Oracleshipping (Rebecca x Ishizu)
(This is the last one that I missed, I swear! Now I'm all caught up and there won't be random chapters thrown into place anymore!)
Rebecca stared in awe at the giant statue of the pharaoh above her. The depicted man stood stiffly, arms at his sides and held in loose fists, only his left foot forward but without a bend in the knee. Rebecca tried for a moment to imagine the other Yugi wearing only a loincloth wrap and the striped headdress, and then flushed as the image turned to her Yugi and promptly tried not to think about it anymore. Besides, that headdress wouldn't have fit over Yugi's hair anyway. She wondered if the other Yugi had had hair like that three thousand years ago.
With thoughts like this, she flipped open her sketchbook and began a careful drawing of the statue. Just another three drawings to finish the assignment. She should probably go to another room; she doubted her teacher would be happy if she just turned in a whole bunch of Egyptian sketches, when the assignment was supposed to cover several thousand years worth of civilizations.
"Ooo, hey, it's little Miss Overachiever!"
Rebecca bristled, but did not look up from her drawing. She would not look at them, she decided. She would ignore them.
And she did, until one Melanie Fletcher yanked the sketchbook from her hands, causing Rebecca's pencil to leave a long, dark line across half of the page.
"Give that back, Melanie," Rebecca said, making a grab for it.
The tall red-head just grinned, holding it above her head and looking at the half finished statue.
"Whoa, you're actually doing the assignment?" Melanie said. "What a nerd."
"Give. It. Back."
Melanie grinned even wider, and tossed the sketchbook behind her where one of her flunkies caught it. The two girls, whose names Rebecca had never bothered to remember because they were practically interchangeable with any other girl in the entire high school (whenever Melanie got bored with her current group, they were switched out), started to flip through the sketchbook, making the appropriate giggles and snickers.
"I need that," Rebecca said.
"I've been looking all over the museum for you, you know," Melanie said. "Mr. K wants us to stay with our buddy system."
Rebecca glared at her, hands balled into fists.
"Give it back," she said.
"Seriously, you and your one track mind!" Melanie said, shaking her head.
She looked dubiously around the room.
"Still surrounding yourself with dusty old things, huh, Rebecca? I don't get it. What the heck is interesting about the stuff from dead people?"
"I guess your brain capacity just can't handle it," Rebecca said. "And yes, I do like to surround myself with dusty old things...why else do you think I skipped three grades to join high school?"
It took Melanie a second to realize that she had just been insulted. Then her face went red, and she took a step towards Rebecca. Rebecca nervously shifted back. Melanie was much taller than her, and Rebecca doubted she could handle the older girl in a fight.
"You think you're just soooo smart, don't you, nerd?" Melanie said. "That tongue is going to get you hurt."
"What are you going to do to me? Talk half the school into pretending that I don't exist? Because you've already done that," Rebecca said.
Rebecca was right back against the statue, and trying her best not to go past the low hanging barrier. She didn't want to ruin the statue.
Melanie didn't seem to have that many qualms. She stepped even closer.
"Stop," Rebecca said, but her voice shook a bit. "You're...going to make me hit the statue."
Melanie grinned – but it was a dark, cruel smile now.
"I know," she said. "You're going to be in sooo much trouble for touching."
She looked like she might push Rebecca right over. That was when a soft voice interrupted.
"Excuse me. Is there a problem here?"
Both girls glanced over. Rebecca's eyes widened.
She had never met Ishizu Ishtar in person before, but she was absolutely certain that this was who she was.
She was a tall, slender woman, with softly bronzed skin and kohl darkened eyes, her raven black hair gleaming across her off-the-shoulder canvas colored dress. She looked like she had stepped out of one of Rebecca's ancient history textbooks, like she belonged to a world three thousand years before. A golden circlet hung over her hair and onto her forehead, and matching golden rings were holding thick strands of hair in front of her shoulders.
Rebecca's mouth dropped open. Ishizu Ishtar. Right here. In this room. She had known the Egyptian exhibit was courtesy of the Egyptian Committee of Antiquities, which Ishizu headed, but the fact that Ishizu Ishtar herself was here...! Ever since Yugi had told her about Ishizu, she had done some research, and she had become one of Rebecca's heroes – a young woman who was still so well-established in the scholarly world, despite her young age, who had written hundreds of essays on history and given lectures that Rebecca had pored over, whose writing style was so academic and yet so beautiful and human – Ishizu Ishtar was here!
Melanie took a step back from Rebecca.
"Nope, nothing, sorry to bother you," she said.
She grabbed the sketchbook from her friend's hands and thrust it at Rebecca.
"This isn't over, nerd," she hissed.
Then she stalked off, grabbing her friends by the shoulders and practically dragging them to the next room. Rebecca let out a breath she hadn't known she had been holding. Then she turned to Ishizu.
"Are you all right?" Ishizu asked. "It looked like they were hurting you."
"I'm fine," Rebecca said, probably a little too quietly. She felt rather small in Ishizu's wide, calm presence. "Um...uh...you're...Ishizu Ishtar, right...?'
Ishizu blinked. Then she nodded, still looking surprised.
"Have we met?" she asked.
"N-no," Rebecca said. "U-um...I'm one of Yugi's friends. He told me about you. And I heard that you were the one who started this exhibit...so I guessed it must be you."
Ishizu was nodding now, her smile returning.
"One of Yugi's friends? My, it seems like he has those everywhere, doesn't he?"
Rebecca blushed.
"Yugi's very friendly," she said.
"He is indeed."
Rebecca ducked her head. She could feel a little bit of a blush growing across her cheeks.
"I – I've read a lot about you," Rebecca said. "You've been in charge of a lot of exhibits...and I listened to some of your history lectures on podcast."
You're like, one of my biggest heroes, she didn't say out loud. You're only like, nineteen or twenty, and you're already so established!
Ishizu blushed slightly, but she was still smiling.
"Oh, really? I've always thought those lectures were...lacking a bit. I hope you don't think too poorly of me from them."
"N-no!" Rebecca said, probably too forcefully. "I mean...no, your lectures were fantastic! I listened to the one about Egyptian religion, like four times. And I've started to try and teach myself hieratic, and one of the essays you wrote that's on the museum website really helped me understand the grammar."
She realized she was rambling, and ducked her head. But Ishizu looked impressed.
"You're teaching yourself to read hieratic?" she said. "My goodness. You certainly have ambition. How well can you read it?"
Rebecca blushed ever harder.
"Uh, well, I can sort of read the inscription on the statue," she said. "Something about...the great king who opened the heavens and flooded the Nile...a lot of them say stuff like that."
Ishizu was nodding, her eyes sparkling.
"Would you...oh, I'm sorry, but I don't think I got your name."
"Rebecca. Rebecca Hopkins," Rebecca said.
"Oh, my, are you related to Arthur Hopkins?"
Rebecca smiled now.
"He's my grandpa."
"Yes, I can see the resemblance now," Ishizu said. "I only met him once...during the excavation in Brazil a two years ago. He is a very kind and intelligent man; you should be happy to have him."
"I am, thank you," Rebecca said, still blushing.
"Miss Hopkins, then...would you perhaps be interested in seeing some tablets in the storage room? We weren't able to fit them into the exhibit here, but perhaps you'd like to see them...?"
"Oh, yes!" Rebecca said breathlessly.
Ishizu smiled. Rebecca jumped, and hurried to catch up to her as she started to walk.
"Where did the tablets come from?" she asked.
"Well, a colleague of mine found them in an unmarked tomb in the desert, and asked me to translate them..."
The pair walked away from the statue of the pharaoh, talking quietly, Rebecca asking questions and Ishizu answering with a smile. The pharaoh continued to stare over the exhibit, and watch over the artifacts, with a silent sigh.
A/N: I can totally see Rebecca idolizing Ishizu. They're both intelligent, after all. Okay, I filled in all the holes I missed, and hopefully these awkward chapters that I just flop into place won't be happening ever again! Next is Opticshipping (Pegasus x Shizuka).
