Hello! Okay, there has been some confusion about how pregnant Anzu is. She is currently at the beginning of her seventh month. And as usual, I own nothing.

Revenge

Chapter 10 - Month 7

Trailing along the ground, the edges of a black trench coat became dusted with the sand of the tomb. The sand had stopped being pretty years ago. The particles had lost their light golden hues from years of bodily filth and garbage tossed aside carelessly, thus resulting in a darker shade of gold almost on the edge of being brown. A few rocks that had been overlooked jutted up from the ground and caused pills and tears to the man's aged coat. The man who wore the coat continued unhindered. It was merely an article of clothing to protect his flesh from the heat of the day and cold of the night. His snowy shock of hair had been pulled up into a ponytail and he face was shaved clean. The duffle bag hanging from his shoulder was lumpy and only held a slight weight as it was packed in haste. Bakura stopped outside the door to his reincarnated love. The guards entered him into their documents and allowed him access for what would be his final time with the girl.

The girl occupying his thoughts glanced up from her usual spot at the table. A clock sat before her along with a champagne glass of sparkling grape juice. The condensation had long since evaporated from the glass; it suggested that the drink had been set out hours ago and had possibly lost its fizz. Anzu smiled at him as she reached up to tuck strands of hair behind her ear. The past few months, the girl had been wearing her hair back in buns or pony tails to save her the gross act of cleaning vomit out of it. Tonight, it was down and he realized for the first time just how long it had grown. It brushed the tops of her breasts and her bangs swept against her shoulders.

She noticed his stare and tugged softly on the locks. "The last time my hair was this long, I was five years old. Momma had to cut if because I got head lice." Her nose wrinkled in disgust at the memory. "After that, I guess it was just easier to deal with short hair." The princess shrugged and continued. "They won't let me cut it. Something about princesses should have long hair. Lapis said she would do it, but Kesi refuses to let her. Doctor and Council's orders."

Bakura remained silent for two reasons. One, he knew exactly why Kesi made up that order. Nobody here really cared if her hair was short or not. Kesi simply took her orders from another source. Two, Anzu was actually talking to him after their fight last week. Bakura dropped his duffle and sat across from her. "I don't suppose you have any actual New Year's drinks?"

Anzu shook her head. "Nope. Got plenty of juice, though." She noticed him eye her drink again and explained. "I can't have the fizz. Bad for the baby and well…other issues with being pregnant. They didn't even want me to have juice. But, since it's the holidays, they let up."

"Anzu, there's something I have to tell you."

The princess nodded and glanced down. "Me too."

Bakura licked his lips, nervousness flooding his core. "I think this is more important, Anzu."

She peered back up at him. "It probably is. Mine is…a silly wish."

Bakura reached out and placed a hand over one of hers; his fingers protruded from the oversized coat sleeve. Swallowing back the urge to say some sickly sweet remark about how nothing she could ever wish for would be silly or how she deserved anything she wished, the thief spoke the words he knew would shatter her remaining hope. "I'm leaving."

The hurt flashed in her eyes before it was replaced with anger. "Fine. Men are all the same. See if I care."

Ah, the joy of pregnancy hormones. "Anzu, I'm leaving to find Atem. He is close to finding Anubis and I am being sent to assist him."

A smile broke out across her face. "Then, he'll be here in time for her birth?"

Bakura grinned, his canines showing. "He will. I will personally make sure he sees that baby."

Anzu flipped her hand so that she could hold his fingers. "I'm so sorry, Bakura. We treated you kinda poorly back in the day. You're actually a really great person." Another one of those happy smiles.

He swallowed thickly. "I deserved it. Still do, actually. Never quite made up for all of my sins."

"You have, Bakura. You may have been ordered to help Atem and me. And Zorc may have possessed and lied to you. But, I've seen who you really are. You're caring and charming. You had the guts to stand up against the Underground. You told me the information I needed to know." She squeezed his hand. "You are a great friend and I wouldn't change anything about our time together."

Silence was all he offered. She had said similar words when he had first spent time with her. And he had disagreed thinking she was just saying those sappy words to brown nose him. After spending almost seven months with her, he now realized how thick he had been. She was being honest then and now.

"I don't deserve you or your words, love." He said, pulling his hand away.

"And that's why you do, Bakura." She smirked. "I'm gonna tell you every day for the rest of my life if that's how long it takes you to believe it. You are special and important to me. And I really, really care about you."

He snorted. "More than Atem? You know, your bloke and your baby's dad."

Pursing her lips, she raised her brows at him. "There a different ways to care and love for people. Atem could die but I'm pretty sure I could go on. You could die and I would mourn, but go on. But my baby," she shook her head as if banishing dark thoughts. "Let's not go there."

"You think of love in terms of how you would mourn a person's death? Where did you come up with that gory scale?" Was she a closet goth like Yugi?

"Well, it kinda has to do with how I prepared myself for Atem's possible death back during the Zorc and duel things. I knew that Atem truly belonged in the After Life and as much as I loved him, I couldn't torture him by forcing him to stay. And you belong there, too, technically. It would be selfish for me to ask you or Atem to stay."

"Atem made you think this way." He stated in summary. That bloody idiot! Had he no clue what he had done to her? "Have you told him?"

"No. The topic's never come up." She twirled a piece of her hair. "I mean, I guess if one of us were dying it would come up. Or Yugi. I've thought about that, too."

Bakura had been there, of course. He saw the duel between Atem and Yugi. He saw the play of emotions across her face. He had seen the resolve she had spoken of and the heartbreak she had endured as her friends pushed her aside repeatedly. "You choose Yugi. You knew if Atem wouldn't live, you would eventually end up with Yugi."

"He's my best friend, Bakura. I knew he would suffer so much if Atem died. I knew that we would suffer longer than Honda or Jou or Kaiba. I figured we'd spend a lot of time together, you know? And eventually it would lead to him asking if I really cared about him and I would have to give him an answer." He saw her throat strain to hold back emotions as her eyes became wet. "Atem wouldn't want us to mourn him forever. He would want us to move on and he always wanted us to be together," she chuckled darkly. "Guess it makes sense now. He somehow must have known I was Tèana and since Yugi was his reincarnation…" She trailed off and looked down at her clock. "Doesn't matter, anymore. Yugi's got Rebecca and I've got Atem. Sorta. Anyway! It's almost midnight." She clapped her hands and smiled up at him. "I don't suppose you could help me with my wish?"

He was taken aback by her mood swing. Was that her natural temperament or the hormones? "I, uh, what is it?"

"I want to see the sunrise. I can't go to a church or temple and there are no fireworks here. Might as well go back to the old way of ringing in the New Year."

"The sunrise?" The request would be nothing back in Japan or even America. Under normal circumstances, she could easily see the sun. "When is the last time you saw the sun?"

Anzu pondered the question for a moment. "The sun was out when we arrived in Egypt, but I didn't think it would be the last time I would see it. It was just a sun then. I wished it would go away because it was so hot and I was sweating. I guess that was six or seven months ago?"

Could humans live without the sun? He was immortal and found himself forgetting what it was like to live inside of Ryo. There were weeks when he didn't sleep or eat. For the first time, he noticed how pale she had gotten, how limp her hair had gotten. "Anzu…"

"They give me pills, you know? It's mostly a bunch of prenatal vitamins, but Kesi and Rehema started giving me vitamin C, D, and E when my body began to react negatively to not having the real sun." She pulled at her hair. "Pills aren't the same, though. I'm a mess."

Bakura knew no one would take her. No one would ever let her out of this cursed room. Not even Ishizu or Marik. And they knew what evils could infect a person's mind being locked in these tombs. "When does the sun rise?"

Anzu shrugged. "I guess about six or seven."

He was supposed to leave at eight in the morning. No matter, a little shadow magic never hurt anyone. "We'll have to be quick. If we leave now and wait six hours, we'll get caught. After midnight strikes, get some sleep and I'll wake you up. You'll have your sun."

"But, how?" Her brows went together. "The guards. And there are people everywhere."

"Love, I'm a tomb robber. I can walk through walls."

XXX

Midnight had come and gone over five hours ago. Anzu had drunk her juice and lay down. Bakura sat next to her on the bed; his fingers running through her hair and trailing up and down her arm. When 5:30 came Bakura knew it was time to move out. Holding the girl in his arms, he ghosted through the walls. His powers were not meant to be used frivolously and if Ishizu found out, he would be stuck in these wretched tombs for another six months.

Ishizu was the only one in the Underground who knew he still had the powers of Zorc.

Arriving in a black mist, he observed his surroundings. Atem's pyramid was under his feet and it took quit some maneuvering to find a place that had been corroded away enough to offer a flat sitting area. Bakura sat on the rocky surface, his coat protecting his bum from the worst of the pointy ends.

He sat with Anzu on his lap; his arms held her snuggly so she wouldn't fall or freeze. When the first of the dawns rays peak over the tops of the sand mounds and mountains across the horizon, he nudged her gently. "Anzu, wake up."

The movements of the past thirty minutes or so hand been slowly dragging her from sleep. A moment passed before she opened her eyes fully and realized where they were. Wiggling to see the sun better, she grinned. "You didn't wake me up, idiot." Blinking, she realized how high they were. How close the sky was. His arms tightened around her carefully as she craned her head to look downwards. He was ever thoughtful of the baby inside her as well as her own safety. "We're at Atem's tomb." It was amazing that she could tell since they were so high up and the sands of Egypt looked the same anyway you looked. Anzu didn't know how she knew. She just figured it was her connection to the place. That somewhere below where she and Bakura sat, Atem's real mummified body was withering away.

Disgusted with the way her thoughts were going and knowing Bakura would be mad if she barfed on him, she turned back to the rising sun. Already, the temperature was turning steamy and hot. The calm purple of the night sky was bleeding to an angry red of day.

"Bakura…" Her soft voice carried in the stillness of the forgotten land. "Will I see you after she's born and things go back to normal?" He was silent. Anzu had dealt with Atem's silence's enough to know the thief was overthinking the matter. She scooted in his arms so she could face him more comfortably. "I wanna see you." She said. "I wasn't lying about what I said earlier. I really do care about you."

He glanced away from her probing eyes. His chocolate gaze reflected the sunlight causing him to squint ever so slightly. When he still didn't answer her, she went on. "When you see Atem, I want you to tell him something."

He peered down at her through his snowy fringe. "What?"

"Tell him we need to talk."

And then she kissed him.

Her tiny hands buried into his thick hair and caused locks to slip from rubber band he had used. When he didn't fully kiss her back, she pulled him closer to encourage him. It had been centuries since he had kissed a woman. The basics came back to him as easily as breathing when he felt her pressed against him. His lips caressed hers and his teeth gnawed on her delicate lips. The little mew she let out sent blood straight to his penis. And that mixed with a kick from the baby caused him to push her away.

The hurt in her eyes was not lost on him. But how could he lay with her…when she carried his rival's child?