beside the bed and finally pulled out a long robe with golden thread at the seams. He smiled at me. "This was something made for me a few years ago, but it just was never my taste, I feel it would look nice on you however provided it might be rather tight in the chest..." he chuckled at my pout and spread the bottom of the robe open. "Let's see..." he said.

I shifted in the bed and lifted up my arms so that Atemu could dress me feeling an odd sense of satisfaction within me at this gracious yet brief act of servitude. As Atemu had suspected, it really was tight around my breasts, which stretched the fabric. Still, it wasn't so constricting as to disrupt my breathing, in fact, I appreciated the snugness.

The slight downside was the fact that because my greedy tits occupied much of the cloth, the consequence was leaving the bottom half of my rear exposed. I reached to lower it and found that now I was revealing an overwhelming amount of cleavage. I sighed, familiar with the struggle. First, clothes that were simply ugly and disgusting, now I had been upgraded to ones that did not fit properly.

Atemu didn't seem as dismayed as I was. He offered an excited grin. Touching my shoulder, "Better, isn't it?" He said.

Before I could respond, Atemu and I were both startled by a sudden knocking at the door. Atemu wheeled around with a scowl, evidently a little disgruntled that he had been interrupted. I blinked at the sudden change of emotions, perhaps a little frightened.

"Yes!" He called, his hand still rubbing my arm. "What is it?"

"It's the prisoner, my Pharaoh! She's being brought into the town at this moment!" called the messenger woman.

Atemu stopped rubbing my arm, looking utterly confused. He turned around, staring at the door. "Prisoner? What Prisoner? "

"The Prisoner of the raid on the Tarloh Kingdom, my Pharaoh!"

"WHAT?!"

The force of the Pharaoh's rage made my stomach knot up. He raced off the bed and threw the door open, staring at the messenger woman. "I never approved of such a thing! I WOULD never!"

I leaned forward and craned my neck to see the scene. The messenger woman was visibly trembling, obviously terrified that she had to be the bearer of such unpleasant news.

"With all due respect, my Pharaoh." She said weakly, uncertainty etched into her features. "A raid was enforced last night under the guise of your command... they're bringing a woman with them to try her for the crime of impersonation."

Atemu seemed either oblivious to her fear or apathetic. "Why is it any of our business? Crimes committed in a kingdom should be prosecuted in their own kingdom. Whoever officiated this attack had absolutely no right!"

The messenger woman swallowed, looking down at the floor. "My Pharaoh…" she said. "The crime the woman is being tried for is impersonating YOU. Under the name…"

"Atema."

Atemu turned to look at me at the messenger woman looked startled. Blinking, I wondered why she was staring at me so intently, her eyes wide, as if she held even more fear for me than she did for the Pharaoh. I furrowed my brow and frowned. She clasped her hands together, interlocking her fingers. Atemu glanced at her briefly at looked back at me, intrigue shining in his eyes.

The messenger woman lowered her hands down and stared at me, finally asking me the question that made me shiver.

"How did you know her name?"

Suspense! That was a fun chapter, (Certainly took long enough as well.) So, if you like this story don't forget to favorite, follow and best of all, Share with your friends.

Time for a few questions for reviewers! Please answer as many or as little as you like!

1. Do you think Atemu and Ryou are in love? Or is it one sided?

2. How did Ryou know Yugi's nickname?

3. Are the updates taking too long? Are they worth it?

I'm sorry this story updates once in a blue moon. Believe me, this is my treasure and I'm always thinking about it!