1"Ankh Of Despair"

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Yay! I'm so happy that people like it so much! It would be great if you all could review for each new chapter, I only update because I have so many readers. If I only get one or two reviews for a chapter, it makes me want to postpone the updating even more, just because I think that only a couple people are reading it. I LOVE feedback! On with chapter nine!

DISCLAIMER: I do not own the show Yu-Gi-Oh or any of its characters. I own the plot of this story.

NOTES: /typing/ hikari to yami or yami to hikari. (I had to change it because two slashes in a row wasn't showing up. . . stupid disappearing symbols.)

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Seto Kaiba wasn't going to work today. He had woken up much too late to even think about going in. His alarm had gone off, yet he didn't even hear it. How had he not heard such an annoying chirp when it had been the same for years? Seto sat on his bed, rubbing his head in a puzzled, and partially disgusted, manner. Not only had he slept in, but the cause for this odd change was at the fault of a rather awkward dream. Sure he had had some pretty strange dreams about his stepfather and sometimes even Yugi and the others were in them, but never had he had one so. . . utterly disturbing.

He heaved a heavy sigh as a cook called 'breakfast'. He looked at the clock again, as though it were the object of his troubles and that it would glare back just as he did. Finding no argument from it, he stood from his bed and stumbled out into the hallway, receiving odd looks from a wide-eyed Mokuba.

"Seto? What are you doing at home? Aren't you supposed to be at work? Are you sick Seto? Is everything okay? Are you busy Se-"

The elder Kaiba put his index finger over his littler brothers' lips to silence his constant questioning, "I slept late. Perhaps I forgot to set the alarm." When this received not even the slightest reaction, he smiled lightly, "I won't be going to work today."

"Woooooooooohoooooooo!! Seto's stayin' home today!" Mokuba jumped up and down, giggling in a fit of excitement, and hugged his taller brother. Bounding down the stairs, he waved his arms about, yelling, "Seto's not going to work! Seto's not going to work!" In a very sing-song tone.

Seto took his time going downstairs, his mind still clouded with the memories of that dream. The way that Yami had. . . Seto shook his head. It all seemed so real. His thoughts drifted to that Ishtar woman's constant talk of the Priest and Pharaoh of the past. How he himself were priest and Yami were Pharaoh. "Her ridiculous jabber must have gone to my head." He shook his head in an amused manner while a smile played upon his lips.

"You gonna eat, big brother?" Mokuba shrill voice called up to him.

"Coming!" He quickened his pace. Apparently his musing had caused him to come to a dead halt. He entered the kitchen, being sure to paste a perfectly content expression on his face to keep his young brother from questioning.

As they ate, Seto began to muse to himself yet again, 'Heh, good thing Mokuba can't read minds.' He nearly chuckled out loud, but caught himself and shoveled another fork-load of egg into his mouth. 'If he were to see the images in my head, he'd probably say something like "Seto, yo-" '

"You're perverted!" His brother stuck out his tongue and giggled loudly as Seto's mouth burst open in a shower of chewed-up egg white.

"What?!"

"Hehehe, don't get so worked up big brother! I'm sure that you're not really perverted." He shrugged his shoulders and casually picked up a piece of bacon.

"You had best have a good explanation as to what possessed you to say that!" Seto was outraged, yet he had to fight the urge to blush. There was no way that Mokuba knew what he was thinking! There was just no way in Hell!

He giggled again, "I just had a funny dream where you were bein' nasty." Seto's face looked distorted, "Aww! Don't feel bad Seto! Yami Yugi and Yami Bakura were bein' nasty too. Especially Yami Bakura." His eyes opened wide and he blatantly shivered.

In a rush of worry and embarrassment, Seto lunged across the table, grabbing his bewildered little brother by the collar of his pajamas, "What did he do Mokuba?! What did thief Bakura do?!"

Mokuba looked as though he'd seen a ghost, "Well, he. . . wait. How did you know that Yami Bakura was a thief?"

Resting back in his rightful chair, Seto had officially lost his appetite. He pushed his plate away and ran a hand through his hair, "This can't be real. There is just no fuc-"

"Language." Mokuba warned.

Seto rolled his eyes, "There is just no freaking way that this can possibly be real!!" He stood, slamming his hands down on the table, startling a few maids, "I will not believe that we had the same dream! I refuse!!!" He stormed out of the room and up the stairs, leaving Mokuba by himself to decide whether or not he believed it.

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(scene switch)

"Hey Yuge, you wanna remind me why we're goin' to Kaiba's house again?"

Yugi sighed, "We're going to see if Mokuba would like to join us at the arcade. He's a cool kid and he's our friend. Just because he's Seto Kaiba's brother doesn't mean that you shoulder give him the cold shoulder."

Joey sighed, rolling his eyes, "Fine, whatever. I'm just really not in the mood to see moneybags today. Or ever again, really."

Yugi shook his head and giggled a bit, "Well, we won't be staying there long. Only long enough to ask Mokuba and take him with us. We still have to pick up Bakura and his Yami over at their place."

Joey arched an eyebrow, "Yami Bakura is coming?"

Yugi nodded and everyone turned from each other (except Yami Yugi and Yugi) and blushed, their faces contorted.

"What's the matter?" Yugi chimed in, "If he gives us any trouble, my Yami will put him in his place!"

"Can't we just tell Bakura that we changed our minds so that we don't have to pick them up?" Tea looked uneasy.

"Do you all have something against Bakura now?" Yugi frowned.

"Well, I don't know about those guys, but I had the weirdest dream last night." Tristan began, "It was back in ancient Egypt or something," This part made Yami Yugi's heart skip a beat, but Tristan continued, "and Yami Bakura was, like, a thief and stuff, and Kaiba was a priest and. . . they did some pretty funky stuff together." He cringed, "I don't really wanna go into detail." He looked to the others to see what they had to say, but received only gaping mouths and wide eyes.

"Dude!!" Joey yelled, "I had pretty much the same dream! Yami was there too! He was the Pharaoh and he liked Kaiba or somethin'!" He shivered, "I felt like I was gonna hurl!" He patted Yami, who was frowning quite a bit, on the back in a friendly manner, "I'm glad he isn't really like that! I'd have to kick his ass for bein' a fag!"

Barely resisting the urge to kill Joey, Yami looked to Tea, who had yet to give out her reason for being against Bakura, however he felt as though her reason were the same as the others, "And you, Tea. You had the same dream?" She nodded, pulling a sigh from the former Pharaoh, "Then we all had the same dream."

For a long while, they walked along to their destination in total silence. No one looked at each other, their eyes stayed in the directed in which they traveled. Each was either lost in his or her own thoughts or pondering what one of the others could be thinking about. Once they had reached the Kaiba Mansion, the uneasiness of the cold silence had been lifted and everyone felt relief wash over them.

Yugi stepped forward and rang the doorbell, prepared to smile brightly when someone answered.

The door swung open, revealing a relatively pissed Seto Kaiba, "I TOLD YOU! I AM NOT COMING IN TO WORK TO-" He blinked a few times, "Oh. . . it's you." His eyes had unintentionally locked with Yami's. He felt as though it were impossibly to blink or look away, and so his stood there, staring and probably looking pretty stupid.

"Who is it Seto?" Mokuba approached his brother soon after he had heard the yelling of his brother cease mid-word. He looked at the group that stood outside, "Oh, hey Yugi! Hey Joey, Tristan, Tea. . ." He giggled and blushed when his eyes locked onto the darker Yugi, and in a mocking voice, he said, "Hello, my Pharaoh." and erupted into a fit of uncontrollable laughter.

Yugi and the others took a step back, their faces struck with horror at the seeming coincidence that had just occurred. Yami and Seto blushed, both understanding the meaning, or possible meaning, of the younger boys joke, yet each not knowing that the other boy understood.

Yugi cleared has throat, "Um, well. . . we came to ask if Mokuba would like to come to the arcade with us." He grinned brightly, just as he had planned and Mokuba's face lit up.

"Who all is going?" Seto asked cooly, sounding like a parent.

"Well," Yugi began again, "It'll be me, Yami, Joey, Tea, Tristan, and the two Bakura's."

"Both of them? Even the psychopath?" He took a small step back as though the former thief would jump out at him at any given moment.

"Don't worry moneybags! The munchkin is safe with us! If that crazy albino tries anything, we'll kick his keister!" His held his right fist high in the air, a determined look playing upon his face.

An annoying tone broke in, turning a few heads to look for the source. Tea dug through her purse, retrieving her cell phone and flipping it open, "Hello?" A pause, "Oh, hey Bakura! . . . oh, you're his yami?" A longer pause, yet the sound of the tomb robbers voice came to the ears of the others in a muffled form, "What? Why?" She looked to the others as she listened to what sounded like an irritated yami, "Well, I'll ask him, okay? . . . I can't force him to go! . . . but-!"

She sighed, placing the phone back into her purse, "We need to bring Seto as well."

"Ha! No way in Hell." Seto folded his arms as if to say 'You can't make me!'

"Aww! Come on Kaiba! It'll be fun!" Yugi smiled nervously.

Truth was, the whole group found it disturbing that a disgruntled yami like Bakura's would request the presence of Seto Kaiba. They, however, didn't find it so surprising. It brought the disgusting images from the other night back into their minds, cause teeth to clench and bodies to shiver.

"Mokuba may go, but if he returns with a single scratch on his body, it'll be your ass Yami!" He blushed when Yami smirked and turned bright scarlet. The others giggled. Seto threw up his hands, "For Ra's sake! Get your minds out of the gutter!"

Everyone came to a halt. Yami raised an eyebrow, "Ra's sake?"

The door slammed shut and Mokuba kicked at the cement walkway, "I guess that we should be going now, right?"

"No, Mokuba, we have to convince your brother to go." Tea chewed at a hangnail.

"Why?" Mokuba tilted his head slightly.

Tea stopped chewing, "Because that schizo threatened to hurt Bakura if we didn't bring him!"

"Why would he want my brot-" He stopped, blushing again and shivering a bit.

"No, not for. . . what are you thinking?" Te'a and the others got curious now. The whole time the two groups had been speaking as though everyone knew of this dream.

"You see, Seto and I both had the exact same dream last night and well. . . Yami Bakura did some things to Seto that I'd rather not talk about!"

"Oh gods," Yami Yugi slapped his hand to his own forehead, "How many people had this dream?! It's embarrassing!!!"

Tea broke in, "He said that he wanted to talk to him about something important. He sounded pretty worked up."

Yugi sighed, "Well, I guess that means we're dragging Kaiba along whether he likes it or not."

/Yugi. . . I really don't like this./

/I know. . . I wonder how many people had this dream./

/What if everyone in Domino did?! Or worse, what if everyone in the entire world saw my affair with that priest?!?!/

/I don't know, I don't know. . . What can we possibly do???/

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And I'll stop the chapter right there. This will be the longest chapter I have written in my fanfiction career-thingy! Go me!! I hope that I wasn't too repetitive. I started to question myself as I was writing this. I was like "They're driving around." But then I thought, "When they're all talking about this, who's driving?" and "What kind of car would hold 8 people in Japan?" So then I came up with "Okay, they're walking from place to place." But that turned into, "But if they're walking, why can't the Bakura's just meet them there?" and "Why didn't they just call and ask Mokuba?" Well, I never answered those questions, so if the plot makes no since, then get over it! Lol. Okay, now that I'm done ranting, please, please PLEASE rate and review!!! Love you all (in a sisterly way)!

Keep checking back for chapter ten!!