Disclaimer: Ahem. I. Do. Not. Own. Yugioh. Satisfied?

So much has happened, though it's only been a few days since I've written. So I shall be short in my outlines, and I shall try to get right to the points. But as TRY is the key there, don't expect too much.

An interesting thing happened a few days ago; I believe it was the day after I wrote last.

Father was giving a speech to the city from one of the palace balconies, warning the citizens to watch out for a few white-skinned murderers we were trying to catch, with me at his side. I tried to look intelligent, but really I was thinking about Mana, and what it would be like to court her.

You can imagine my surprise when Father said, "And now my son, Prince Atemu and future Pharaoh of Egypt, will share with you his views on this matter." He prodded me forward, a positively HUGE smirk on his face. So this was a game to him? Well, I never back away from a challenge. Teo could definitely play at that game.

Trying to keep my voice relatively deep and smooth (This seems to be getting harder to do as of late.), I proceeded to say how I believed that these murderers were not in hiding, but that since out in the open is often the best place to hide anything you don't want seen, they were probably blending in among us. I then pointed to a random few pale-skinned men, stating that they could very well be the murderers.

To my great surprise, the two men began to panic and to shout that I was a 'cheating psychic,' and just from their actions, it was obvious that they were indeed the murderers we had been searching for! "Guards!" I yelled, and two of our palace guards stepped seemingly out of nowhere (I must learn how they DO that!) and brought the two to our palace dungeons.

Father closed off his public address as it was no longer necessary, and guided me from the balcony with a hand on my shoulder.

"That was excellent, son."

"What, my not making an idiot of myself by actually saying something intelligent, or for that extraordinary bit of luck?" I asked.

"Oh, that wasn't any luck. You had the gods' power in your finger when you pointed to those men, and now it is lodged in your soul. When I die, you will make a far greater pharaoh than I can even dream of being. You have no idea how proud I am of you."

I do believe I shall remember that for a long time. But something about his little speech scares me, specifically the part about his death and my becoming Pharaoh. I know I won't have to worry about this until I'm at least well into my twenties, but still... I try to imagine myself at that age... What will I be like at age twenty-five? Taller? I dearly hope; five scrolls tall isn't worth much. Deeper voice? Naturally. Married? Nearly surely. To Mana? Gods willing. With children? ... Beard? Now this is an amusing topic, and we made it into a game of sorts at our evening meal a few nights ago.

You see, Seto could now grow a small beard if he chose to, and Isis noticed this. So facial hair became the topic of conversation. We've had stranger evening meal topics, believe you me.

So anyway, Shaadii then suggested that since I haven't got one yet, we should guess what color my beard will be. This proved to be an impossible task, as my hair shouldn't even be humanly possible. Father guessed that my mustache will be afternoon sun and the roots of my beard midnight, and that at some point the midnight hair would fade to the bloody sunset color that the tips of my hair are. He also said that it might split into spikes and become a direct reflection of my head, at which we all had a good laugh. Mother recorded all our wild guesses on a bit papyrus that I shall keep rolled within this seemingly endless scroll to look back upon when I get my beard. That will be VERY amusing.

Mahaado seems to have caught whatever Seto has; he can't seem to stop sneezing. In fact, Mana tells me that her lessons with him have been canceled for the time being because of the threat of him sneezing and messing up a dangerous spell. Poor Mahaado. I do believe we are being unnecessarily cruel to him, but ah, As HE is the one that cannot stop sneezing...

Also, my courting Mana is to 'officially' begin soon. Father announced it to our high table at evening meal last night (Why does everything either funny, important or highly embarrassing happen at evening meal?), and the adults made quite a deal of it. Seto next to me (A/N: The seating is, ahem: Muka at the head, Atemu on his right, then Seto, Isis, Shaadii and Shimon, and Atemu's nameless mother on Muka's left, followed by Akunadin, Mahaado, Mana and Karim.) smirked to no end, and after everyone was done teasing Mana and me, he set a hand on my back and muttered a discreet 'Congratulations,' through a bite of wheat mesh.

It's an odd thing, my relationship with High Priest Seto. In some ways we are rivals, worst enemies even, such as in the world of acedemic achievement, or on the dueling field (Though at dueling I always win, might I add.). But in that sense we are also equals; we strive to be and achieve the same things, and so we are also like brothers, or best friends. We know what the other feels, though some of Seto's recent emotions and states of mind seem a bit alien to me. This makes him like an older brother. I can ask him about any subject, from my studies to girls to emotions to physical maturity even, and I know he will answer to the best of his knowledge and not regard me as a child.

It's strange, though. Seto, though only a few years older, can seem much more adult than I sometimes. He certainly looks it; he's tall and quite broad-shouldered, and the option of growing facial hair is open to him. He has been in love with a female, even kissed her. Sometimes this makes him seem more like a father, or a mentor maybe, than anything else.

He seems to know this, because after our meal he squeezed my shoulder and muttered, "If you want to talk, I don't have a lot of work to do tonight," before leaving for his chambers. Another thing about Seto: he treats personal matters as just that. I trust him with a lot, and in that I mean a LOT.

So later on last night I took Seto up on his offer. I knocked on the door upon reaching his chambers. He came to it, a scroll in hand.

"Come in," he mumbled, a quill in his mouth. He hurriedly wrote something down on the scroll, rolled it back up, and stuck it in a basket attached to his window with a rope, which he let down fall down a few floors below to the pages that wait at the palace gates. Each of us of high rank has one of these baskets somewhere in our chambers, to be able to quickly have a letter sent somewhere or to communicate with someone below.

"Who's the scroll going to?" I asked, going over to the window and watching as the basket knocked a page over the head. The teenager reached up absently and removed the scroll, read the address, and walked off into the city.

"Kisara, if you must know," he replied, coming to stand in back of me. His eyes followed the page until the boy was out of sight. He fingered his scarab necklace and closed his eyes for a minute, muttering something incomprehensible under his breath.

"Seto?" I asked, "Are you all right?"

He took a deep breath, but it was choked, and I saw a bit of moisture gather at the corners of his eyes. "Kisara... She's sick..." He turned away from me, and his shoulders shook. Something told me to stay quiet until he turned back to me.

"Sorry," he said, eyes again brimming. He walked in the direction of the door to his chambers and motioned for me to follow, leading me down the hall.

I asked where we were going, and he responded, "You came to talk, correct?"

I nodded, skipping a bit to keep up with his brisk stride.

"We're going to, don't worry. We just need to find a better place than my bedchamber. I'm afraid it's still a mess from when I was ill, and I really can't think straight in a messy room." That much was true. Seto is the very definition of 'neat freak.'

"So where are we going?" I asked again.

"Patience isn't really your thing, is it?"

"It's not my strong point, no," I answered, and he smirked.

"Didn't think so." We entered the front courtyard and he took my hand, suddenly ducking into a shadow.

"Wha-" I tried to say, but he covered my mouth with the hand that wasn't gripping one of my wrists.

"It's impossible to be sure you're conducting a private conversation in the palace, so we're not going to risk it. It's also easier to think where we're going. Come on."

I allowed him to lead me out of the palace and down into the city, then down to the Nile bank, to the small lagoon where I saved the girl from the crocodile during our Nile flooding festival. He removed his hand from over my mouth.

"I've been here," I commented, and he nodded.

"You're not the only one that sneaks out of the palace from time to time. I love this place. I took Kisara once... She loved it too." He shook his head and sat on a mossy rock, removing his sandals and allowing his feet to dip into the water.

"So I figured you'd want to talk, what with you courting Mana now and everything, and also, remember the discourse at evening meal the other night about beards and the like? I figured you'd feel a bit... unhappy about that. Whether it's the fact that you don't have one, or you being scared or worried or apprehensive about the change, or something else, I thought that was sure to make you feel something, at least."

I still wonder how he knew that, but all of my truly burning questions were about love, and courting, and kissing, and females in general. I could ask Seto about beards another day.

I sat next to him on the rock and also removed my sandals, but my feet didn't reach the water. Seto laughed and held my waist, holding me over the water so my feet got wet, then set me back down. I raised an eyebrow.

"Well, to get wet feet was your goal, wasn't it?"

I also laughed, and then we became silent for a few minutes. I thought over all that I wanted to ask about and Seto leaned back against the rock, gazing at the stars that were beginning to appear in the indigo sky.

"Whenever you're ready," he said, tracing a constellation in the air with his finger. "We've got all night, and morning too, I suppose, because there's no weekly magic lesson for you tomorrow morning as Mahaado won't be able to teach. I must admit, I believe he caught his illness from me. I feel sorry for him."

For a few minutes more neither of us talked, and then I finally asked, "What's love like?" I imagine that I must have sounded incredibly stupid, but as I had already said it, there was no going back. For an instant I felt that I didn't want to know the answer to the question I asked, but I also felt that I couldn't go without knowing. It was strange.

Seto smiled softly and absently ripped a bit at the moss on our rock.

"Love... what's it like? Your answer will be based on my personal experience and thus a but one-sided, but I can pretty much explain it. I can explain how it feels, anyway." He turned to look at me and I nodded for him to continue.

"Well... When you're in love... It's hard to describe, but I'll try. Your mind is never the same, really, and your first priority becomes, by instinct I guess, the wellbeing of the one you're in love with. At first your whole world revolves around them, and you feel like you can't get enough of them, their face, their voice, their arms, their personality... their kiss too, yes... and when you're around them, you feel like the ground is just spinning and spinning, and to stay up, you need to cling to them... It's a beautiful, wonderful, soaring sensation, and hours after you dance with whoever you love, you can still remember every move you made, and feel the music's beat within yourself... It almost becomes your heartbeat, and sometimes it seems to keep you alive, really."

He paused, fingering his scarab necklace much like he had earlier after he'd lowered the basket message down to the page.

"And you feel safer, yet more insecure... At first, when you find REAL love, it's confusing... You feel safe because when you're in your lover's arms, you feel perfect, accepted for anything and everything you are, and you feel so even more than when you're with a best friend, simply because your love is yours and only yours, and that makes them so special and dear to you... but you can also feel lost, because it can make you cry just to imagine yourself without them. It's an amazingly powerful emotion; it seems to consume you. I could go on for hours, but... That's basically what it is, though it pains me to only be able to explain it to you in words. It's really just so much more..."

"How do you know if you're in love?"

"As opposed to just an attraction to a particular person?"

I nodded.

"I'm not sure, honestly... I know that's not what you want to hear, but it's true. Everything seems to happen so fast... You blink, and your whole world is flipped upside down. I don't even know if there's a defining moment of 'when' you're in love, you just know, and when you know, it seems natural. It's like the first time someone comments that you've gotten noticeably taller. It's surprising, and you're uncomfortable with it, but then you start to like it when people say that about you, because it becomes very much a part of who you are. That's how it is with love, I suppose. It creeps up on you, and by the time you're actually aware of it, there's no escaping it. Does that answer your question?"

"Yes," I answered. I hesitated to ask what I did next, but my curiosity was too strong.

"Seto?"

"Mm hmm?"

"Can I ask you... a kind of personal question? I mean, you don't have to answer it, but-"

"Fire away."

I was unsure of how to word such a question as the one my whole being burned to ask, so I just took a deep breath and asked, straight out.

"What's it like to kiss?"

His brow furrowed and he took a few seconds before answering.

"It's wonderful. It's... Your first kiss... gods... Your mind seems to leave your body completely, and all that's there is power, and it's just you and the other person, no others, and nothing else matters as long as you're kissing... It's like a bond between the two people, a seal... a key fitting perfectly into a lock, and the door to this brilliant, incredible feeling that feels like it'll never end... it's embodied wonder."

"How does it happen?"

"What do you mean?"

"Kissing. How do both people know to kiss at the same time, and how do you know exactly where to put your face and all that?"

He smiled. "That's why it's so beautiful. You don't have to know. As long as you feel, that's all that matters. As long as you follow your heart in love, you don't have to worry about your body. It does the work for you."

Something about that scared me.

"But... what if your body... gets out of your control?"

"Well, it's out of your control when you're dancing, and kissing as well. But I guess I know what you mean. That's when you have to step in with your mind and tell yourself to resist doing whatever it was your body was trying to do, and that's important." He propped himself up on his elbows and caught my gaze, not letting it go. "Just stay true to yourself, and your heart, and your feelings, and don't worry. Why do your eyes reflect fear? Don't be scared. You've won countless gaming tournaments, you can speak and debate as well as, or better than, your father, you can fight as fiercely as a lion, and you're as strong in dealing with emotions as a this rock. Not everything will go your way, but if you're destined to be with someone, it works out that way. Trust in yourself, and in the other person, and in that power higher than us all, higher than the gods, higher than the sun even, that guides you to do everything you do. Listen to what it whispers to you every day, and I promise you, you'll be amazed with how comfortable you can feel with yourself. No matter what, you are still you. That is constant, and you can trust yourself, your WHOLE self, before anything else. It's like my scarab. Just remember that everything is worth living through, that it's worth it to glean a bit of knowledge from every situation, that whatever happens, no matter what changes about you, your soul will still be there, and that your heart remains your own."

I nodded, and I must have fallen asleep, because I woke up this morning in my bed. I sought out a servant and asked the time, and she said it was time for our midday meal. I noticed that Mahaado was absent, and that Seto was looking unusually tired. He set a hand on my shoulder.

"How are you?"

"Sleepy," I answered truthfully, and he laughed.

Seto laughed more than twice in a space of twenty-four hours. It's unsettling. Normally he's more serious that Father! But when he talks about love, or anything related to it, it's like a new, completely transformed Seto-thing takes over him.

So now I know what love is, but I'm still nearly as confused as I was before.

Oh well. I can always ask Seto. But I do believe we'll have to talk during the day next time. It's now night, and I can barely keep my eyes open!

-Atemu

Whew! That was a long one! I think it's my longest fanfic chapter ever, actually.

Spirit Seer, do you mean you like Seto better BECAUSE of the sensitive side I've coughinventedcough given him, or because you know it doesn't really exist? Oo;;; Hehe, yeah, I think Atemu and Mana are real cute together too. It should be like, CuteShipping or something. But ya know, it's called VaseShipping? Yeah, I don't really get that one either...

I think so too, Black-Caracal.

Thanks, norestar-angel!

Ah Ninqe, the Queen of Babbling, meant in the best of ways, yeah, I can see where you're comin' from about the ManaMahaado pairing. I like them too! But as this one is AtemuMana... I don't know exactly. Oo;;; Yeah... It's okay about asking about the published thing; I know what you mean, how you feel like you really know the people you meet online. I certainly feel like I've met you. Hehe, Seto and Kisara. RAWR! Hehehehehe... She can't even be all, "Go Seto!"... hehehehehehehe hahahahahahahaha hohohohohohohoho... I need to stop laughing and get a grip... oh man, that was funny... ah... heh. Yes, naughty Atemu indeed. Ya know, I think he's like, gonna come after my head with a rapier or something, I mean... in one fic I kill him off, in another he and his beloved aibou have a huge fight, in another he goes into depression, in this one he... has that li'l' accident... geez, I'd better start running... lol.

I'm glad you liked it, Ksaturn. Which part were you referring to? His 'accident' or after he and Mana dance and he wakes up and Muka's right there?

Well that's all for now, folks. See you next update!