Author's Note: I've tried to make Zuzumea more, um, fault-full, I guess.
It's hard. Keep those reviews a-coming - my goal is three reviews per
chapter sometime before the story ends *sob* Joey's a bit OOC, but that's
because I felt like it. And I bet most of you will recognize what the
English Passage is all about. And so basically this past is completely AU
to the actual Egyptian Past, just because I felt like it.
Oh, and By the way: I know they probably don't have martial arts in Egypt, but I didn't know the other name for it, ok?
*** *** ***
Scrolls of the Past
By Phire Phoenix
Chapter Twelve
Hatred A-Brewin'
*** *** ***
"He was spying on us!!!" Asophyre snapped indignantly the next morning, when Zuzumea had finally awakened.
"Who?" Zuzumea's voice was muffled as she pulled her school uniform over her head and tried to arrange her hair in an orderly fashion. She only spared a second to glance at her Yami, then went back to taming the unruly locks that seemed to have run AWOL during the night.
"Yami Bakura!!!" Asophyre said impatiently, pacing up and down. "He knows that you are learning about the past!! He knows everything that we've been doing!!! He's the one who stopped me from undoing the spell!!!" Asophyre was furious.
"I don't realize why you're so mad at him. From what I've seen so far, he's really sweet, and he's hopelessly in love with you. Besides, if he didn't intervene, I'd be as stupid as the next person, with no knowledge of your ancient past at all. I mean, why not give him a chance. He is reincarnated, after all." Zuzumea said absentmindedly, pawing through her backpack. "Oh god, I can't believe it, where's my math homework???"
"You haven't seen that much yet!" Asophyre brushed the impeccable logic of her Hikari aside. "You don't know what's going through his head!"
"Yeah, yeah." Her Hikari muttered, now filing through drawers in search of the elusive piece of paper. Asophyre, glancing at her, frowned.
"Are you sure you did it?" Normally Zuzumea would have bristled at the tone, had she not been too busy crawling under her bed
"Yes!!! I did!!! I remember it was page ... oh crap" she breathed. "Crap, Crap, Crap..." She shot an anxious look at the clock and grabbed a fresh piece of paper from her desk. "It was - it was - it was page..."
"As I was saying, I can't believe that git!" Asophyre continued, though her mood was slightly lifted at her Hikari's predicament.
"Huh? I'm sorry, you said something?" Zuzumea asked without even looking up. "Eh, could you talk to me again in detail about this at lunch or something?" She glanced at the watch again" I have precisely eight minutes to do forty questions." Asophyre snorted and disappeared inside the pen. There, she enjoyed a few moments of silent fuming before her eardrums were shattered by a high pitched squeal.
"ARGH!!! I FORGOT TO STUDY FOR THE ENGLISH EXAM!!!" Asophyre shook her head and smiled
*** *** ***
"Where were you last night???" Ryou asked indignantly while preparing breakfast. "Out to ruin my life again?" He slammed the plate down in front of Bakura.
"Nope," Bakura said casually, stuffing a piece of toast into his mouth. "As a matter of fact, I was trying to help you." He stole a glance at his Hikari. "You don't have to look so surprised you know. I'm not some sort of monster who'll eat you."
"Oh really? What assures me of the fact?" Ryou snapped, but his curiosity got the better of him. "How exactly were you trying to help me?" He quipped, sitting down opposite of Bakura.
"Oh, interested now, are we?" the tomb robber drawled, obviously relishing this moment. Sure, Ryou may have an innocence about him that was very softening, but nothing came in the way of profit. "Zuzumea likes Yugi. She admitted it yesterday."
"And you would know this because..." Bakura shrugged.
"I have my ways. Hey, don't believe me for all I care." Bakura conveniently left out the part where Zuzumea commented on Ryou's cuteness, and the fact that it was because of Asophyre that Zuzumea is biased about him. The trick to not lying is to conceal the truth when needed. Ryou was still staring at him disbelievingly.
"And this is supposed to help me, because..."
"You will know where her heart lies and you won't hurt yourself even more."
"That's it!" Ryou threw the fork at the table. It bounced off and landed in his plate with a light 'clunk'. "We're back to square one now, aren't we? Trying to help me, my ass. This is just another way of convincing me that, quote, unquote, she is oh-so-bad for me. Well why, might I ask??? Why are you so prejudiced against her???" Bakura's face contorted into an ugly expression, but he set it back to a painful smile. Keep your temper, he reminded himself. Part of the plan. Keep your temper in check. He would have dearly loved to pass a comment about how ungrateful that pathetic little mortal was, but it was vital to the plan that he didn't.
"I told you, I just know. Break your heart for all I care." He snapped, and was quite gleeful with his own performance. Just indignant enough for it to sound true, and just malicious enough to not betray the act. Perfect. And to finish it off -
Bakura pushed the plate away and stomped off. Plopping down on the sofa, he turned the TV on, cranking up the volume to its max. Ryou growled menacingly before grabbing his back and heading off to school. Only when Bakura was sure that Ryou was well gone did he turn the TV back off again.
"I'm not prejudiced against her. I just know her too well." Bakura whispered softly, spacing out.
*** *** ***
"Hey Ryou!" Zuzumea called. The said boy turned around to find Yugi and Zuzumea waving frantically at him, outside the Kame Game Shop. His heart sank. Could it be that there were some ounces of truth in what his Yami had said? Nevertheless, he jogged across the street to join his two friends. Even if Zuzumea liked Yugi, Ryou should be happy for his friend. No spiting him, and no being bitter. After all, Yugi /was/ his first friend here. Just have to keep that in mind.
"Hello folks, top of the morning to you!" Ryou said cheerfully, pretending to sweep a hat off his head. Zuzumea giggled. "Did the lot of you study for the English Exam" Yugi nodded.
"English's my worst subject." He said, wrinkling his nose. Zuzumea blushed lightly.
"Erm, no. I just realized this morning that I forgot to do my math homework so that didn't give me much time to study." Ryou smiled at her good- naturedly.
"Don't worry about, Z, I didn't study either." Both Zuzumea and Yugi rolled their eyes, laughing.
As they progressed towards the school, Joey joined them, clutching a piece of paper in his hand. "Uh - Japanese - j-a-p-a-n- Oh, hi guys! -e-s-e. Example, he was Japanese. This company is Japanese." Ryou frowned, looking over his shoulder at the list. (I know Joey probably wouldn't study, but hey)
"Joey, you're only on word three!" He berated lightly.
"Um - yeah." With that, Joey bent over his list of words again and ignored them for the rest of the trip towards the impending doom. Evil, thy name is English, Zuzumea thought viciously, glancing at Joey's study-guide. Half of these words she had no idea what they meant, and the other half she didn't know how to spell. Just great.
To their great horror, the teacher graded their papers during lunch and handed them back first period in the afternoon. Kaiba, who had once again got an A plus, held his test rigidly so that no one passing by his desk could fail to notice the grade. However, Joey and Tristan tried not to as the teacher called out their names.
"I'm surprised at you, Joseph." The teacher said, handing a piece of paper to him. This only served to make him more nervous, and he didn't even glance at it as he proceeded towards his seat.
"Why, Ma'am? Because he failed? That's nothing to be surprised at." Kaiba smirked, while others in the class laughed. Before Joey could retaliate, their teacher took the parole.
"No, Seto, he did exceedingly well. An A minus, in fact." She frowned at him. "In the future, you would do better not depreciating your fellow students. Ryou Bakura, you're next, and an A plus, as usual." She added the last part almost as an afterthought, but it's not surprising considering he is British, after all. Kaiba sent Joey a venomous glare, who was currently in the process of blowing a raspberry at him.
"Wow, Joey, that's really great!!!" Yugi exclaimed when he reached his seat. "Congratulations! I only got a B plus." He glanced at his paper. I misspelled entourage and entrepreneur. Then there were some sentence structure and punctuation problems." He sighed. "English is so hard."
"Yeah, buddy, I feel for you." Joey patted Yugi on the back, then flashed a victory sign. "Just wait till I tell Serenity about this!!!" Zuzumea looked at him quizzically.
"Who's Serenity?" Joey facefaulted and almost fell off his chair.
"You mean I haven't told you??? I am such a dolt. She's my sister. We could swing by her place after school."
"Are you sure that's a good idea, Joey?" Tea asked concernedly.
"Whaddayamean??? Ohh..." Realization dawned at the meaningful stare Tea was fixing him with. "No, it's no problem at all, trust me. She'd be happy to see a new friend. She's tutored at the moment, you know, so she's pretty lonely. Next year she's coming to Domino high!" Zuzumea was still in the dark, but didn't complain as she would get to meet Serenity in the afternoon. Her mother had long since gotten used to her going somewhere with friends in the afternoon. According to her, it was a nice change from when she either ignored or insulted everyone except Zoey - and Amai, her other friend.
"So what did you get, Tristan?" Joey asked, inching closer to his friend. "Oh, and by the way, me mom's working in the afternoon, until five, so we're safe till then." He added in a whisper to Tea, who happened to be sitting behind Tristan. Zuzumea caught nothing of it, and was more interested in Tristan's score, hoping her own wouldn't be brought up.
"Eh - that's private information, not to be disclosed!" He announced, looking extremely uncomfortable.
"Come on, tell me, tell me!"
"Um..."
"All right, everybody, settle down." Tristan was spared a response when the teacher finished handing out the last test to the class of 45 (in China, the classes are usually from 50-70 *frown* 45 is a miracle, so don't say the classes are too big. I know this is Japan, but China's the closest reference I have). "That test was actually pretty good for this class, and you're slightly ahead of class B" She waited until the cheering had subsided. "But that doesn't say much as class B is quite behind in the curriculum." Everyone sweatdropped and groaned. This just meant more work.
"Now open your books to page 56..."
Yugi stared unseeingly at the blackboard as one of his classmates began to read the passage listed on that page. He wished he sat behind Zuzumea, so he could stare at her - wait, what was he thinking??? Why in the world would he, of all people, want to stare at Zuzumea? No, no, no, no, no, this was all wrong. He didn't want to stare at her!!! He wanted to stare at Mai...Didn't he?
/Do I detect a hint of puppylove?/ his Yami asked teasingly, bridging the link between the minds. He sounded quite amused. /Can't decide which girl, can we?/ Yugi glanced at the textbook to make sure he knew where they were and that he could answer if he was called upon unexpectedly before answering. You never knew with their English teacher.
/Do you have to read my mind every minute of every day?/ He asked, pretending to follow the fictional paragraph about a fourteen-year old punk saving some little boy and dying in the process. It looked interesting, better than reading the history about a guy who circumnavigated the globe - what they'd been reading yesterday. Fictional paragraphs are a lot more fun than historical ones, but their teacher insisted that historical ones are more in-depth in their writing style.
/No, just when you're most inconvenient/ Yami smirked, knowing Yugi could sense it. /Besides, I'm right, aren't I? You do have a crush on her/ Yugi rolled his eyes. /Yeah, yeah/
"Yugi Motou, would you please continue reading the next part." His sensei called out. He nodded and pulled the book closer to him.
"Great, the first time he felt like going to school in about ten days - " he could feel his Yami ebbing away and smiled.
Ryou stole a glance at Zuzumea. She seemed to be staring at Yugi rather than the book, with a strange look in her eyes. It appeared to be the look she was wearing when Kaiba chased Bakura all the way to her street and when his Yami had taunted the multi-millionaire openly. Admiration, maybe? He frowned as he, too, glared at the back of the head of the spiky-haired boy.
/What's so great about Yugi???/ He asked in a very annoyed voice before remembering that Bakura had stayed home that day. Nevertheless, he continued ranting in his mind. /What does he have that I don't? Why is she falling for him? Why can't she like me, for once??/ He continued in that rein for quite some time, fuming inwardly. He knew that it was wrong to hate his friend like this, but he couldn't help it. This is the first time he'd ever felt this way about a girl.
Unbeknownst to him, Bakura had come with him. He was remaining rather quiet, staying in his soul-chamber; a silent observer. But right then, he had a very satisfied smirk on his face.
*** *** ***
"This is Serenity!" Joey announced dramatically. "And this, is Zuzumea!" He pulled her forward from behind the group so his sister could shake her hand. "Serenity, Zuzumea. Zuzumea, Serenity. Serenity, Zuzumea. Zuzumea..." Tristan waved him off.
"We get the idea, mate."
"...Serenity. Serenity, Zuzumea." You could almost see the sweat sliding off the back of everyone's head.
"Just call me Z." Zuzumea said uncertainly, and it was Serenity who took the initiative.
"Hi, Pleased to meet you! I'm happy to see that you came despite the fact that it was Joey who led you here." She glanced at her big brother. "He is, um,"
"Whacked out?" Tea suggested, snickering.
"Yeah! Exactly!" The younger girl brightened while her brother scowled.
"Hey, you girls talking behind my back there?" Serenity ignored him.
"Why don't you two come to my room?" She led the two other girls down the hall and into one of the bedrooms. Before closing the door, she stuck her head back out. "Joey? Could you grab us three Iced Teas?"
"Sure thing, sis." Joey replied confidently before realising what he'd agreed to. "Hey! I'm not your maid!!! Go get them yourself! And don't try any tricks in the future, ok! I'm not going to be at your beck and call..." He ranted while he went into the kitchen and grabbed them, as his sister inquired.
"Get them yourself, you hear? Cus I'm not getting them, uhn-uh, not for the life of me. You're not making me do that kinda stuff..." By now he was at her door, holding the three cans. "So you might as well haul yourself off your butt and get them yourself." He pushed open the door. "Here you go."
"Thank you, Joey, I knew you would." Serenity said, smiling at him.
Yugi and Tristan looked at each other before exploding in laughter.
"What're you two laughing about?" Joey asked, rubbing the back of his head. "Anyway, Tristan, what DID you get on that test?"
*** *** ***
"We're going to try undoing the spell again." Asophyre said, while her Hikari got ready for bed.
"Aww, do we have to?" Zuzumea whined, shaking the comforter and slipping inside.
"Yes, we do. And I thought of a way we could counteract Bakura's spell." She added, seeing Zuzumea's open mouth. Her Hikari growled. Closing her eyes, Z let Asophyre do her work. It'd be no use resisting anyway. Her Yami was quite powerful, as she had seen from the previous dream. No doubt she'd be even more so with experience.
This time, though, she felt no finger at her forehead, instead a surge of energy and some more low, indiscernible chanting was heard. As she drummed her fingers against the bedframe, the energy intensified, giving off warmth.
"I can't do it" Asophyre said, breaking through the monotony of her drumming fingers. "Apparently Bakura's spell is more complicated than I thought. Not only that," she fixed her Hikari with an accusing glare, "a part of the mind is actively resisting."
"Oops." Zuzumea muttered sheepishly. "I'm not trying to, honest! Uh, good night." She dived under the covers and ignored any further attempt of speech that Asophyre made. Her Yami finally gave up and retreated to her soul chamber.
~* For the next two weeks, Asophyre went to the palace everyday, learning various martial arts and studying the files about her beloved Ryou. She still could not get over the fact that lovely Bakura would hurt anyone, but soon, something else took over her heart. Something that is a lot closer, and a lot more available: Yami. While she was amazed at Ryou Bakura's actions, she was even more stunned at how she was acting towards Yami.
She would blush every time he made a joke, or every time he laughed at one of hers. She'd try extra hard to succeed when she was around him, and usually ended up with the worse of the deal out of nerves. She giggled a lot, and she tried to be close to him whenever she could. She had the constant desire to make him happy, no matter what the cost.
It wasn't Yami who saw all this, and it wasn't Asophyre who realized what she was doing. It was Seto Kaiba. The priest, friend to the pharaoh, took everything in, in his ever-watchful manner. He who cared for the pharaoh like a younger brother was as protective as any relative could be, and had sworn it his duty to see that this boy, who had suffered losses at a young age and now had a mountain of responsibilities on his shoulders, would not be hurt again.
Seto was a calm observer. He was always ready to pounce, but always held back, letting love run through its course. For it was as plain as day: Asophyre was in love with Yami. The way she acted, the way her eyes sparkled when she looked at him, the way she was embarrassed whenever she did something stupid in front of him. There were none of that when she was alone, studying with Seto. And Seto didn't know what to make of this.
He didn't know sufficiently about Asophyre to trust her. For all he knew, she could be a spy for the Dangers of the Desert. While he deemed it unlikely that Asophyre knew how to organize her brain so that the spell she had cast on them would only show them artificial information about Ryou Bakura, Seto was naturally suspicious and rarely let anything out of his sight.
Sighing, he turned back to the work at hand. Being the pharaoh's most trusted man could be a pain at times. He studied Asophyre while she poured over the scrolls of papyrus, copying down what she thought was important, and frowned. The girl's writing sure was sloppy, but that could be changed if needed. Right now, they had to focus on Ryou. Unless, naturally, if the girl was a spy -
Argh! Concentrate, Kaiba, concentrate. If the pharaoh trusts her, he, the priest, was in no position to question that move. Concentrate, and just work on educating her.
"Excuse me, um, high priest, but what does this mean?" Her voice sounded across the hall and he perked up, sighing.
"You don't have to be so formal. Just Seto is fine." He wondered why he was being so familiar with her after expressing extreme distrust to himself just moments ago. He sighed again, and picked up the piece of papyrus she had been studying. "Which one?" He inquired good-naturedly and began the long process of explaining when she eagerly pointed it out to her.
Yami was standing by the door, unnoticed by the room's two occupants. He hoped that the clash with the Danger of the Desert would turn all right. What an ordeal this must be for the poor thing, fighting the boy whom she loves. Yami turned to go, but Seto looked up at that moment and caught his eye, smiling an appraising smile.
An hour later, Asophyre stepped outside, yawning and stretching, blinking dazedly in the burning sun. Long hours of learning really took it out of a girl. She had never really liked school. Oh, sure, some subjects were fun, like Arithmetic, but history and geography and natural study - those were the worst. Looking around, she spotted a patch of trees and walked over, in hopes of finding some shade.
"Tired?" An amused voiced asked her when she had settled down. With a yelp, she lifted her head and hit the back of it against the tree. Rubbing the sore spot, she looked around for the offender and found Yami leaning against a palace wall, smiling at her. There was a glint in his eyes that she couldn't identify, but it didn't worry her. It was probably her overactive imagination that had been on overload ever since Ryou became a part of life again. Her face split into a grin and she made as if to stand up. "No, no, you stay there." Yami told her and walked over to her."
"So how're things?" He asked idly, still smiling.
"Oh, ok, I guess. I'm not really cut out for fighting or studying. I'm usually a dunce and a slowpoke." Asophyre laughed. "But I guess knowing self defence is better than knowing nothing at all." Yami chuckled.
"Not true, you little liar." Asophyre looked surprised. "You know something. You know a lot, actually." He turned his head and looked her in the eye. His eyes twinkled, and he seemed so charming. "Hmm...Do you love me?" His question had been so sudden that Asophyre almost answered yes. He leaned over, closing his eyes, expecting her to know what to do next.
Asophyre pulled back, confused. Why was he acting that way? Why would he be so eager to kiss her? He didn't love her, did he? Relationships take time! He should know by now that she didn't take them lightly, after what had happened with Ryou. He should know by now that she was still secretly waiting for him. Then why was he so demanding?
She hadn't realized that she spoke the question out loud until he replied.
"So, I'm demanding, am I?" He asked quietly. This was not at all like him, although Asophyre hated to see him down. "Is that a bit too much to ask? Confessing to a girl that you love her and wondering whether the feeling is returned? Is that being demanding?"
Asophyre stood up abruptly and backed away. Frowning, she balled her hands into fists and shook her head slowly, peering at Yami. This was all wrong. "Who are you?" She asked hesitantly. He laughed - a sound that sent chills up her spine although she had heard that exact same laugh so many times before.
"Why I'm Yami, of course."
"Asophyre, hey Asophyre!" Someone was calling her. Casting another glance at Yami, she turned towards the palace entrance. Hurrying out the doors and down the steps, splendid as ever was -
Yami
Asophyre's mouth fell open. The next moment, when she turned back to the one sitting by the tree, he had gone. She stood like that for sometime until the Yami that she had seen coming out of the palace had caught up with her. He put a strong hand on her shoulder and shook it.
"Good job. Seto tells me that you've been making progress." He twirled her towards him. "Congratu - what's wrong?" At the sight of Asophyre's face, his grin dropped and his face took on an anxious hue. "Are you ok?" Asophyre shook her head disbelievingly, not listening to Yami. Maybe it had been all a dream. Maybe she's been studying too hard, and exhaustion combined with her love for Yami created that image.
Wait a minute, Love? She was in love with him? Heaven forbid. She wiped the sweat off her forehead and looked at Yami again. "Yeah, I'm fine. Don't worry about it, I was just daydreaming." Yami chuckled.
"Daydreaming. Well that's new." But he seemed to buy it, so she didn't push it further.
*** *** ***
Malik looked around him again, to make sure nobody else from the Dangers of the Desert were following him. Bakura had instructed them to lie low for a few days and get some rest before the big rebellion took place, but you never knew. The boy who had spoken a few days back seemed as sulky as ever, and Malik had seen him muttering darkly to his friends, looking at Bakura.
Waiting by a big rock in the shape of a camel's hump was someone clad in gold and blue, with a crown upon his head and black-red-yellow hair stuck up into the air.
"Hello, my pharaoh." Malik said respectfully, sweeping a bow. When he straightened up, he saw that the pharaoh was looking at him. Malik held his gaze for a few minutes before both of them gave up and burst out laughing. While gasping for breath, the pharaoh tried to swallow some liquids from a flask that Malik gave him. By the time both of them had calmed down, his appearance had morphed into that of Bakura.
"Good man." Bakura said proudly, thumping Malik on the back. He looked at the empty flask thoughtfully. "Good thing your sister knows a bit of magic." He commented casually. "You haven't told her what it was for, have you?" Malik shook his head.
"But for some reason, she always knows anyway." He rolled his eyes. "It's a sibling thing. So how'd it go?"
Bakura had a wolfish smile on his face. "She's just as I remembered. Same natural suspicion, same fast reaction, same observant mind. I came close to kissing her, too, which had been more than I could have hoped for. I just hope she won't think I'm sort of sick pervert when I do take over the palace. I'll make sure that she knows she'll be my queen for sure. But she seemed to like that blasted Yami quite a lot." He seemed a bit down on that last count. They'd started their walk back towards their lair.
"I'm sure it will be fine." Malik assured him. "After all, who could resist a young, handsome face like yours? Or mine, for that matter." He pretended to take out a mirror and rearrange his hair." Bakura laughed, innocence just sparkling through. Because for all their cunning and all their scheming, they were only 16, after all.
"Now let's get back. I believe Odeon has an idea about laying siege to Snob Town." Malik snickered again. After their silhouettes disappeared inside the cave, all was still.*~
*** *** ***
A/N: Odeon isn't that familiar with Malik, ok? The basic Egyptian genealogy is: Malik, Bakura, Yami, Asophyre, Odeon and Seto are all in the ancient past. The same people except Malik and Odeon are in the future, because I don't want to create another confusion for Zuzumea - having to associate everyone from the past with everyone from the future. Thanks for reading, and uh, please review! Constructive Criticism appreciated!
Oh, and By the way: I know they probably don't have martial arts in Egypt, but I didn't know the other name for it, ok?
*** *** ***
Scrolls of the Past
By Phire Phoenix
Chapter Twelve
Hatred A-Brewin'
*** *** ***
"He was spying on us!!!" Asophyre snapped indignantly the next morning, when Zuzumea had finally awakened.
"Who?" Zuzumea's voice was muffled as she pulled her school uniform over her head and tried to arrange her hair in an orderly fashion. She only spared a second to glance at her Yami, then went back to taming the unruly locks that seemed to have run AWOL during the night.
"Yami Bakura!!!" Asophyre said impatiently, pacing up and down. "He knows that you are learning about the past!! He knows everything that we've been doing!!! He's the one who stopped me from undoing the spell!!!" Asophyre was furious.
"I don't realize why you're so mad at him. From what I've seen so far, he's really sweet, and he's hopelessly in love with you. Besides, if he didn't intervene, I'd be as stupid as the next person, with no knowledge of your ancient past at all. I mean, why not give him a chance. He is reincarnated, after all." Zuzumea said absentmindedly, pawing through her backpack. "Oh god, I can't believe it, where's my math homework???"
"You haven't seen that much yet!" Asophyre brushed the impeccable logic of her Hikari aside. "You don't know what's going through his head!"
"Yeah, yeah." Her Hikari muttered, now filing through drawers in search of the elusive piece of paper. Asophyre, glancing at her, frowned.
"Are you sure you did it?" Normally Zuzumea would have bristled at the tone, had she not been too busy crawling under her bed
"Yes!!! I did!!! I remember it was page ... oh crap" she breathed. "Crap, Crap, Crap..." She shot an anxious look at the clock and grabbed a fresh piece of paper from her desk. "It was - it was - it was page..."
"As I was saying, I can't believe that git!" Asophyre continued, though her mood was slightly lifted at her Hikari's predicament.
"Huh? I'm sorry, you said something?" Zuzumea asked without even looking up. "Eh, could you talk to me again in detail about this at lunch or something?" She glanced at the watch again" I have precisely eight minutes to do forty questions." Asophyre snorted and disappeared inside the pen. There, she enjoyed a few moments of silent fuming before her eardrums were shattered by a high pitched squeal.
"ARGH!!! I FORGOT TO STUDY FOR THE ENGLISH EXAM!!!" Asophyre shook her head and smiled
*** *** ***
"Where were you last night???" Ryou asked indignantly while preparing breakfast. "Out to ruin my life again?" He slammed the plate down in front of Bakura.
"Nope," Bakura said casually, stuffing a piece of toast into his mouth. "As a matter of fact, I was trying to help you." He stole a glance at his Hikari. "You don't have to look so surprised you know. I'm not some sort of monster who'll eat you."
"Oh really? What assures me of the fact?" Ryou snapped, but his curiosity got the better of him. "How exactly were you trying to help me?" He quipped, sitting down opposite of Bakura.
"Oh, interested now, are we?" the tomb robber drawled, obviously relishing this moment. Sure, Ryou may have an innocence about him that was very softening, but nothing came in the way of profit. "Zuzumea likes Yugi. She admitted it yesterday."
"And you would know this because..." Bakura shrugged.
"I have my ways. Hey, don't believe me for all I care." Bakura conveniently left out the part where Zuzumea commented on Ryou's cuteness, and the fact that it was because of Asophyre that Zuzumea is biased about him. The trick to not lying is to conceal the truth when needed. Ryou was still staring at him disbelievingly.
"And this is supposed to help me, because..."
"You will know where her heart lies and you won't hurt yourself even more."
"That's it!" Ryou threw the fork at the table. It bounced off and landed in his plate with a light 'clunk'. "We're back to square one now, aren't we? Trying to help me, my ass. This is just another way of convincing me that, quote, unquote, she is oh-so-bad for me. Well why, might I ask??? Why are you so prejudiced against her???" Bakura's face contorted into an ugly expression, but he set it back to a painful smile. Keep your temper, he reminded himself. Part of the plan. Keep your temper in check. He would have dearly loved to pass a comment about how ungrateful that pathetic little mortal was, but it was vital to the plan that he didn't.
"I told you, I just know. Break your heart for all I care." He snapped, and was quite gleeful with his own performance. Just indignant enough for it to sound true, and just malicious enough to not betray the act. Perfect. And to finish it off -
Bakura pushed the plate away and stomped off. Plopping down on the sofa, he turned the TV on, cranking up the volume to its max. Ryou growled menacingly before grabbing his back and heading off to school. Only when Bakura was sure that Ryou was well gone did he turn the TV back off again.
"I'm not prejudiced against her. I just know her too well." Bakura whispered softly, spacing out.
*** *** ***
"Hey Ryou!" Zuzumea called. The said boy turned around to find Yugi and Zuzumea waving frantically at him, outside the Kame Game Shop. His heart sank. Could it be that there were some ounces of truth in what his Yami had said? Nevertheless, he jogged across the street to join his two friends. Even if Zuzumea liked Yugi, Ryou should be happy for his friend. No spiting him, and no being bitter. After all, Yugi /was/ his first friend here. Just have to keep that in mind.
"Hello folks, top of the morning to you!" Ryou said cheerfully, pretending to sweep a hat off his head. Zuzumea giggled. "Did the lot of you study for the English Exam" Yugi nodded.
"English's my worst subject." He said, wrinkling his nose. Zuzumea blushed lightly.
"Erm, no. I just realized this morning that I forgot to do my math homework so that didn't give me much time to study." Ryou smiled at her good- naturedly.
"Don't worry about, Z, I didn't study either." Both Zuzumea and Yugi rolled their eyes, laughing.
As they progressed towards the school, Joey joined them, clutching a piece of paper in his hand. "Uh - Japanese - j-a-p-a-n- Oh, hi guys! -e-s-e. Example, he was Japanese. This company is Japanese." Ryou frowned, looking over his shoulder at the list. (I know Joey probably wouldn't study, but hey)
"Joey, you're only on word three!" He berated lightly.
"Um - yeah." With that, Joey bent over his list of words again and ignored them for the rest of the trip towards the impending doom. Evil, thy name is English, Zuzumea thought viciously, glancing at Joey's study-guide. Half of these words she had no idea what they meant, and the other half she didn't know how to spell. Just great.
To their great horror, the teacher graded their papers during lunch and handed them back first period in the afternoon. Kaiba, who had once again got an A plus, held his test rigidly so that no one passing by his desk could fail to notice the grade. However, Joey and Tristan tried not to as the teacher called out their names.
"I'm surprised at you, Joseph." The teacher said, handing a piece of paper to him. This only served to make him more nervous, and he didn't even glance at it as he proceeded towards his seat.
"Why, Ma'am? Because he failed? That's nothing to be surprised at." Kaiba smirked, while others in the class laughed. Before Joey could retaliate, their teacher took the parole.
"No, Seto, he did exceedingly well. An A minus, in fact." She frowned at him. "In the future, you would do better not depreciating your fellow students. Ryou Bakura, you're next, and an A plus, as usual." She added the last part almost as an afterthought, but it's not surprising considering he is British, after all. Kaiba sent Joey a venomous glare, who was currently in the process of blowing a raspberry at him.
"Wow, Joey, that's really great!!!" Yugi exclaimed when he reached his seat. "Congratulations! I only got a B plus." He glanced at his paper. I misspelled entourage and entrepreneur. Then there were some sentence structure and punctuation problems." He sighed. "English is so hard."
"Yeah, buddy, I feel for you." Joey patted Yugi on the back, then flashed a victory sign. "Just wait till I tell Serenity about this!!!" Zuzumea looked at him quizzically.
"Who's Serenity?" Joey facefaulted and almost fell off his chair.
"You mean I haven't told you??? I am such a dolt. She's my sister. We could swing by her place after school."
"Are you sure that's a good idea, Joey?" Tea asked concernedly.
"Whaddayamean??? Ohh..." Realization dawned at the meaningful stare Tea was fixing him with. "No, it's no problem at all, trust me. She'd be happy to see a new friend. She's tutored at the moment, you know, so she's pretty lonely. Next year she's coming to Domino high!" Zuzumea was still in the dark, but didn't complain as she would get to meet Serenity in the afternoon. Her mother had long since gotten used to her going somewhere with friends in the afternoon. According to her, it was a nice change from when she either ignored or insulted everyone except Zoey - and Amai, her other friend.
"So what did you get, Tristan?" Joey asked, inching closer to his friend. "Oh, and by the way, me mom's working in the afternoon, until five, so we're safe till then." He added in a whisper to Tea, who happened to be sitting behind Tristan. Zuzumea caught nothing of it, and was more interested in Tristan's score, hoping her own wouldn't be brought up.
"Eh - that's private information, not to be disclosed!" He announced, looking extremely uncomfortable.
"Come on, tell me, tell me!"
"Um..."
"All right, everybody, settle down." Tristan was spared a response when the teacher finished handing out the last test to the class of 45 (in China, the classes are usually from 50-70 *frown* 45 is a miracle, so don't say the classes are too big. I know this is Japan, but China's the closest reference I have). "That test was actually pretty good for this class, and you're slightly ahead of class B" She waited until the cheering had subsided. "But that doesn't say much as class B is quite behind in the curriculum." Everyone sweatdropped and groaned. This just meant more work.
"Now open your books to page 56..."
Yugi stared unseeingly at the blackboard as one of his classmates began to read the passage listed on that page. He wished he sat behind Zuzumea, so he could stare at her - wait, what was he thinking??? Why in the world would he, of all people, want to stare at Zuzumea? No, no, no, no, no, this was all wrong. He didn't want to stare at her!!! He wanted to stare at Mai...Didn't he?
/Do I detect a hint of puppylove?/ his Yami asked teasingly, bridging the link between the minds. He sounded quite amused. /Can't decide which girl, can we?/ Yugi glanced at the textbook to make sure he knew where they were and that he could answer if he was called upon unexpectedly before answering. You never knew with their English teacher.
/Do you have to read my mind every minute of every day?/ He asked, pretending to follow the fictional paragraph about a fourteen-year old punk saving some little boy and dying in the process. It looked interesting, better than reading the history about a guy who circumnavigated the globe - what they'd been reading yesterday. Fictional paragraphs are a lot more fun than historical ones, but their teacher insisted that historical ones are more in-depth in their writing style.
/No, just when you're most inconvenient/ Yami smirked, knowing Yugi could sense it. /Besides, I'm right, aren't I? You do have a crush on her/ Yugi rolled his eyes. /Yeah, yeah/
"Yugi Motou, would you please continue reading the next part." His sensei called out. He nodded and pulled the book closer to him.
"Great, the first time he felt like going to school in about ten days - " he could feel his Yami ebbing away and smiled.
Ryou stole a glance at Zuzumea. She seemed to be staring at Yugi rather than the book, with a strange look in her eyes. It appeared to be the look she was wearing when Kaiba chased Bakura all the way to her street and when his Yami had taunted the multi-millionaire openly. Admiration, maybe? He frowned as he, too, glared at the back of the head of the spiky-haired boy.
/What's so great about Yugi???/ He asked in a very annoyed voice before remembering that Bakura had stayed home that day. Nevertheless, he continued ranting in his mind. /What does he have that I don't? Why is she falling for him? Why can't she like me, for once??/ He continued in that rein for quite some time, fuming inwardly. He knew that it was wrong to hate his friend like this, but he couldn't help it. This is the first time he'd ever felt this way about a girl.
Unbeknownst to him, Bakura had come with him. He was remaining rather quiet, staying in his soul-chamber; a silent observer. But right then, he had a very satisfied smirk on his face.
*** *** ***
"This is Serenity!" Joey announced dramatically. "And this, is Zuzumea!" He pulled her forward from behind the group so his sister could shake her hand. "Serenity, Zuzumea. Zuzumea, Serenity. Serenity, Zuzumea. Zuzumea..." Tristan waved him off.
"We get the idea, mate."
"...Serenity. Serenity, Zuzumea." You could almost see the sweat sliding off the back of everyone's head.
"Just call me Z." Zuzumea said uncertainly, and it was Serenity who took the initiative.
"Hi, Pleased to meet you! I'm happy to see that you came despite the fact that it was Joey who led you here." She glanced at her big brother. "He is, um,"
"Whacked out?" Tea suggested, snickering.
"Yeah! Exactly!" The younger girl brightened while her brother scowled.
"Hey, you girls talking behind my back there?" Serenity ignored him.
"Why don't you two come to my room?" She led the two other girls down the hall and into one of the bedrooms. Before closing the door, she stuck her head back out. "Joey? Could you grab us three Iced Teas?"
"Sure thing, sis." Joey replied confidently before realising what he'd agreed to. "Hey! I'm not your maid!!! Go get them yourself! And don't try any tricks in the future, ok! I'm not going to be at your beck and call..." He ranted while he went into the kitchen and grabbed them, as his sister inquired.
"Get them yourself, you hear? Cus I'm not getting them, uhn-uh, not for the life of me. You're not making me do that kinda stuff..." By now he was at her door, holding the three cans. "So you might as well haul yourself off your butt and get them yourself." He pushed open the door. "Here you go."
"Thank you, Joey, I knew you would." Serenity said, smiling at him.
Yugi and Tristan looked at each other before exploding in laughter.
"What're you two laughing about?" Joey asked, rubbing the back of his head. "Anyway, Tristan, what DID you get on that test?"
*** *** ***
"We're going to try undoing the spell again." Asophyre said, while her Hikari got ready for bed.
"Aww, do we have to?" Zuzumea whined, shaking the comforter and slipping inside.
"Yes, we do. And I thought of a way we could counteract Bakura's spell." She added, seeing Zuzumea's open mouth. Her Hikari growled. Closing her eyes, Z let Asophyre do her work. It'd be no use resisting anyway. Her Yami was quite powerful, as she had seen from the previous dream. No doubt she'd be even more so with experience.
This time, though, she felt no finger at her forehead, instead a surge of energy and some more low, indiscernible chanting was heard. As she drummed her fingers against the bedframe, the energy intensified, giving off warmth.
"I can't do it" Asophyre said, breaking through the monotony of her drumming fingers. "Apparently Bakura's spell is more complicated than I thought. Not only that," she fixed her Hikari with an accusing glare, "a part of the mind is actively resisting."
"Oops." Zuzumea muttered sheepishly. "I'm not trying to, honest! Uh, good night." She dived under the covers and ignored any further attempt of speech that Asophyre made. Her Yami finally gave up and retreated to her soul chamber.
~* For the next two weeks, Asophyre went to the palace everyday, learning various martial arts and studying the files about her beloved Ryou. She still could not get over the fact that lovely Bakura would hurt anyone, but soon, something else took over her heart. Something that is a lot closer, and a lot more available: Yami. While she was amazed at Ryou Bakura's actions, she was even more stunned at how she was acting towards Yami.
She would blush every time he made a joke, or every time he laughed at one of hers. She'd try extra hard to succeed when she was around him, and usually ended up with the worse of the deal out of nerves. She giggled a lot, and she tried to be close to him whenever she could. She had the constant desire to make him happy, no matter what the cost.
It wasn't Yami who saw all this, and it wasn't Asophyre who realized what she was doing. It was Seto Kaiba. The priest, friend to the pharaoh, took everything in, in his ever-watchful manner. He who cared for the pharaoh like a younger brother was as protective as any relative could be, and had sworn it his duty to see that this boy, who had suffered losses at a young age and now had a mountain of responsibilities on his shoulders, would not be hurt again.
Seto was a calm observer. He was always ready to pounce, but always held back, letting love run through its course. For it was as plain as day: Asophyre was in love with Yami. The way she acted, the way her eyes sparkled when she looked at him, the way she was embarrassed whenever she did something stupid in front of him. There were none of that when she was alone, studying with Seto. And Seto didn't know what to make of this.
He didn't know sufficiently about Asophyre to trust her. For all he knew, she could be a spy for the Dangers of the Desert. While he deemed it unlikely that Asophyre knew how to organize her brain so that the spell she had cast on them would only show them artificial information about Ryou Bakura, Seto was naturally suspicious and rarely let anything out of his sight.
Sighing, he turned back to the work at hand. Being the pharaoh's most trusted man could be a pain at times. He studied Asophyre while she poured over the scrolls of papyrus, copying down what she thought was important, and frowned. The girl's writing sure was sloppy, but that could be changed if needed. Right now, they had to focus on Ryou. Unless, naturally, if the girl was a spy -
Argh! Concentrate, Kaiba, concentrate. If the pharaoh trusts her, he, the priest, was in no position to question that move. Concentrate, and just work on educating her.
"Excuse me, um, high priest, but what does this mean?" Her voice sounded across the hall and he perked up, sighing.
"You don't have to be so formal. Just Seto is fine." He wondered why he was being so familiar with her after expressing extreme distrust to himself just moments ago. He sighed again, and picked up the piece of papyrus she had been studying. "Which one?" He inquired good-naturedly and began the long process of explaining when she eagerly pointed it out to her.
Yami was standing by the door, unnoticed by the room's two occupants. He hoped that the clash with the Danger of the Desert would turn all right. What an ordeal this must be for the poor thing, fighting the boy whom she loves. Yami turned to go, but Seto looked up at that moment and caught his eye, smiling an appraising smile.
An hour later, Asophyre stepped outside, yawning and stretching, blinking dazedly in the burning sun. Long hours of learning really took it out of a girl. She had never really liked school. Oh, sure, some subjects were fun, like Arithmetic, but history and geography and natural study - those were the worst. Looking around, she spotted a patch of trees and walked over, in hopes of finding some shade.
"Tired?" An amused voiced asked her when she had settled down. With a yelp, she lifted her head and hit the back of it against the tree. Rubbing the sore spot, she looked around for the offender and found Yami leaning against a palace wall, smiling at her. There was a glint in his eyes that she couldn't identify, but it didn't worry her. It was probably her overactive imagination that had been on overload ever since Ryou became a part of life again. Her face split into a grin and she made as if to stand up. "No, no, you stay there." Yami told her and walked over to her."
"So how're things?" He asked idly, still smiling.
"Oh, ok, I guess. I'm not really cut out for fighting or studying. I'm usually a dunce and a slowpoke." Asophyre laughed. "But I guess knowing self defence is better than knowing nothing at all." Yami chuckled.
"Not true, you little liar." Asophyre looked surprised. "You know something. You know a lot, actually." He turned his head and looked her in the eye. His eyes twinkled, and he seemed so charming. "Hmm...Do you love me?" His question had been so sudden that Asophyre almost answered yes. He leaned over, closing his eyes, expecting her to know what to do next.
Asophyre pulled back, confused. Why was he acting that way? Why would he be so eager to kiss her? He didn't love her, did he? Relationships take time! He should know by now that she didn't take them lightly, after what had happened with Ryou. He should know by now that she was still secretly waiting for him. Then why was he so demanding?
She hadn't realized that she spoke the question out loud until he replied.
"So, I'm demanding, am I?" He asked quietly. This was not at all like him, although Asophyre hated to see him down. "Is that a bit too much to ask? Confessing to a girl that you love her and wondering whether the feeling is returned? Is that being demanding?"
Asophyre stood up abruptly and backed away. Frowning, she balled her hands into fists and shook her head slowly, peering at Yami. This was all wrong. "Who are you?" She asked hesitantly. He laughed - a sound that sent chills up her spine although she had heard that exact same laugh so many times before.
"Why I'm Yami, of course."
"Asophyre, hey Asophyre!" Someone was calling her. Casting another glance at Yami, she turned towards the palace entrance. Hurrying out the doors and down the steps, splendid as ever was -
Yami
Asophyre's mouth fell open. The next moment, when she turned back to the one sitting by the tree, he had gone. She stood like that for sometime until the Yami that she had seen coming out of the palace had caught up with her. He put a strong hand on her shoulder and shook it.
"Good job. Seto tells me that you've been making progress." He twirled her towards him. "Congratu - what's wrong?" At the sight of Asophyre's face, his grin dropped and his face took on an anxious hue. "Are you ok?" Asophyre shook her head disbelievingly, not listening to Yami. Maybe it had been all a dream. Maybe she's been studying too hard, and exhaustion combined with her love for Yami created that image.
Wait a minute, Love? She was in love with him? Heaven forbid. She wiped the sweat off her forehead and looked at Yami again. "Yeah, I'm fine. Don't worry about it, I was just daydreaming." Yami chuckled.
"Daydreaming. Well that's new." But he seemed to buy it, so she didn't push it further.
*** *** ***
Malik looked around him again, to make sure nobody else from the Dangers of the Desert were following him. Bakura had instructed them to lie low for a few days and get some rest before the big rebellion took place, but you never knew. The boy who had spoken a few days back seemed as sulky as ever, and Malik had seen him muttering darkly to his friends, looking at Bakura.
Waiting by a big rock in the shape of a camel's hump was someone clad in gold and blue, with a crown upon his head and black-red-yellow hair stuck up into the air.
"Hello, my pharaoh." Malik said respectfully, sweeping a bow. When he straightened up, he saw that the pharaoh was looking at him. Malik held his gaze for a few minutes before both of them gave up and burst out laughing. While gasping for breath, the pharaoh tried to swallow some liquids from a flask that Malik gave him. By the time both of them had calmed down, his appearance had morphed into that of Bakura.
"Good man." Bakura said proudly, thumping Malik on the back. He looked at the empty flask thoughtfully. "Good thing your sister knows a bit of magic." He commented casually. "You haven't told her what it was for, have you?" Malik shook his head.
"But for some reason, she always knows anyway." He rolled his eyes. "It's a sibling thing. So how'd it go?"
Bakura had a wolfish smile on his face. "She's just as I remembered. Same natural suspicion, same fast reaction, same observant mind. I came close to kissing her, too, which had been more than I could have hoped for. I just hope she won't think I'm sort of sick pervert when I do take over the palace. I'll make sure that she knows she'll be my queen for sure. But she seemed to like that blasted Yami quite a lot." He seemed a bit down on that last count. They'd started their walk back towards their lair.
"I'm sure it will be fine." Malik assured him. "After all, who could resist a young, handsome face like yours? Or mine, for that matter." He pretended to take out a mirror and rearrange his hair." Bakura laughed, innocence just sparkling through. Because for all their cunning and all their scheming, they were only 16, after all.
"Now let's get back. I believe Odeon has an idea about laying siege to Snob Town." Malik snickered again. After their silhouettes disappeared inside the cave, all was still.*~
*** *** ***
A/N: Odeon isn't that familiar with Malik, ok? The basic Egyptian genealogy is: Malik, Bakura, Yami, Asophyre, Odeon and Seto are all in the ancient past. The same people except Malik and Odeon are in the future, because I don't want to create another confusion for Zuzumea - having to associate everyone from the past with everyone from the future. Thanks for reading, and uh, please review! Constructive Criticism appreciated!