AN - Apologies to Sapphire of Light but I left it off there to add suspense! Umeko the Beatnik Emu, I'm sorry that Mai is so mean in this fic, but it works! If you have any suggestions about what could make her a nicer person in this fic I would love to hear it - actually you have just given me an idea for an extra storyline! Thanks! Yolande, sorry but there isn't much romance in this chappie, just wait for the next one though!

Yami stood looking over the moonlit grounds, squinting for a figure in pink. Suddenly he saw her walking across the courtyard.

"Lara!" He shouted running after her. It didn't take him long to catch up with her.

"Lara! Please stop, what is wrong?" He asked, reaching out and grabbing her arm to try to stop her. She just shrugged him off and carried on walking.

"Lara?" He followed her and walked around in front of her to block her path. She stepped to her left to avoid him, but he sidestepped the same way to block her. She dodged the other way but so did Yami.

"Leave me alone Yami." She said tersely, sidestepping again.

"Talk to me first and I will leave you for as long as you require." Bargained Yami.

"I want to be alone." She said. "No I don't, I want to be away from you!"

"Me?" Asked Yami, startled. "What have I done?"

"It is what you were going to do that bothers me more!" Spat Lara angrily.

"Please!" Said Yami forcefully, then more softly. "Please tell me what I have done to upset you, or what you think I was going to do."

"You should already know!" Shouted Lara, attempting to walk past him, but Yami caught both her arms and held her still. She struggled but his grip was firm, yet gentle.

"Let me go!" She shouted, shaking him off. She looked at him with disgust. "I'm glad Mai warned me about you. I bet you don't even care about why I am upset! You just want me to stay at the party."

"What did Mai tell you?" Yami asked.

"I think we both know that!"

"If I knew I wouldn't be wasting my time trying to talk sense out of you. I am a busy man Lara, and I want to know what has upset you. I will only go away once you tell me!"

"Fine!" She shouted. "I refuse to be another of your 'fancy girls'. If you thought you would get a night of entertainment out of me you were very wrong Yami! I will not be just like Alyssa, because I have more dignity."

Yami was stunned at this outburst. He stepped back and let Lara walk past him.

"You know about Alyssa?"

"Know?" Lara said. "Of course I know. Mai told me how you used Alyssa and then sold her for ten rubies. What were you going to sell me for Yami? A couple of emeralds? Or sapphires? Or how about a handful of sand?" Lara shouted in disgust. "What am I worth to you Yami?"

"The world!" Said Yami quietly.

Lara obviously had not expected this as it threw her off balance, giving Yami time to speak.

"Obviously Mai has twisted this story to her advantage. Alyssa was not a servant who I slept with. Alyssa was Joey's girlfriend about a month ago. I relied on her for advice from time to time. She was diagnosed with a terrible illness and I paid for her to be sent to the very best hospital in the land. The cost was thousands of gold pieces. In thanks her father gave me ten rubies to be used on the crown of my heir. I sent her to be cured because I couldn't bear to see Joey so upset that she could die." Yami finished. "And I would never use a servant in the way that Mai is suggesting. I respect my servants too much to do that." He looked at Lara. "I respect you too much for that."

Lara looked at him and decided that his story was true. "Yami, I am so sorry."

"It is Mai who should be sorry. Will you come back to the palace?"

Lara looked up at the enormous building where music still came from.

"No." She said. "I couldn't face everyone after that. I don't really think that I fitted in there anyway."

"You didn't." Agreed Yami. "You are far more beautiful, much nicer and more polite than most of those in there!"

Lara smiled at this compliment. "I think I will go home now." She said, turning away to walk.

"Shall I call a carriage for you?" Asked Yami.

"No, I would like to walk."

"Then may I escort you to your door? I wouldn't want you walking out alone."

"I do not think that your guards and advisers would think it a good idea if you were out alone."

Yami walked up beside her and held out his arm for her to take, "They need not know!"

They walked in silence for a while until they reached the outskirts of the palace grounds and reached the first of the servants' quarters. No one was awake still, apart from a few children who couldn't sleep because of the excitement of having guests in the palace, and were sitting at the window. When they saw Yami their heads quickly bobbed out of sight, many reappearing a few seconds later with a bleary eyed parent looking out too, then scolding the child for spying and coming away from the window.

Lara's room was on the outskirts of the servants' area. She stopped outside her door and turned to face Yami.

"Well, goodnight." Said Yami.

"Yes." She said. "Unless you would like a drink before you leave?"

"That would be nice!" Said Yami, following her into the little room. He was surprised at just how tiny the room really was. A small stove filled one corner. A table and two chairs were the focus of the room and there was a bed at one side, with a trunk at the foot of it. One oil lamp on the table was the only source of light, save a tiny window in one wall, which was covered by a scrappy curtain. The floor was bare stone and straw poked out of the mattress on the bed. As Yami sat on one chair he noticed that the bedding was only a thin blanket for a cover and one rolled up blanket as a pillow.

"Here." Lara said, handing him a mug of hot tea.

"Aren't you having anything?" He asked, sipping the delicious, if slightly weak, tea.

"No, I'm not thirsty." Replied Lara, not telling him that the only reason she wasn't drinking anything was because she only owned one mug.

Yami finished his drink quickly and stood up to leave.

"Thank you very much. For the tea and a lovely evening." He said.

"No, thank you. I had a great time tonight." Said Lara, walking over to the door, but not opening it for him.

"We should do it again sometime." Yami said, joining her.

"Apart for the argument." Agreed Lara, still not opening the door.

"I even enjoyed that!" Smiled Yami. "You know," He continued, moving closer to her, "You really are very attractive when you are angry. Almost as attractive as you are now!"

Yami was so close to Lara that their bodies were almost touching and she could feel his warm breath on her cheek.

"And I meant what I said about you being too good to fit in with the other guests." He continued, moving much closer to her, if it was possible. "You looked fantastic!" He was so close now that they were touching. He rested his cheek against hers with his lips next to her ear. His hands were resting in the small of her back.

"You are amazing sometimes Yami!" Lara said, giggling slightly at how quickly he could turn a situation to his advantage.

"Maybe I will see you again, in my room, and I can amaze you further!" He whispered into her ear.

"Yami!" Lara said, a slight note of disapproval in her voice. She placed her hands on his chest and pulled away slightly.

"Oh I didn't mean it like that. I just meant you were better than I expected you to be tonight. I thought that a servant in a banquet would be out of place, without manners or etiquette, but you fitted in perfectly. And I supposed that you would like my chambers because, lets face it, these leave little to be desired!"

"What?" Lara said, backing away from Yami. "What are you saying? Are you judgmental about my home? And those servants without manners are my friends, you know!"

"I didn't mean." Yami began.

"How can you come in here an make such remarks about my house? Especially as the décor happens to be your choosing. As is the size, the location, everything about this place!"

"Are you unhappy with you quarters?" Asked Yami. "Because I think that the other servants find them to their satisfaction."

"Oh do they?" Asked Lara. "And how would you know that? Have you ever asked them?"

"Well no, but they have never complained."

"Do you want to know why, Yami? Because you are their sole provider. They are not servants. We are not servants. We are slaves!"

"No you are not! You have more rights than slaves!" Said Yami, angry at how ungrateful Lara was.

"Really Yami? Do you pay us? No! We work for no money. We are given housing, food and clothing. Do you think that this is what we want? Because if you do you are wrong!" She shouted. "We want to be paid and we want to pay rent. We want to go to the market to buy our own food, and the fabric to sew our own clothes. We want days off so that we can go out."

"But you get days off!"

"Think again Yami! I have not had a day off in three years, and I am only sixteen. Some people here have not had a holiday in thirteen years! We cannot buy each other gifts because we are not paid any money. We cannot make each other gifts because we do not have any money to buy the materials needed. You may think that we have a good life, but."

"You do!" Cut in Yami forcefully. "You all have it so easy sometimes, compared to the work that I have to do!"

"Really? Take a typical day for me then. I get up before sunrise to go to the canyon to wash with all the other women, because we have no washing facilities here and we have to have a rota so that everyone can wash with some privacy and decency! I have breakfast with one hundred other slaves outside, because we have no cooking facilities inside our houses and the dining hall we use is not big enough for all of us! When I have done that I may go and clean out fifty stables, or plant flowers and plants in the baking hot sun with no water or shade! When it is my turn I spend the day in the kitchens, cooking a meal for five hundred slaves! I don't get a break until lunchtime! After that I may have the care of around twenty children on my own whilst their parents run errands for you, build the latest extension to your palace or prepare your dinner! The ironic thing is that I teach these children how to be good slaves. They are all girls and I teach them how to cook, clean and sew. One of my friends, Daniel, teaches twenty boys how to fight. These boys are ten years old and already they are training for your army! When will you send them out to die in a war Yami? Then, if I have some time in the evening I might do some cleaning, but not in my quarters. Not even in my friends' rooms. I clean the rooms of your guards and those slaves fortunate enough to do the easier palace work! When I finish I go and eat dinner, outside again in whatever weather. That is if I am lucky enough to get any food at all, because if my work is not finished I don't eat. Then I come back here, to what little I have, and I clean this room. I go to sleep long after the sunset. If your day is as hard as this I would like to hear about it!" She finished, slightly breathless but there was a glint in her eye that told her she had won.

"I had no idea!" Said Yami. "No one ever complained to me!"

"That is because we are too busy doing our work to find the time to make an appointment with your secretary!"

"No one ever told me about this. You don't get paid? But you all look so happy!"

"Do we? Or are you just thinking of your palace servants, who get paid a little and live in much nicer houses, with better facilities?"

"But I have never seen anyone unhappy!"

"Then look closely Yami. Look at the mother with a child in her arms. Look at the father who needs to work relentlessly to harvest enough food so that his family may get something to eat. Look at every slave here, are they slim or thin? Because there is a difference 'Pharaoh'. Seeing how you live tonight made me realise how good you have it! You must listen to people hearts, not their words."

With this Lara opened the door and Yami walked out. She closed the door behind him and he walked, stunned, through the servants' village. Now that Lara had opened his eyes he could see the suffering that they endured each day, not complaining for fear of not getting their work done.

"And I am the cause of this." Muttered Yami.

AN - Revelations!!!!! Some big bust ups there!! The river of love rarely runs smooth, sigh! Read and review please!