Good news everyone! I got 100 reviews! Yay! I wasn't expecting to reach 100 yet, so as a treat I'm uploading the next chapter a day or so sooner than I'd planned. Here you go:gives chapter: lol anyway thanks so much for all your support. Keep those reviews coming! ...please?

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh.

Chapter 6

"…don't understand how it happened!"

"Bakura…"

"…tomb robber! How could he have Shadow powers? He doesn't have one of the Sennen Items!"

"I don't know. Why am I able to see visions without the Tauk? The gods are mysterious."

"Don't give me that, Seto! I know you're just as upset and confused as I am – you're getting as bad as Isis!"

"I'm not pretending not to be upset, Mahado! I almost lost Yami just now! How do you think I would feel if…"

"What!"

"I… The pharaoh was almost assassinated! Of course I'm upset."

I blearily opened my eyes, wincing at the burning pain along my collarbone. I lay in my chambers, propped carefully among feather pillows on my bed, with strips of cloth, tinged slightly red in places, wound tightly around my chest and shoulder. Seto and Mahado stood near the hallway entrance exchanging glares. Mahado wore an expression of worried disbelief – but Seto just looked haggard. Faint purple circles colored the skin just below his eyes and his tanned face was several shades paler than normal.

"I know you're worried, Seto, but you can't call him that," Mahado said quietly. "You know Shimon already suspects something between the two of you." He shook his head in a chastising sort of way.

"Shimon is a meddling old fool," Seto snapped.

"We've all seen the way he looks at you," Mahado replied, even more quietly than before. "It was only more obvious when you tried to avoid him."

Seto turned his head, a slight flush coloring his cheeks, and my heart skipped a beat. Were they talking about me? Had I been that obvious? But, just then Seto spotted my open eyes and the blood drained from his face once more as he rushed to my side. "Yami! How are you feeling?" he asked worriedly, ignoring Mahado's grunt of disapproval. Seto gripped my hand and anxiously examined my face.

I smiled; the burning pain in my shoulder forgotten as the warmth from his hand spread through my whole body and left a curious tingle where his fingers wrapped around mine. "I'm fine, Seto. What exactly happened?"

Seto exchanged a thoughtful glance with Mahado, who had approached the bed. "Your attacker… He must have had some sort of Shadow powers; he can shroud himself in darkness when he wants to hide. We think it was Bakura, the tomb robber Mahado's been after for a while now."

"You think? He got away, then?" I asked wearily, leaning back against the pillows and closing my eyes. The wound in my shoulder was starting to throb.

After a second, however, my eyes popped open again in surprise. Seto had started gently rubbing the back of my hand with his thumb! I could feel the heat rising to my cheeks – but when I chanced a glance at him I saw that he was only moving his thumb in an absentminded sort of way while he exchanged yet another meaningful glance with Mahado. Seto probably didn't even know he was doing it. Disappointing… but I could still enjoy the sensation. I nodded to myself and relaxed against the pillows again, discreetly staring at our joined hands.

"Yes, your Majesty," Mahado finally said. "When Seto found you injured, he was a little too… distracted… to chase after the thief."

Seto scowled. I stared at him in wonder, examining the guarded blue eyes under the heavy thatch of brown hair. "You found me? I thought I saw you…" I murmured.

Seto finally met my eyes. "The Rod banished enough of the darkness for me to see you; but when I discovered you lying on the ground… hurt like that…" A shadow passed over his face and he grimaced slightly before he continued. "I forgot about Bakura in the rush to get you help."

I smiled gratefully at Seto, feeling a rush of warmth spread through me at his statement. So he did still care about me, at least as a friend, and he had stopped avoiding me, even though it had taken me being attacked to make him forget about my attempt to kiss him... But, this time I would have to be sure not to act like anything more than a friend; I would hide my affection well enough that not even Shimon would suspect anything.

Seto's thumb kept stroking the back of my hand and I kept smiling, examining his face. His eyes really were a remarkable shade of blue…

Mahado cleared his throat. "Well, your Majesty, I'll go inform the others that you are awake. The healers might want to examine your wound."

"Yes, thank you, Mahado," I replied distractedly, barely noticing when he left the room. I was too busy eyeing Seto's soft, full lips. I wondered how they would feel pressed against mine…

"I mean, who does he think he is? How dare he treat you like that and expect you to just forgive him!"

I sighed and shifted into a more comfortable position on the couch. It looked like Yugi would be ranting for a while. Needless to say, he hadn't taken Seto's appearance this afternoon very well – though I could really understand Yugi's reaction; it was how I should have reacted, and I would have, if only Seto weren't just so… so… like… himself. A grin stretched across my cheeks as I remembered the way he had smiled when he left the game shop.

"WHY ARE YOU SMILING! THIS IS SERIOUS!"

I snapped out of my reverie and the grin quickly dropped off my face when I saw the glowering, red-faced teenager standing in front of me with clenched fists. Yugi glared menacingly – though I knew he was angry with Kaiba, not me, it was still a little unnerving – and crossed his arms across his chest, waiting for my response. I sighed. "Yugi, I already did forgive Kaiba. I know there's no excuse for what he did, but he apologized, and…"

"Apologized! Yami, what is the matter with you? You've been acting crazy ever since you and Kaiba… God, I can't even say it. He's treating you like you're worthless and you don't even care! Don't you have any self-respect anymore?" Yugi's voice had lost its angry shrill; now he just sounded tired. He plopped beside me on the couch and gave me a long, searching glance. "Yami, I hate to say it, but what makes you think he even really cares about you? How do you know you're not just some new toy to amuse him until he gets bored with you and tosses you away?"

I laughed softly at this. "Yugi, we both know that Kaiba is nothing like that. He either goes after something wholeheartedly – obsessively – or he doesn't care about it at all. He wouldn't bother with a fling."

Besides, I had seen the look on his face when he saw me in the window. Seto cared.

Yugi seemed a little comforted by this statement, though he still frowned sulkily. "Still, that's no excuse for him to treat you like that. Does he even know how upset you were? He owes you way more than a stupid apology," Yugi muttered.

"I know," I sighed. Truthfully, I hoped Seto would explain things to me later – I forgave him, but I really wanted to know why he ran out of his office that day. Was it something I did? Did I upset him somehow?

Hmm… Maybe being with Seto really was affecting my self-esteem.

Yugi started to say something else but he was cut off when something hit the front door with a loud thump. We both sprang to our feet in surprise and whirled to face the glass door of the game shop as it shuddered open, hampered by the weight of two white-haired teenagers pressed against it while they pawed at each other. "Hey!" Yugi cried. "Stop that, you'll break the door!"

His only response was Ryou's muffled moan.

"Don't make me get Jiichan's broom!" Yugi threatened crossly, and Bakura finally broke away from the other boy, smirking proudly.

"Sorry, Yugi, Bakura just attacked me," Ryou muttered as he wiped his mouth, glaring at the tomb robber, but Bakura ignored him and turned his smug smirk in my direction. I eyed him warily and involuntarily rubbed my left shoulder, remembering my recent flashbacks concerning Bakura.

He raised an eyebrow. "Well, Pharaoh, are things going well with you and the priest?" he droned.

"A little too well," Yugi muttered under his breath – but of course Bakura heard.

"Really?" he drawled, the smirk stealing across his face once more, and I fought a blush as Bakura stared at me for a moment before he added, "Good." Then, while I blinked in astonishment, my mind whirling furiously in an attempt to process this statement, he turned back to Ryou.

"Now where were we?"

I think Seto went a long way toward redeeming himself, at least as far as Yugi was concerned, when he called the next day instead of making me wait a week to hear from him again. About 5:00 that afternoon, I was downstairs helping Yugi clean up the living room when the phone rang. I absently answered as I dug bits of change, lint, and the odd food particles from the couch cushions.

"Hello?"

Pause. "Is this Yami?"

"Yes, who is this?" I replied somewhat breathlessly as I heaved a heavy cushion back into place and reached for another.

"It's Kaiba."

I dropped the cushion. "Oh! I'm sorry, Seto! I didn't recognize your voice!" I apologized, grinning broadly.

Yugi rolled his eyes.

"It's alright," Seto said. There was a long pause while I waited for him to say something else, but he stayed silent, until I almost began to wonder if he'd hung up.

"So… Did you want anything?" I finally ventured.

Another short pause. "To talk, I suppose."

"About what? Is something wrong?" I plopped onto the couch, narrowly missing Yugi's hands as he replaced the cushion I'd dropped, giving me a sarcastic glare.

"No…" Seto said.

The conversation lapsed into silence once more, but in spite of the awkwardness I couldn't fight the huge, jaw-cracking grin stuck across my cheeks when I realized that Seto had called me for no reason but to talk and without even a good excuse.

By this time Yugi was openly staring, warily eyeing my expression. "What did he say?" Yugi whispered.

"Nothing," I shrugged, still grinning joyfully, and fought a snigger at Yugi's bewildered face.

"So, do you want to come over?" I asked Seto.

After Mahado left, Seto still sat by my side, gently gripping my hand, though he didn't quite meet my gaze. I watched him cautiously, wanting to say something but afraid to break the tenuous truce between us. What do you say when the one you love is so close, but still so far? When all you want is to be near him; to hold him; but the moment you reach out you only drive him further away? How do you act to make sure that you won't lose what little you already have?

I, at least, couldn't think of any way to answer this. So I merely smiled at Seto once more before I relaxed against the pillows and closed my eyes.

"I'm glad you're all right," he murmured after a moment, giving my hand a slight squeeze – intentionally or not, I couldn't say.

"Thank you for taking care of me," I replied simply. I didn't dare open my eyes and look at him – was that too personal? How would he take that?

Seto laughed. "It wasn't just me, it was everyone. We were all worried. I don't think Shimon's given Mahado a moment's peace; he keeps pestering him about why he couldn't catch Bakura before this…though I think we can see how the thief kept getting away…" Seto's voice turned deadly serious when he started talking about Bakura, and finally curiosity made me open my eyes once again. Seto scowled dangerously, focused on some vague point on the wall, and his other hand had crept toward mine so that he gripped my palm between both of his.

I had to smile. That little show of protectiveness was heartening, even if it was just a priest's loyalty to his pharaoh, or even the desire to protect a friend, though of course I couldn't help wishing it were something more. But I tried not to get my hopes up too much.

Just then the sound of footsteps echoed through the hall and Seto let go of my hand and stepped away from the bed. My heart sank, but it was probably better that he did, since immediately afterward Shimon rushed to my side and began fussing over me in the most annoying way possible; feeling my forehead, inspecting my bandages, even prying open my eyelids and peering into my eyes. "Pharaoh, how are you feeling?" he questioned with a knowledgeable air. "Any strange pains? Dizziness?"

"Er… I didn't know you knew anything about medicine," I replied in confusion as Shimon pressed an ear against my chest to listen to my heartbeat.

"He doesn't," Seto put in dryly. "Shimon, why don't you let the healers do their job?"

At this, my old advisor reddened and backed away with a guilty glance at the group of healers clustered near the door (who were obviously trying to hide their laughter). I gave them a brief wave and they approached, examining my injury slightly more professionally than Shimon had. While they worked over me I glanced back at Shimon, who was busily glaring, still red-faced, at Seto, who ignored him.

"Where are the other priests?" I asked.

"Working," Shimon replied meaningfully, with one more foul glance at Seto. "Trying to locate the attacker."

A guilty frown flickered across Seto's face at this statement, though he still pointedly ignored Shimon. "I should join them, Pharaoh," he murmured, bowing respectfully. "Please excuse me."

I smiled reassuringly at him and nodded. "Thank you for staying with me, Seto."

He gave me the tiniest answering smile before he left.

I examined my reflection in the mirror for about the hundredth time in the last half hour. Seto had agreed to come by the game shop, though he didn't want to "sit around listening to that girl rant about friendship and watching the mutt stuff his face," as he had put it. Even though Yugi-tachi wouldn't be here today, I didn't argue, since Seto had decided he wanted to take me out instead.

So, now I painstakingly labored over my appearance, my heart thudding nervously all the while at the thought that I was going out with Seto. On a date. At least, I thought it was a date. Was it? What would we do?

Well, yes, of course it was a date. I mean, we were together now. Right?

I reddened slightly, even though there was no one around to embarrass me except my own reflection staring back at me with its deep red eyes and wild hair. I hoped Seto would think I looked nice at least; I wore a dark blue long-sleeved shirt with a low V-neck over tight black pants and black boots, not too different from my normal attire, but hopefully decent enough to impress him. I turned to the side, inspecting my appearance once more, when Yugi's – tired-sounding – voice called from the bottom of the stairs.

"Yami, Kaiba's here!"

I hurried down the stairs – slowing as I reached the bottom so I didn't look too eager – and strode over to where Seto stood waiting in the doorway. He looked a little uncomfortable – though this might have been because Yugi still held the front door open, tapping his foot impatiently in an obvious wish for Seto to leave – but gorgeous as always, wearing a long, black duster coat over black pants and a dark green button-up shirt. As soon as I reached him, Seto stepped up to me and, with a significant glance at Yugi, wrapped his arms around my waist and kissed me possessively.

As quickly as it had begun, the kiss ended and Seto stepped back. "Hello. Are you ready?" he asked.

"Er…" I replied, slightly dazed.

Seto smirked and lead me out the door with a hand on the small of my back. "Bye, Yugi," I finally managed to blurt out once we were outside, craning my neck around to see him still standing in the doorway. He rolled his eyes, but then smiled wryly and waved.