Disclaimer: I don't own it. It's not mine. Yugioh does not belong to me. Bug off.

By the way people, I have absolutely no idea as to Kisara's actual character, as I haven't seen those episodes yet, so... bear with me.

Well, now I can say that my courting Mana has 'officially' begun. So far it has gone very well. At first we were each very nervous, but now we're much more comfortable around each other, and I believe that we're each really beginning to enjoy this.

You see, yesterday was Father's birthday, and for some reason the villagers deem it absolutely necessary that it is celebrated by the whole city, and so a festival of sorts takes place. Except this one is held in and around the palace. So, I neither have to go in disguise, or be back by a certain time, as here IS back. This makes it a perfect opportunity for Mana and me to spend a day together.

I woke early, as usual, to bathe and dress. And I can tell you in one word how I felt, dressed in my usual white tunic, and that is stupid. So I did what I usually do when all looks helpless. I made my way to Seto's chambers. When in doubt, ask Seto. Poor Seto.

He opened the door in all of two seconds after I knocked and cracked a smile, opening the door wider.

"Come on in. I had a feeling you'd be here." He finished tying the straps of a pair of tan leather sandals with silvery threading and stood up. I have never been rendered speechless so suddenly, I can tell you that. Well, not completely speechless.

"Crap."

"What?" he asked, looking down at himself.

He was in palest beige robes with a silver belt, and the piece of cloth that ran through the bottom half of his robes was a cold, chilling, light blue with silver edging. The slightly belled sleeves of his robes had intricate designs stitched into them with the same silvery threading that held his sandals together. All his jewelery was silver, from an ankh earring to many bracelets and anklets varying in size and shape, to the wing he wore over his left ear, which was much like the gold ones I often wear, except it was silver.

"What is it?" he asked, starting to look a bit panicked at my (I'm sure) dumbfounded expression.

"You look twenty years old," I stated dryly. In my opinion, that's just not fair.

He sighed, laughing nervously. "Oh, this?" he queried, indicating his attire.

"Yes, that."

"That's why you came, isn't it?" he inquired, absently picking up a scroll, reading it, grabbing a loaded quill from behind his right ear and jotting something down, then tossing it into the ever-growing pile of scrolls in a corner of the room.

"So you want to impress Mana?"

I know I blushed, and I managed to mumble, "That was the idea."

"Well, come on then. Your clothes are in your room, not mine."

So with Seto's counsel, I ended up wearing a skirt (A/N: As in the bottom half of a tunic, people. NO, not a little girl ruffly thing.) dyed deep scarlet. The piece of cloth that ran through it was white with ruby stitching, and I wore a large gold collar, attached to which was a dark purple cape. I didn't wear a shirt, and I wore no jewelery except for a dangling gold earring in my left ear. My sandals were actually lent to me by Seto, black as the main part of my hair.

Just as the sun rose, and Seto and I were going to head down to the festivities' start, a knock came at my bedchamber door. I opened it to see Father, also dressed in somewhat fancier attire than usual.

"Father?"

"I have something for you."

"What?" I asked curiously, silently praying for it to be neither punishment or work.

"Atemu, this that I'm about to give you is like a right of passage in our bloodline. It's usually not passed on until the Crowned Prince is nearly twenty, but you have shown me maturity beyond your years, and I believe you are ready for the responsibility this comes with. You've gamed against masters, and won, you have harnessed amazing amounts of shadow power, the gods obviously favor you, and today you truly enter into adulthood; your whole day is to be spend in a female's company. Here."

He placed over my forehead a golden crown, a sharp Eye of Horus adorning the center. He conjured a mirror of shadows in front of me, and my reflection, not of the boy I'd known myself to be, but of a more mature-looking, adult me, shocked me. I don't usually see my whole face. I saw Seto smirk in back of me. Seto was amused. So be it.

Father started to leave the room, then turned back to me, saying, "Oh, and by the way, Mana will meet you in the throne room in half an hour, and Seto-"

Seto stepped forward, surprised. "Yes, Pharaoh?"

"Call him Muka," I said. Father sent me a Glare of Doom, and completely ignored my comment.

"How has Kisara been?"

Seto froze at this. Here he had himself in a tight spot. We of high rank are looked down upon for courting commoners, yet Seto knew Father knew he'd been communicating with Kisara.

"She's... She's been ill." He didn't look Father in the eye, but his voice noticeably cracked on the last word and he raised a hand to his eyes, no doubt to cover up the fact that they were watering.

"She has? Well, she must be better now." Father turned his back again, so it was impossible to read his mind by his facial expression.

"W-What makes you say that?"

"She asked me if I knew where she might find a certain High Priest Seto. It's funny how unrecognizable I am from the back, and another funny thing: She didn't seem to want to find you once she could see my face."

Seto was silent, waiting for Father to continue.

"I believe she's in the front courtyard," Father said, leaving with a dismissive wave of his hand.

For a minute Seto just stared after the spot where Father had left. Then he smiled.

"What?" I asked.

"Your father... just gave me his approval of my relationship with Kisara."

"But isn't that unofficially forbidden?"

"Not forbidden, just highly looked down upon. Normally, the parents of someone of our rank wouldn't allow it. But as I have no parents..."

"Kiss here while you can," I teased, and he smiled slyly.

"I will. Do you want to meet her?"

I had half an hour until I had to meet Mana, so I nodded.

When we arrived at the front courtyard, Seto said, "There she is. Come on." He led me to stand behind a bench, on which sat a female figure clad in royal cerulean, ice blue hair twisted into many intricately woven designs on her head, leaving a sheet of it to flow down her back. Seto put a finger to his lips, indicating for me to be quiet, sneaking up behind her. He threw his arms around her neck and she jumped in surprise, twisting about to look into Seto's eyes.

"Seto!"

"Hey, how are you? Are you feeling better?"

"Yes. Oh, it's so good to be outside again!" she replied, smiling, lifting her face up and kissing his cheek shyly, as seemed to be her nature. Seto responded by taking her hand and bringing her to stand next to him.

"Kisara, I'd like you to meet someone. Kisara, this is Prince Atemu, and Atemu, this is Kisara, the most beautiful and intelligent young woman in all of Egypt." She smiled softly and wrapped her arms around his neck, and he mirrored her smile, eyes dancing with a light I'd rarely seen them contain as he picked her up as a groom would hold a bride, and spun around. She laughed as the ends of her deep blue dress flapped in the wind and her hair whipped about wildly. With Seto in mainly ice blue and silver and her in such a shade of true blue, they appeared to be engulfed in a blue haze, until Seto finally stopped spinning and set her down lightly, kissing the top of her head. I raised an eyebrow and he laughed.

"Don't worry. Soon you'll be doing the same thing with Mana. Girls like it."

Kisara smiled and hugged him tightly, hiding her face in his neck, and he ran a hand through her hair. At this point I decided to leave them alone.

"I'm going to the throne room, to see if Mana gets there early," I said. Seto nodded, still smiling, and led Kisara over to a group of people dancing to a beat set by some village boys on drums and various string instruments.

I walked to the throne room and looked around in hopes of spotting Mana. No Mana yet. Father, sitting in his throne, saw me and beckoned me forward.

"Yes, Father?"

"No Mana yet?"

"No. But there's still a quarter-hour until we were supposed to meet."

"And I take it Seto found Kisara?"

"Yes."

He suddenly smirked, seemingly for no reason.

"What?" I asked.

He merely pointed to a spot in back of me, off a bit to my right. I followed the line of vision to one of the throne room doors, and spotted what he was smirking about.

Mana stood there, waiting for the flow of people to clear. Now, countless people have commented on Mans's looks, but even those people would have been astounded had they seen her then. She was in a flowing dress of deepest green that perfectly matched her eyes, multiple green satin ribbons tied in her thick blond hair at random intervals, creating many small ponytails all over her head. She wore no jewelery save for gold earrings that shimmered whenever she moved.

"She's beautiful," I muttered to myself. I heard a laugh, and turned to see that Father had come to stand right behind me.

"Have fun," he said, giving me a push forward. My cheeks felt like someone had set them on fire, and I took a few seconds to breathe before heading in the direction of the door to find Mana. As it turns out, she found me.

"Atemu," I heard a voice say from behind me. It was Mana, of course.

"Mana. Hello."

"Hi..."

We stood there for a few seconds, and at the same time I said, "You look really beautiful," and she said, "You look really handsome." Then both our faces became quite flushed, and we each turned away from the other for about a minute, before each turning back. I'm sure Father saw all this from his throne. It must have been good for his amusement.

I finally cleared my throat. "So... What would you like to do?" I asked her, mentally cursing myself for an idiot.

"Do you... want to go play games in one of the courtyards?"

She really knows what I like. It's lucky for me we are each such excellent gamers.

"Let's go," I said, grabbing her wrist. Together we plowed through the hoards of people to said games in said courtyard. There we found Seto and Kisara, playing Senet against each other. Seto finished the game and took her hand, helping her to stand from the Senet table before standing himself. Then he noticed Mana and me watching him, and whispered something to Kisara. She cast a sidelong glance in our direction and laughed, and the two of them walked toward us.

"Having a good time yet?" Seto asked me, after introducing the two females.

I blushed. "Yes," I muttered. Kisara whispered something to Mana, and soon Mana's face was also red, but she looked pleased at whatever comment Kisara had made.

"Have you two tried out the dancing yet?" Seto asked. I shook my head.

"No," Mana said. "We just met up. This is the first thing we've done." She seemed like a completely different person, suddenly. She was no longer the hyper, energetic Magician-in-Training I knew, but a beautiful, mature, intelligent young woman, and I have to say, I don't know which side I like better. The former makes her a great friend to play around with and gives her an excellent sense of humor, and the latter makes her a great friend to talk to. No, more than a friend.

Seto's eyes lit up at Mana's last comment, and he turned to face me. "In that case, I challenge you to a duel."

I accepted, and soon Seto and I were engaged in a full-out power battle. Our respective chosen female companions (I cannot think of anything else to call them. They're more than friends, yet they don't seem to have any title. I think that will have to change when I'm Pharaoh; we males can't go around calling our... whatever they should be called, our 'chosen female companions.') cheered us on, and also laughed with each other as I obliterated one of Seto's dragons with an army of Kuribohs. NEVER underestimate the power of the little fluff ball. Never, I tell you.

But soon Seto had me cornered. His dragons were becoming strong, and I couldn't attack him because of a spell he'd put up. There were whispers around us now; I haven't lost at dueling since I was... come to think of it, I can't even remember the last time I lost a duel, and I have VERY good memory.

So I just closed my eyes and prayed to Ra for something good... and I summoned him! As in THE Ra! It blasted each and every one of his dragons off the field with a single swipe of its tail. I have never even SEEN a god monster, and here one was looming in back of me, forty or fifty scrolls tall from head to the tip of its bright, scaly tail. I don't even know how it got there! The crowd watching us gasped collectively as the monsters disappeared. But Ra lingered for a second, and wrapped its wings around me. All I could see was a great, powerful fire before it dissolved into nothing.

I opened my eyes to see Seto kneeling next to me. I was lying on my back on the ground, and everyone in the courtyard was whispering or talking excitedly. Suddenly my stomach gave a lurch and I threw up on the ground next to me. My head spun around and I felt Seto support my head in his hands and shout something to Mana before I passed out a second time.

When I woke up (Mana says it was many hours later.), I was in our palace infirmary, on one of the feather mats on the ground. Something stirred to my right and I tossed a bit, but I couldn't move enough to see who it was that had moved. The figure next to me moved closer.

"Son? Are you up?"

I tried to mumble a 'yes,' but my throat was too dry. Father helped me to sit up by supporting my back while I put all my energy into moving, and I sighed in relief as my back came to rest on the wall of the semi-dark room. He handed me a goblet of water.

"Drink this, then talk."

I did so, downing the goblet thirstily. My insides felt parched, like the fire of Ra had entered my very bones.

"Are you all right?" Father asked, his brow knitting as his features became worried.

"Yes," I managed to choke out before a fit of coughing came over me. When I finally finished coughing, Father bent over me and put a hand to my chest. Shadows played around the point of contact for a second, then died down, and I found it easier to breathe.

"Better?" he asked. I nodded, not able to keep a few more coughs down.

"You summoned Ra."

I nodded.

"My fourteen-year-old son summoned Ra."

I closed my eyes and nodded. He placed a hand on my shoulder, and before I drifted back to sleep, I heard him murmur, "You have an incredible gift, my son."

So I woke up a few MORE hours later, you got it, coughing. A small hand shoved a goblet of water under my chin and I took it, first looking up to see Mana sitting on one side of my feather mattress with Father, and Seto and Kisara on my other side. When I finished the water, Father put the back of his hand to my forehead. He nodded in Seto's direction and Seto sighed, taking a few herbs out of a pouch on Kisara's lap.

"Sorry about this, 'Temu," he apologized, pulling down my sheet a bit and crushing the herbs in his hand, then placing the hand over my chest, whispering an incantation of some sort. All I know is that it hurt. My whole body felt like it was on fire all over again, and I screamed, unable to help it. It wasn't quick either. Seto kept his hand on my chest for nearly five minutes. When he finally removed it I was close to passing out. Seto looked stunned.

"What?" I asked weakly.

"You just went through that without fainting, after being burnt to a crisp by a god monster."

"And?"

"That's not supposed to be humanly possible."

We were all silent for a while, and I suppose I fell asleep again, because the next thing I knew, I opened my eyes and Mana was the only one still next to me, and the room was pitch-black. I could hear music drifting in from the festivities, the hours of dancing having begun.

"Atemu! How are you?"

I lifted myself on my elbows, and was surprised when I suddenly felt a wave of strength wash over me.

"Better. A lot better." I suddenly felt guilty. Mana and I were supposed to have fun, and instead she'd spent the entire day in the palace infirmary, watching me sleep.

"I'm sorry, Mana."

"Sorry? For what?" she asked, her eyes meeting mine.

"Well... I got hit by Ra... It ruined your day. I'm sorry," I apologized, hitting myself over the head with a mental ceramic bowl for again making myself sound like an idiot in front of Mana. She didn't seem to think so, though.

"It's okay, Princie. The weak ones need to be allowed time to rest."

"I'd watch it if I were you. You could be beheaded for insulting the Crowned Prince of Egypt."

She laughed. "But I know you'd never be that mean."

I smiled. She has a way with making me do that. Just seeing her face seems to make me happy. The music from outside could be heard for a few seconds as we became silent, and then I asked her, "Would you like to dance?"

"B-But you're... You can't even get up."

I surprised her by standing, sturdy as ever. I definitely felt better. I reached a hand down to where she knelt, bringing her to stand next to me.

"Come on. Let's go," I said. She smiled as I led her outside to where the dancing was taking place. The current tune was fast, with a strong beat. My heart seemed to fly out of my chest as I led Mana down the front steps of the palace and into the grass to mingle with the other dancers. I thanked the gods I knew this dance, from seeing it danced so many times.

Spin, whip, take female's left hand, right hand, turn, flow, flow, break, spin female outwards, bring female back to you, flow, flow, hold female's waist from behind, take female's right hand from behind, flip wrist to guide female so you're back to back, reverse just as female does so you end up facing each other, hold female's waist as she wraps her arms around your neck/sets her hands on your shoulders, flow... flow... flow...

By the time that one was over, my face was fully flushed from the physical exertion, and a new feeling was present in my stomach and chest. It was like pre-duel butterflies magnified a million times over. The band of villagers began a slow tune, and I recognized it as the one they always played last, to end at nearly exactly midnight. I hadn't realized it was really that late at night.

I blushed deeply, though it wasn't visible in the dark, as Mana set her hands on my shoulders. I responded by lightly setting my hands on her waist, asking her with my eyes if she was comfortable with the position of my hands. I'd done this only once before, the other day, when I was trying to comfort Mana. We were each half asleep then anyway, so I was being overly cautious this time just in case.

She must have sensed how tense I was, because she wrapped her arms tighter around my neck and laid her head on my shoulder. Something took off inside of me and I suddenly felt more confident, though my breathing was still a bit uneven. I tugged her a bit closer to me, and we continued to rotate slowly, continuing even long after the music ended. We didn't care. We were comfortable just existing to ourselves for a few more minutes, before we finally broke up. She looked into my eyes, her deep green gaze filled with something I had seen quite a bit lately, in the eyes of Kisara just that day when Seto surprised her from behind, in Seto's when they kissed at the Nile flooding festival's kaa dancing, and... in Father's, when he said, "You have an incredible gift, my son."

Thinking back on it now, I try to imagine just how much there is contained in that look people's eyes get. It's love, and hope, maybe a bit of sadness, like when Father told me he thought I'd be a greater Pharaoh than even him, emotion of all kinds, running wild, set free, all in that one look, the one that shone within Mana's eyes as we just stood there, wrapped in each other's arms. And something played about the corners of her mouth. It wasn't a smile, a smirk, or a frown, and nothing in between, even. But it wasn't normal, I know that. A rare breeze swept a bit of her hair into the air and into her eyes, and I gently reached up and brushed the silky lock from her face. She smiled, and I nuzzled our faces together in a butterfly kiss. I wasn't ready for lips yet, and neither was Mana. But this fit us perfectly, so we stuck with it.

Finally I brought her back to her bedchamber, and then headed back to my own. I practically collapsed on my feather bed, emotions flying crazily about within me. But they were good ones. In fact, it was the best I'd felt since... a time I can't remember.

So that was my first day of courting Mana. I think I did a pretty good job. What do you think? Of course, it's perfectly useless to ask you your opinion, as you are but a papyrus scroll... oh well.

-Atemu

Thanks, Ksaturn.

norestar-angel, boys ARE weird, but we're no less weird to them as they are to us. Scary thought there, ne? Wow, thanks for the compliment. -hugs-

How'd you like this 'date,' Spirit Seer? I know I'll probably get hate mail for making most of it about him and Ra and all that, but... that's how it came to me. -ducks blows- Yeah, Seto's ancient Egyptian character DOES have quite the ego going, but he's also dedicated to his Pharaoh to the point where he's all, "It is our duty to serve Pharaoh, in both present and future time, no matter what the cost!" or something like that. So yeah... oo;;; Ah... heh heh...

Ninqe, bravo means that something was well done, well, it's a phrase used to express your opinion that something was well done. Yeah, that's it. 00;;; Yeah, Kaiba's pretty blind to the obvious about the whole magic deal, but then again... what would you think? You'd better start running from him though; if you made him blind, he'll have to get a sound-centered laptop, and then... There goes his little world of silence. I think Kisara appreciated that cup of hot chocolate and hug, as she's better now. Mahaado... that's a different torture story. Poor Mahaado... Nah, dear old Mucus is gonna stick it out for a while still. 'Temu's only fourteen, remember. I place him as being seventeen as a Pharaoh, so that gives Mucus a few more years. Ah... heh heh...

So there y'all go! That is the longest chapter I've ever written of a fanfic story! Hope everyone liked it!