Disclaimer: I do not own YuGiOh.

Well, I'm glad the first chapter was exciting enough to make you review. There are pairings in this fic, I suppose they'll surface in a few chapters or so… Just finished with guard camp. This week will be devoted mostly to fanfics.

Summary: When Marik begins stalking Téa and ruining her life, Ryou Bakura offers up his home. He wants her safe at any cost, but Ryou is continuously plagued with illnesses. Téa finds herself left with only Yami Bakura for protection, but the tomb robber is far from anyone's savior. As Marik's attacks grow worse, Téa finds that not everything is as it seems...

Sanctuary

By: Chi Yagami

Well, Téa had wanted her friends to notice her. She supposed the saying 'be careful what you wish for' was applicable here. She had certainly stolen Yugi's center stage spotlight now. Her friends had practically become her shadows! Serenity and Mai called every ten minutes; Joey, Tristan, and Duke were now fighting about which one got to be her bodyguard (but only because the former was trying to stop the latter two, who were only interested in impressing Serenity, not actually in protecting Téa); Yugi kept popping up in random places, trying to cheer her up; and Yami was always on her heels, didn't he have a life! He had even followed her into the bathroom once! Egyptian creep.

They had all been tailing Téa ever since the attack on her locker. She had to admit it was pretty scary. Who would have a grudge against her?

... ... ...

Oh, Téa guessed there could be tons of people out to get her for those friendship speeches she had given years ago. Or enemies of Yugi's looking for what they suspected was a weak target. Maybe some thugs had wanted to randomly vandalize some school property and just happened to pick her locker.

So of course the school newspaper had swarmed all over the place as soon as she had opened the metal door. Téa had been asked dozens of questions and such, and her locker and the floor around it (still bearing the word DIE) were currently roped and taped off for examination by the NPA. Luckily for Téa, Ryou managed to get her out of there before she was eaten alive by real news reporters. Thank god for Ryou.

Yugi and Yami at once had suspected it to be some long-forgotten enemy of theirs, and Joey thought it was Kaiba… Tristan guessed it was probably just some kid who was jealous or something. Téa didn't really care. She was currently looking at her new schoolbooks (the old ones were still in the bloody locker, yet to be cleaned). So her friends had all of the sudden started to care about her. It was like she had appeared out of nowhere to them. Téa bet they thought she was some kind of damsel in distress; maybe she was, but she wasn't about to let it get to her. She had been through worse before.

Today, she and Serenity (and Yami, no doubt; he was sticking to her like glue these days) were going rollerblading in the park. Serenity claimed she wanted to hang out, but Téa knew it was an unlikely story to cover up about the girl worrying over the locker incident. So Téa was currently sitting on her bed, glancing at her desk piled with new textbooks.

Her room was hardly what anyone would call a room. It was actually an attic, but it felt more like a tower, or, at least, Téa liked to think so. She lived in a neighborhood of mismatched houses and apartments; her family's house was smack dab in the middle, right next to the neighborhood pool. She didn't like the fading yellow color of the wood or the flapping, broken blue shutters (her parents were rarely around to care about fixing the woodwork), but the tower at the top was her sanctuary. After the second story, a small attic cropped up; a perfect room for an abnormal teenage girl like her. There was an old window, complete with a window seat, looking out over the sprawling lawn (the lawn guy came by to mow it every two weeks, but he had forgotten this week), and just enough room for a bed, wardrobe, desk, and trunk. Her bed was large and Western-styled, with a pretty headboard.

However, Téa's friends knew nothing of this. Last year, her family had moved out of their spacious home and into a temporary apartment; that had been around the time her friends stopped coming over to her house. Everybody hung out at the Game Shop from then on. About six months later, the Gardners had moved here, into this small broken-down home. So, her friends didn't even know Téa didn't live at the apartment anymore. They'd never even been to the apartment, and they probably wouldn't even know which complex to look for. Only Ryou knew where Téa actually lived... because he was the only one who had ever bothered to ask.

Glancing at the clock, Téa decided it was time to slap on the roller blades and head out. Her skates were two years old and barely fit, but she'd wear them for Serenity. She locked her front door and skated left, towards the main street. It would take about fifteen minutes to get to the arcade from her house. The two girls were supposed to meet up at the arcade; Serenity would be finishing her shift in about twenty minutes. After school jobs had been forbidden up until recently, so Serenity was lucky not to have to work in secret. Téa shook her head as she thought back to her own days at Burger World. She skated out of the quiet residence and headed uptown. She was starting to have second thoughts…

"Maybe I should've told her I was busy with—"

She abruptly stopped skating. What the... Was that Bakura? Across the street, in an empty lot, Téa thought she had just seen Yami Bakura loitering around and looking suspicious. But now he was gone! Where did he go? He was right there! Ugh. Evil albino, she thought, he could learn a thing or two from his better half.

The arcade was full on this Saturday afternoon, and Serenity was looking worn out at the food counter. Every little plastic table was jammed with teens, food, and extra (some mismatched) chairs; the games were all taken over by college guys and their love-struck—

"YOU BIG LOSER! HOW COULD YOU LOSE AT BEEBALL? IT'S THE EASIEST GAME IN THIS PLACE! I WANT A REAL CHALLENGE! WE'RE THROUGH!"

—or impatient ex, girlfriends. A busboy pointed to Téa's blades and shook his head to say, those aren't allowed in here. As if she cared; it wasn't like she was tracking mud. Téa saw Serenity wave her over to the food court, saying she would be done in a few. Téa didn't mind waiting, but that one employee was still glaring at her skates, so she wished Serenity would hurry up. She sighed and glanced over at the DDR machine; Téa missed dancing like that a lot. Sometimes she would dance around the house, but that was it aside from ballet. She almost regretted not taking Ryou's offer the other day. She hadn't even been able to do ballet the past two months with all of the schoolwork she had been swamped with leading up to graduation. Thankfully she was taking a short review class before her audition this summer for— Hey… she recognized that voice!

"Come on, you told me you'd spend today with me," Mokuba was begging to his older brother. "Seto, you promised!"

Hmm, sounded like her parents weren't the only ones breaking their word. Although, this was Kaiba, and such behavior should probably be expected from a greedy, no-fun, cheating weasel like him. However, Téa adored Mokuba, and ever since they had rescued each other from Marik's Rare Hunters back in Battle City, she had been on good terms with the boy.

"Kaiba! Mokuba! So good to see you!" she called out with a wave. Maybe she had been too friendly and sweet about it, because Kaiba looked like he had swallowed one too many marshmallows.

"Gardner," he spat. Téa rolled her eyes, same old Kaiba attitude. Mokuba grinned at her, but the look on Kaiba's face made her unsure whether to smile back or simply stare.

"Gardner, what are you doing here?"

This was the arcade. Who WASN'T here?

"Whatever I feel like doing, Kaiba," she replied, putting the same disgusted emphasis on his name. "Not that's it's any of your business what I do."

"It is if it involves you dancing on the table tops of the arcade," he said coldly. "I suggest you keep your night job hidden, and not in the eyes of children like Mokuba."

Out of the corner of her eye, Téa saw Mokuba shooting his brother the stink-eye, but she knew he wouldn't actually say anything. As they walked away, she threw Kaiba a dirty gesture, but she had to drop it when she noticed Serenity rushing over.

"Téa, I can't believe he said that you!" she said astounded. "Why didn't you do anything?"

She obviously hadn't seen the hand motion. Téa sighed. "He's not worth it."

Serenity shrugged and collected her stuff: a purse, clothes bag, and rollerskates. The two brunettes left the game center and crossed the street. Side by side, they dragged on the wordless conversation as they neared the park. Serenity parked herself on a bench to put on her skates, and Téa gazed around. Her eyes rested on the jungle gym.

EEP! Bakura!

He was sitting at the top of one of those half-spheres made of metal bars that kids liked to climb on. His eyes were closed and he was sitting Indian-style, deep in thought.

Was he... MEDITATING?

Taking advantage of Serenity's stubborn skate buckles, Téa swooshed on over to the playground. She stopped at the foot of the… circular bar thingy… and stared up at the tomb robber.

"What are you doing?"

He all but fell off the construction. Glaring down at her as if she was less than second-rate, he rearranged himself so that he could see her properly. God, she hated those eyes.

"I should be asking you the same question," he sneered. Ugh, why had she even talked to him to begin with?

"Well maybe you should, but you didn't!" she snapped back, her hands on her hips. She saw him eyeing her skates. Téa wondered if he even knew how to rollerblade… She tried to imagine it, but it was so ridiculous that she laughed aloud. Bakura stared at her like she had just thrown a bottle of poison in his direction. Ha, she wished; she would love to poison him and countless others, including Kaiba and Marik… which reminded her…

"You aren't part of some scheme with Marik to collect all of the Items and take over the world, are you?"

...

He really needed to get a good grip on those bars or next time he would fall. Bakura had a strange look on his face that she had never seen before. Was he actually confused? The great tomb robber was confused!

"What… what did you just say, mortal!"

Like he wasn't… Téa sighed. She was so tired of being called mortal, foolish girl, woman, pharaoh's lackey, etc etc etc. He needed to expand his vocabulary. Maybe Ryou could take him to the library sometime; it might be good for the ancient spirit.

"You heard me, you has-been." Did Téa really want to pick a fight with the King of Thieves? Her mouth seemed to think it was a good idea.

"You really shouldn't have said that," Bakura threatened, jumping down from the bars. Landing a few feet in front of Téa, he sent her the death glare of all death glares and made a slashing motion against his throat.

Shit, she was dead meat now…!

Skating like hell across the gravel, Téa glanced back. Bakura was close behind, about five feet away. She spotted the bench where Serenity was sitting— wait, now it was empty! Where had she gone? Téa needed help! There was an ancient murderous thief after her! Why wasn't anyone else around?

Her body collided with the hard gravel, Bakura right on top of her. That albino freak had pushed her! Although it appeared he couldn't stop in time and had fallen down on top of her. Gross! His hand was right next to her chest!

"You perverted creep!" Téa shrieked, trying to get up but struggling. He was incredibly heavy. "Hey, lay off the sweets, buddy."

She felt Bakura's eyes pierce holes into the back of her head at that comment. Maybe she shouldn't have said that…

¡ECK! (choke cough) Téa spat blood on the ground and began coughing heavily, which hurt since Bakura was still sitting on her back, looking smug after punching her in the neck. She twisted around to see Serenity skating over.

Téa wanted to call out the girl's name, but she found she lacked the voice to do it. Bakura suddenly looked worried, like he might have killed her or something. Oh god. What if he was the locker attacker! And now he was trying to kill her, just like the message! But then why was he mumbling about hoping she wasn't dead? He then turned into a blur, and as Téa heard a large smack, the huge weight was lifted off of her.

"Téa! Téa, are you okay!" Serenity asked tearfully, rushing to the other girl's side. "I saw him punch you! Well, he's scattered off to somewhere now, but don't worry; we'll get him back, I swear! Can you breath properly?"

Téa tried to shake her head, but a large pain shot through her body like a rocket. She crumpled back on the ground, useless. Her head rested in the pool of blood, and she attempted to focus on a bumblebee. There were flashes of black, and then—

. . .

Téa was SO killing Bakura when they released her from the hospital.

It turned out that he had almost broken her neck bone! If Serenity hadn't whacked him with her purse, he could have suffocated her. After she passed out, Serenity had called the police. Téa had been loaded into an ambulance and shipped off to the hospital like a box of mince pies. And now a day later, she found herself lying in an uncomfortable bed, with a neck brace the size of a TV, surrounded by her friends. It felt as if she had joined a soap opera.

"Téa," Yami said as he sat next to her and took her hand in his, "tell me everything."

"Fine," she replied with a hint of annoyance, trying and failing to pull her hand out of his. "I woke up, took a shower, ate breakfast, left the premises, headed towards the arcade, thought I saw Bakura on the way—"

"Oh really… I bet he followed you," Yami scoffed, jumping to conclusions. As if he himself hadn't planned to follow her… Téa was sure Yami had planned on coming to the park and watching her and Serenity skate around. She may have been mistaken when she thought he should get a hobby other than Duel Monsters…

"Suuure… Anyway, I thought I saw Bakura, went to the arcade, met up with Serenity, we went to the park, Serenity had trouble putting on her skates so I wandered, ran into Bakura, asked him if he planned to gather the Items and rule the world, provoked him, he jumped off the jungle gym and chased me, tackled me to the ground, punched me in the neck, I spat up some blood… and oh yeah, Kaiba called me a stripper." That last part came up randomly.

Yami's eyes practically bulged out of his head. "Kaiba called you a WHAT!"

"You asked Bakura if he's going to take over the world?" Yugi interrupted kindly. "Why did you bother speaking to him?"

"I dunno… because I was bored?"

She wished they would leave her alone… Ryou and Tristan were out looking for the evil spirit, and Mai had said she would drop by later. Téa wondered why Bakura hadn't just killed her right then and there. Maybe he had wanted to but then he had realized that everyone in the park would know he did it.

But still… She couldn't forget that look in Bakura's eyes, that look of fear. Had he been afraid that she might die? Why would he care? Ah, well Téa figured if Shadi really had threatened the tomb robber, he may have had regrets. However, her suspicions on Bakura being the locker crook hadn't been tucked away yet.

There was also the possibility it could be Marik, though it was slim; she had seen him at the hospital when the locker incident had happened, so there wasn't enough time for Marik to have done both. She couldn't believe how her life had flipped upside down so quickly. Her friends had suddenly returned to her side because someone was out to get her, Ryou had a spaz-attack, Bakura had attacked but hadn't killed, and Marik wanted to kiss her. This was so unbelievable!

And yet, somehow Téa couldn't stop thinking about that kiss.