Note: This might be a little confusing because my computer deletes the asterisks so the story might seem to jump around a bit.

14 years later

"ATHYR!!! Wake up!" Ishizu Ishtar walked into her younger sister's room and pulled the shades open, letting the sunlight flow in.

"Argh...too bright..." Athyr sat up and rubbed at her eyes groaning. Her mother's prophecy had become partly true. She was incredibly beautiful.

"What would Mother say? She wouldn't like the way her own daughter was running her temple...sleeping in!"

"Well, Father left his temple to Marik, and if you haven't noticed, he's doing worse than me."

"What did you say about me?" The subject of discussion poked his head in. He had grown up to be a truly handsome young man.

"Nothing. Go away." Athyr hurled a pillow at her brother.

"OUCH!!! Why you little -!"

She darted out of the room pursued by a furious Marik.

Athyr stood outside the temple of Hathor. It had been a loooooong day. The meeting of the Pharaoh's council was disastrous. There was a report that the fabled King of Thieves was coming to visit the Pharaoh once more, so the meeting had to be short. She had always wanted to meet him; Marik said that there was no one who could irritate the Pharaoh like the King of Thieves.

"Milady?" Athyr turned around to face one of the priestesses in training. "What is it?"

"Your veil is slipping." "Oh."

She quickly retied it. Stupid veil, she thought. It's because of this that I have no contact with people outside my circle. Her mind wandered back to around 10 years ago, when her father told her that she had to wear the veil.

Since she was little, she was happily willing to do it, not understanding what she was doing. By the time she had figured it out, she was so angry with her father that she had refused to speak to him. Now that he had died, she regretted that she never had the chance to forgive him. She had lost both her parents, so she had been forced to grow up and take responsibility for herself. But in so many ways was she still childish...

The "King of Thieves" trudged up the path to the Ishtar house. Sure, he didn't need to be there until nightfall, but he wanted to get a head start. Sometimes the house was further away than he thought it was.

Today had definitely not gone as he had expected it. His monthly confrontation with the Pharaoh had resulted in an irritated ruler kicking a "lowly thief" out instead of an honorable king giving an equally honorable king (of thieves) a humongous amount of gold and all the other riches a man could ask for.

Well, the temple of Hathor was on the way. In fact, there it was, about 20 feet away from him, across the street. Maybe he would see that famous priestess, the one who was so beautiful that she had to wear a veil.

"Why does the stupid house have to be so far away?" he grumbled as he kicked an unusually large pebble in his way. This only resulted in the pebble connecting with his foot and causing him major pain. He hopped about, cursing silently. Shortly after, an elderly farmer driving his cart by sort of ran over his foot. Not enough to cause serious pain, but enough to hurt.

"DAMN!!!" He sat down and massaged his foot as the elderly farmer continued on his way at a pace that could match a snail.

Athyr looked at farmer's cart passing by. This veil is so itchy, she thought. No one comes by here anyway. Maybe I can just take it off while no one can see me.

She closed her eyes as her hand slowly reached under her hair and untied the veil.

Good riddance, she thought as she let it flutter to the ground.

He raised his eyes just as she opened hers. Time stood still for just a moment, but that one moment changed both of their lives.

What he saw was the most beautiful girl standing on the steps of the temple looking sad and lonely.

What she saw was an extremely handsome man sitting on the ground staring at her in wonder.

Anyone could see that it was love at first sight.

He slowly stood, ignoring the building pain in his foot. He started walking over to where she stood.

She blinked. He was gone. Maybe I was just hallucinating, she thought as she bent to pick up the fallen veil.

As her hand closed over it, another hand touched hers. She looked up into a pair of tawny eyes with a sharpness to them that resembled that of a tiger. He quickly took back his hand and looked away, blushing. "Sorry," he mumbled.

"Oh, it's ok..." She let her voice trail off silently, as the two blushed and looked away from each other.

"Well, um...I'd better get going." She quickly stood up. "My brother probably is waiting for me..."

"Oh...ok..." He stood up too. "I have things to do too."

As she walked back up the steps, she tripped and fell down...almost. Bakura was there in a flash and caught her.

"Oh...umm...thank you," she blushed. Idiot! She thought. Why am I blushing so much?

"Uh...your welcome." Why can't I say anything?

Time stood still yet again, as they stared into each other's eyes. He slowly moved closer to her...

"HEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ATHYR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Athyr found herself sitting on the steps. Bakura had gently set her down and vanished. Her brother was running over with a big grin on his face.

"Sorry I'm so late. I ran into this girl at the market place...damn, she was pretty...and – hey! Why aren't you wearing your veil? You could get in big trouble! What if someone had seen you?"

"But someone did – "

"Athyr, there's no one around. Now let's go home."

As the two walked off, they were being watched. Bakura sat in a nearby tree. So, he thought, the girl is Marik's younger sister. Intriguing...they are nothing alike...

He sat in the tree, pondering when he would see her again, just as she was asking herself the same question.