spooky voice I'm BAAAACK. Haha. I have NOT updated in SOOOOOO friggen long. School is KILLING me!!! People say it's the grade I'm in now, and it should be easier when I get used to it. I read my profile, and I have changed A LOT. Yeah, ALOT. I refuse to believe I used to look like Ryou. He's waaaay to cute. I must have been drunk when I wrote my profile. Well, I was just doing my teacher's EVIIIIL history project when I remembered my fanfic and I went bleh, I have always written my fanfics when I do English of History papers. It gives me a reason to stay up later. It's almost 2:00 in the morning, my parents said I could stay up and gave me coffee, their so nice, but I'm so hyper now! They have no clue what I'm doing, everyone's asleep. We got the VIRUS dramatic music plays so the chapter I was typing got lost and I became sad.

Well, who cares about my life?

On with the fanfic

Discliamer: I do not own YGO……….

Bakura was young in his flash backs so was everyone else, imagine them as eleven-twelve year olds.

The name of the chapter is soooooo gay, but nothing else came to my mind.

Bakura's New Friends

After he played in the meadows, he sat on a rock and pondered whether or not he should go back to his dad. It didn't take long for him to decide not to.

The only question is… Where would he go?

He wanted to find out more about Marik, shrugging off his problem, he rose from the rock and tried to recall something. He remembered that he had once run an errand for a priestess named Isis. He laughed a bit at this memory because he remembered it was for a piece of jewelry. And he was sent back and forth for Ra knows how long until Isis was content with it. He could walk the route to their house in his sleep.

Let's just hope it was the same Isis. (a/n: cross your fingers)

He breathed in slowly and walked to the house. He walked along the row of shrines dedicated to Ra's descendants, facing one another on the Nile River. They lived between the hippo and eagle statues. He studied the front of the house, this is it. He advanced forward nervously and tried to be loud and silent at the same time, "Marik?!" He whispered through the door slit. "It's me, Bakura." There was no answer. "Mari-"

The door opened. Bakura gasped and was relieved at the same time to find Marik, beaming very widely. "It's you, I'm so glad you came, I was just thinking about you. Come in!"

Bakura stepped in. "Oooo! Nice house!" It was, but it was the typical house of a religious family. Decked with statues of all sizes and had scriptures everywhere.

"Thanks." He paused and gestured for Bakura sit on a padded mat. "What brings you here?"

Bakura looked up from poking the puffyness of his padded mat. "Oh, I wanted to get to know you better."

"Really?"

Bakura nodded. "When will your parents be back?"

Marik thought for a while. "Three days."

"Um, would you mind if I stay over at your house for a while? Like more than three days?"

Marik seemed troubled by this, "My parents would um…be …kind of hostile toward you. And they would ask how we met and I would have to tell them I left the house."

"No, no, do you have some kind of place…" he trailed off, "I'm sorry for asking."

But Marik had a sudden shine in his eyes. "A secret place?" He asked, emphasizing "Secret."

"Well…yeah."

"I have just the place, my parents will never know."

Marik led Bakura down a flight of stairs. WOW! They actually have stairs in their house, Bakura thought. (a/n: think Marik's house as it appears in the anime. I just made a few changes.)

Marik turned left and opened a door and walked into a room. Bakura looked around, the room was fairly plain, and there was a bed in the far left corner, a desk next to it, and a rack against the wall with clothes hanging from it. But as Bakura's eyes wandered further, he saw trap door in the ground. Marik went over and opened it. "it's used for storage," he explained, but everyone always makes me get the supplies, so there is a low risk for you to get caught and it's pretty spacious inside, you can easily hide."

They walked in, Marik was right, Bakura could jump up and down and run a few paces. But the only light source was the trap door that was still open.

"Is it alright?"

"Yeah, I can live in it, but is it always supposed to be this dark?"

"No, you can light a few oil lamps." Marik showed Bakura how light one. He explained that if too little oil were put the fire wouldn't light up. But putting too much oil would be alright. "But if you put a lot more than enough, the oil will risk spraying out of the oil container, then you would be wasting oil, and oil doesn't come cheap, you know." Then he handed Bakura the long rod that lit the fire. "Here, try lighting one."

Bakura held the rod and very clumsily, transferred some fire from the first one the second one.

Marik smiled, "good job!"

Bakura stayed at Marik's house for the next three days, with Marik's company for most of the day.

When Marik's parants came home, Marik had to blast the storage with very strong incense every day to get rid of the mice and bugs. He explained it to Bakura.

"Do you have to do it EVERYDAY?!" Bakura asked.

"Yeah, even if it's just wasting incense, because bugs and mice can't start up another colony overnight. But I still have to, they'll check."

"Where am I supposed to hide myself?"

"You don't have to hide yourself anymore…" Marik smiled, "Go back out the rest of Egypt. And…you can tell me about life out there."

Bakura smiled back "Sure thing."

"Well, what are you waiting for, go on. I have a room to purify."

Bakura went up the stairway that Marik told him to use to avoid being caught by his parents. Bakura ended up in the back of Marik's house. He scanned the sight before him. There where two things on his mind. Where he would go first and…whether or not his father would be looking for him.

The first day ran fairly well for Bakura, he managed to hear some news, watched many makeshift performances, and managed to sneak a ride in the back of someone's horse cart to a seaport in Alexandria. (a/n: Horses are faster than the caravan that Yami took.)

When he got back to Marik's house, he took the same flight of stairs he used to get out. And found Marik studying something at his desk.

"Marik!"

Marik turned around. "Bakura! Ra, you're FINALLY back. Do you have any idea what time it is?"

"You sound like some kind of mother."

"I know." Marik laughed. "It was really boring without you around. I prayed, had scripture lessons, then prayed some more and had more scripture lessons, then went the shrine to watch the junior priest become high priest, it was supposed to be dramatic because Ra was supposed to be there because the temple dancers were supposed to summon him, but I fell asleep, then my dad whacked my head with the pamphlet to wake me up, the whole things was like five hours, when I came home I prayed some more. Then I ate dinner, and now I'm here." Marik nodded.

"Oooookaaay." Bakura stared at Marik weirdly.

"Oh, I saved some leftovers for you!"

"Great." Bakura realized that the only thing he had eaten all day was the meat sample at a stall. He wolfed down the food that Marik had given him. "Fanks." He said, struggling to swallow the food accumulated in his mouth. Marik winced.

"What's the hurry?!"

"What? I was hungry!"

Bakura proceeded in showing Marik the things he collected from the market place and the imports from the seaport. (a/n: Hey, they rhyme!)

"Oooo," Marik said, holding up a piece of cloth, he seemed utterly dumbfounded. "What's this?"

"It's silk," Bakura replied. "I heard that these worms make it."

"Wow, Bugs making clothes?" He rubbed the cloth against his face "That is soooo cool!!! It's so smooth too."

"Yeah, but it takes an eternity to make a cloth the same size as the scrap your holding." (a/n: the lady who invened a more convenient way was born a long time later.) He paused "I think this merchant was going to present it to the royal family."

Marik stared wistfully at Bakura. "Your life is a million times more fun than mine."

"Yeah." Bakura admitted. Then he remembered his frusration when he couldn't read the labled boxes in the sea port, then glanced over to Marik's pile of books. "Marik, I was wondering. Can you teach me how to read?"

Marik shrugged. "Ok. But just to warn you I have never taught anyone to read before."

This lifestyle went on for over a year. Bakura only saw Marik at night and they would talk about their day, Bakura would share some things he got during the day, and Marik would teach Bakura how to read. Bakura felt happier than he had felt in a long time. Now he could actually read Marik's walls and the boxes at the port. He no longer saw chicken scratch, but a meaningful lines or sentences, even if it wasn't meant to be meaningful. And now he actually had a friend.

(a/n: I thought this was a good place to stop, but then I thought about the next time I would be able to update…So I just continued. Sorry if you get too bored.)

One night, when they were thirteen, Marik fed a juicy piece of information to Bakura. "Guess what I heard Isis telling mom and dad about?"

"What?"

"A box of golden things were found and given to the Pharaoh. The Pharaoh is to meets up with Isis, because one of the court seers felt some kind of energy coming from it. But he said that only Isis would have the power to determine the true fate and blah, blah, blah."

"So your sister really does have magical powers."

"I guess, but the important thing is that she gets to meet the Pharaoh. I was wondering if you wanted to come watch them with me."

"Why would they let me watch that?"

"They wont, they wont let me watch it either. Which is why we are going to sneak in."

"Ohhhhhh, I see. Do you have any idea where it is?"

"It's behind some fish gutting building and has an orphanage kind of concealing it. But I have no idea were it is, and that's where you come in."

"Hmmm…I think I've been there before, is it in a bad-ish neighborhood?"

"I think it is, to be discrete."

"Then I know where it is. The fish gutting place really smells."

It was some miracle that Marik's parent went on another pilgrimage the next day. This left Bakura and Marik a freedom to watch Isis without worrying about getting caught.

They left when Isis left, at sundown.

On the way there, Bakura said, "I think we should have code names, just in case we get separated and have to yell long distances at each other.

"Oh, ok, you can be…Arukab and I'll be Kiram"

"That's just our names spelled backward."

"Yeah, so?"

"Well, anyone that can read wouldn't know me. But they might figure that Kiram would mean Marik. How bout… Blondie!"

"What!? NO!!!"

"No one will ever suspect it, besides it doesn't really matter."

"Your right. Ok, I'll be Blondie and you'll be Arukab."

Bakura led them to the place and trying not to breath, they climbed to the top of the orphanage and jumped onto the roof of the shack the roof groaned under their weight, thank Ra they didn't notice, Bakura thought. The Pharaoh and Isis were already in there, accompanied by four guards and another guy. One of the guards took out a bundle and laid it on the table. Inside was a pile of gold objects, he laid them out and stood back. Bakura observed them closely. They all had the same symbol, an eye inside a pyramid. There were six items and one pile of golden pieces that was later explained as a puzzle. The Pharaoh took the puzzle pieces and gave them to the guy standing next to him. And heard "Give this to the prince, he likes puzzles." Isis was running her fingers over the items when the roof groaned again. But this time everyone looked up. And Bakura felt the roof give away.

They fell into the shack. Isis screamed and the pharaoh told the guards to catch them. Bakura turned to make sure Marik was alright. Marik was holding a piece of the roof and covering his face with it, he seemed to be looking if Bakura was alright too.

"Blondie, meet you back at your house in a couple days, after night fall."

"Yes, Arukab, now just run, and save yourself!" Marik ran off, Bakura did the same. The guards ran after them. They soon split apart and Marik ran toward his house along the Nile. Two guards ran after him and two ran after Bakura. It was surprising to him how out of shape the guards were and how the people around them seemed to be laughing and pointing. But he still needed somewhere to hide. A field with many horse carts caught his attention; they were parked out side a structure that Bakura knew usually held a gathering of wealthy people. He still ran in.

According to the sign, it was a lute contest. Probably something the rich people threw for their kids, Bakura thought. Then he heard someone yell, "Congratulations, ladies and gentlemen, she has done it again! She has won the annual lute contest for four years running!" Everyone cheered. Bakura looked in the direction everyone else was. A girl was standing on the stage, she was holding her lute and smiling as the announcer guy held her arm up and gave her some kind of pin.

Bakura gazed on at her, Wow…she's pretty. But, like most guys his age, his attention span soon switched to the guards that were chasing him. He wondered if they were still outside waiting for him. Everyone in the room seemed to be leaving and congratulating the girl, he tried to conceal himself in the crowd, for the guards were still outside. He knelt under a wagon and saw a lute case drop on the ground as a wagon moved away. And without thinking, he scooped up the case and dived into the wagon it fell out off and concealed himself with the cloths in the back. He didn't know who drove this wagon or where it was going, but at least he'll be safe. The blanket covering him was warm and stuffy. He soon fell asleep.

He felt the wagon stop, and surprisingly they didn't check the back for the lute. Their kid must have lost, Bakura thought. He thought whether or not he should give the lute back to them or not. He got out from under the blanket. From being underneath a blanket for so long, the night air was icy cold against his skin. He grabbed the blanket and draped it around his shoulders. He looked around, there was a big house and, very far away, Bakura could see the market place and the huts and shacks where the poorer people lived. He scanned the front of the big house, and there was a figure being illuminated from a light inside the room, Bakura squinted up.

It was the girl who had won the lute contest. That's strange, he thought. He thought for sure they would want an encore or something. He decided to drop the case off into her room and hide somewhere till morning. He climbed a tree leading to her window and carefully put it on the floor inside, but the case was difficult to handle, it dropped and made a great big noise.

The girl turned around with a start, Bakura knew for sure she would call for everyone in the whole household and scream and sob for a century. He withdrew himself from the window and was about to jump of the tree when he heard the girl call out, "Hey, you, boy, you have the handle to my lute case."

What? Did Bakura's ears deceive him? "Come back." The girl said again.

Bakura climbed into the room and gave the handle to the girl. Her room was quite plain, pretty much like Marik's room but with more accessories and not as much books.

"Are you a servant? Because you could have knocked and gave it to me."

"Wha- no, no I'm not a servant." Bakura examined her; she looked a lot like Marik's sister. Only her hair was a little longer and she looked around his own age. "I was running away from these gaurds and saw your lute fall out of your wagon, so I just picked it up and rode here."

"Oh…do you have a family?"

"Not really, I live with my friend."

"Do his parents actually allow you to live there?"

"No, I have to be gone all day so his parents wont catch me, I only see my friend at night."

"Oh, you must a lot of Egypt then." She looked sad. "I wish I knew a lot about Egypt. But I don't leave the house unless there is some party or contest that my parents want to show me off at."

"I can tell you a bit if you want."

She smiled, "You can! Oh, please do!"

So they talked and talked. Until they heard some movement outside the room, they looked out the window and saw that the sun was rising.

"I should go."

"Oh, alright." The girl said. "If you have time come back to visit me. And I would love to go out there with you some day."

Bakura was about to leave when he realized something. "We've been talking all night and we still don't know each other's names, my name is Bakura, what's yours?"

"Talibah."

"When can I come back?"

"Any afternoon will do."

"Okay, bye, Talibah."

"Bye, Bakura."

end chapter

Wow, that was the longest chapter I ever wrote. Lets hope you didn't fall asleep or something. Remember Talibah? One of Yami's brides? Bakura has now officially been promoted to character from character of staller. Please excuse my grammar and spelling, I kinda had to do this quickly. And PLEASE REVIEW!!!!!!!!