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Chapter 9: Private Thoughts

The once famous and dangerous Tomb Robber of ancient Egypt sat under the leaky roof of an abandoned house, carefully watching the shadows for any disturbance, guarding the Bakura's child with irritated vigilance.

He knew it was too late to contact Kaiba that night, so they wandered a couple of more hours. With no money and only the pocket knife Bakura had taken from the girl months ago as any sort of protection it was clear there options had been few. Even worse a thief knew a mother of a storm when he saw one. So with little time and no money, he used his intellect from thousands of years ago and created a plan. He took her to one of the abandoned buildings of the poor street corner they were on. Kicking in the boards around the door had been easy, comforting her into getting her to sleep had not.

"Are you sure this place is safe? I think I can see one of the boards in the ceiling about to fall in."

"Yes. It is as safe as we're going to get with out going back to your home. So go to sleep already."

"What if someone comes in?" He sighed, looked about from behind the musty couch they were hiding behind, and sighed again.

"Then I'll keep watch while you sleep, satisfied?" Kaede thought a moment.

"Alright, just walk me up in five hours, I'll take over." And without saying another word she curled up into a shivering ball and closed her eyes. In about a half hour her eye lids were flickering, telling the thief she was deep in the lands of dreams. For once in that whole entire day he sighed with relief, but not to loudly not to wake her. She was better asleep than wake, he hated the constant queries. Although, the spark in her eyes would be missed.

T.R shook his head hard.

"What the hell am I thinking?" He made himself go back to business than answer that question. And he did, for countless hours he ignored the stench of rotting floor boards and watched the through the dimness, his head up enough to see over the back board of the couch, with his human eyes. Being the black cat would help him see better, but if anyone actually came through the door, he wouldn't be able to protect the girl in such a small size, so that wasn't an option. He kept his eyes wide and finally couldn't ignore how badly she was shaking. Grumbling he took off his shirt, exposing his bare chest, and placed it over her carefully. Powers beyond him would've forced him to give her his other clothes for warmth but he knew very well that she would've wanted his clothes to stay on him. He had been aware she had been in bed with him that morning, due to her sister, and she had sleepily got out and slept on the chair. That had hurt a bit.

The extra warmth of the shirt made what ever dream she was having more pleasant, for that moment a smile slipped onto her face, and she uncoiled a bit, relaxed her muscles and brushed her check against his hand before turning over. It was that moment that he froze stiff for a puzzling second before turning back to his watch. Even shirtless, the sudden warmth on his hand somehow made him warm all night.

Early golden sun rays woke Kaede from a good dream she had been having, making the world seem pink from behind her eyes. For a few moments she felt she was sleeping in her own bed, that it wasn't a school day but a sunny Saturday morning. Yes, she could hear Mat snoring from his room. It must have been pretty loud to hear it through the wall, but it actually sounded close and soft to her ear. This puzzled her for a few moments, but her tired brain decided it was too early. Grabbing a handful of blanket she brought it to her face and turned back over. It was then that slightly damp floor met her hand and her eyes flew open as she shot up off the floor, the t-shirt gripped tightly in her fists and her breathing heavy for a few seconds.

Then it all came rushing back. The ring, the crazy violent thief from an old, the purple caped men, the bizarre plant reactions, and leave the house so suddenly with no supplies. All flying into her face as pleasantly as having a flashlight turned on point blank in the heart of darkness.

"What is wrong with me?" She muttered. Her eyes slipped from the blankness of the wall to the curious feeling in her hands, someone's shirt. A little startled she immediately looked to the couch and saw T.R. slumped over the decaying blue fabric, his eyes closed and his mouth open, snoring quietly with no shirt on. Looking back down to the stripped t in her hand an awkward feeling brushed over her mind slightly, making her but the clothing, spread out, across his back lightly before sitting down back on the floor, wondering what if she should wake him up or not. Watching him sleep for a few minutes she flinched and the sudden snarl in his sleep and the boy flipped onto the other side, still with his torso hanging over the back board and his feet slumped on the floor.

On second thought, he did stay up all night and it would be good to get a few hours of peace before his grumpy attitude awoke up.

"Look, if you had woken me up when I asked you and just listened to me when I said it might me better for you to get a few extra hours of sleep, then maybe, just maybe you wouldn't be so…so…irritable."

T.R. snarled in disagreement, but his eyes had lost their devious luminance and were only weary dim stars. Kaede found that she felt a bit more comfortable with this change. Why this was she had no idea; perhaps with the lack of sleep, her instinct said his wits and movement would be slow. In her mind she knew this wouldn't be true. In the bright daylight, it was easy to see that even through more than thirty hours with no sleep, his eyes didn't droop in anyway, and his mind was as sharp as ever. Maybe that was actually why she actually felt comfortable.

Giving up with what she felt, she awoke from his trance the instant before his outstretched arm blocked her path and halted. She gave him a small curious glance from the corner of her eye, eyes flashing in a bit of surprise at the wide-eyed sparkle and the large devious smirk dancing upon his lips. Something about this smile was ghastly. It was enough to feel more than startled. She felt curiously alarmed.

Turning her head a bit too fast to see what he was looking at, she was puzzled to see no CEO walking down the street with body guards, or purple caped men, but a regular city street. A large crowd of bored businessmen in suits kept checking their watches and continued to wait for the walk light to turn green. Some of the kids rushed by them playing tag and giving her odd looks as they walked off in the direction of the school, creating a path through the crowd like a mole through dirt, chiming with their laughter and mummers. A small group of huddled kids playing games on the sidewalk, careless to what time is was as well as the weekday. The cars darted by noisily, with the extra sound of enraged taxi drivers even at this hour of the morning, the cars spewing fumes up high into the blue sky, the steady tramp of feet of shoppers in the building across from them, the regular bell sound of the cash register, and of course the low drone of the trees planted perfectly along in the center of the side walk. Everything was normal, or as normal as life could be at the moment.

"…What's going on?" She asked, while whispering.

"…Fate."

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