Asenath stared and almost fell of her horizontal bar. "Uso!!" she gasped. ([No way! You lie!] Not to be confused with the one that starts with "k".) "That short kid with the really tall hair??"

Malik nodded. "That's right. It's him…or actually his Yami."

"Yami?"

"I'm sure you noticed the Sennen puzzle hanging around his neck. He has a Yami too…just like I used to."

"Used to?"

"Yeah. I'm not sorry he's gone." He glanced at her. "Are you sure you don't want to take off your jacket? I know the girls all wear shirts under them, and you look like you're gonna give yourself heatstroke."

"I'm fine, really."

"What's the matter with you? We both know you're about to catch fire or something."

"There are too many people around."

Malik glanced about the playground. "They left. There's nobody."

She followed his gaze just to make sure. "All right, then. I guess you'd find out anyways." Slowly, she undid the buttons and dropped the jacket to the ground. Malik's eyes widened. Running in vertical columns down both her now bare arms and standing out especially against the white of her tank top were lines of hieroglyphics. She frowned. "Yes, branded on when I was ten, just like the other marking I showed you. I know your pain, Malik…and maybe more so than Rishid. I have the directions to the Sennen items, and only the pharaoh and my husband may read them. You see, we were meant to go together."

Malik thought about this for a while. "Tell you what," he said finally. "I'll make you deal: we don't talk about marriage and definitely not kids for a good long while, and I'll take you to the next school dance."

Asenath blinked. This was obviously not the response she had been expecting. "Um…"

Malik looked off elsewhere. "I mean, don't you think it's a little early to get married?"

"Well…tradition…"

"Ah…forget tradition for now. We're teenagers, 'member?"

"Your point?"

"Our tradition is changing tradition, of course."

"What??"

He shook his head. "Just put the wedding off for a few years, K?"

"You mean you'll go through with it later on?"

"Ah…not promising anything yet, got it?"

She sighed. "I didn't think you'd understand."

He rolled his eyes in frustration. "Just take the dance offer already! It's pretty good. I don't ask girls out much."

She narrowed her eyes. "You mean you've been going out with someone else before?"

"Nope. I haven't yet."

She folded her arms, her balanced seat on the bar never wavering. "How do I know I can take your word for it?"

He shrugged and grinned. "I guess you don't. Is the wedding off?"

She scowled. "Were you this stubborn when you were younger?"

He glanced away, feigning boredom. "I haven't changed much."

She rolled her eyes, recognizing her own words as he threw them back at her. "A real brat, huh?"

"Yep. Imagine what my kids'll turn out like."

She suppressed a shudder. "I'm sure they'd be fine with some good training."

"Wishful thinking," he muttered with a smirk.

"You're just trying to discourage me from keeping the tradition's requirements."

Malik pretended to be hurt. "Me? No way!"

She glared at him. "In any case, I think I'll be talking to your sister about this all. Isis, is it?"

"Yeah…"

"Well, anyways, I'll drop by tomorrow after school to discuss it with her. She does know I'm in town, doesn't she? I've been here over a week."

Malik squirmed. "Well…" He was going to catch it now. Isis tended to get annoyed when he kept big things like this from her.

"I see. Well, you'd probably better tell her before then. I want some closure to this whole fiasco sometime soon."

"How about a divorce?" suggested Malik brightly.

She turned one of those annoyed "you baka" looks that girls are so good at giving on him. "Ishtar Malik, we aren't even married yet, thanks to you."

Malik grinned. "So we call the whole thing off and leave it at that!"

"I don't think so." They were quiet for a while. "Well," she said finally, jumping down from her jungle gym bar, "I'll just stop by tomorrow to talk to your sister. We don't seem to be getting anywhere right now."

Malik grinned triumphantly and not a little smugly. "But Isis has a meeting at the museum tomorrow. Even if you come, she won't be there."

Asenath studied his face. "Yeah, right. I'll come by to check for myself."

Malik hefted his bag with a smirk. "Be my guest."

TBC

R&R