First off, let me begin with a big thanks to Sunrise Phoenix for reviewing!

Hello, everyone! Since it is Halloween, I was watching a few of my favorite flicks and of course on the op of that list is "The Corpse Bride" from Tim Burton. A thought occurred to me and as a lot of my other fan fictions come about it was also a dream I had: What if somethings were changed, such as the characters involved? Let's give it a try! I present to you: The Mummy Groom! I do not own rights to the characters of "The Corpse Bride" nor Yu-Gi-Oh!

I hope you enjoy!

Summary: To save their family from the poorhouse, the head of the Gardner family has arranged for his daughter to marry the wealthy Kaiba's heir. Neither of the involved young adults wish for the union but what are they to do? Tea, distraught, decides to run away…but maybe that is the wrong choice of words. A mysterious man appears and offers a solution when an accident occurs.

The Mummy Groom

What a Terrible Day for a Wedding

Yugi quickly slipped on his jacket as she disappeared from sight. What did she mean "goodbye"? He hurried after her, carefully following the same path he saw her take, and came to a halt before a crossroads. This wasn't a way that she was known to take and lead to somewhere that she would never go. His eyes darted across the brick street but the rain made it impossible to spot her footprints. A hand fell on his shoulder, nearly startling him, and his lips lifted into a smile as the bellmen offered greetings. "Hello, Joseph and Tristan. Horrible weather, isn't it?"

The blonde rolled his eyes, casting a glance up at the sky. "Eh, I think it'll be gone by the wedding." He grunted as Tristan suddenly elbowed him in the side. "Hey, watch it! What was that even for?"

"There's going to be a wedding?" Yugi tilted his head, blinking in surprise. There weren't many people their age in town, handful of girls with even more boys with a few couples rumored. "Who?"

"You probably don't want to know." Tristan shook his head. "I feel so bad for her though. To be paired with someone like Kaiba is the worst thing that can happen to anyone."

The Mutou was taken aback. Kaiba was to marry someone?! All in town knew of that family and were well aware that the heir, Seto, was a frightful man indeed. He was never physically violent but his cold exterior was more than enough to demand respect. "I can't believe it. Who is the poor girl?" A flash of lightning and clap of thunder as they chorused the name, almost as if they were attempting to drown out the unfortunate bride's name, but the widening of his eyes told of his realization. The umbrella fell from his hand as his thoughts began to race. Her surprise visit, the look on her face as she said goodbye, it was all beginning to make sense. "I saw her earlier, this explains why she was acting the way she was." His hand rose and dragged down his face, the icy rain failing to compare to the grief he held for his dear friend. The pair excused themselves as the clock tower began to chime and though they encouraged him to return home he remained in the rain even as the sky began to darken. His worry was momentarily overshadowed by anger when he spotted her father walking down one of the neighboring streets and he quickly intervened.

The man's lips lifted into what almost seemed to be a satisfied smile as the angry youth approached him. "Ah, if it isn't Mutou." His sneer didn't waiver when he was asked what had he done and none too surprising cackled. "The expression on your face says it all, I know you've heard the news. Looks like you'll be spending more time with your dusty games."

"Why?" Yugi shook his head in disbelief. "Did you do this just to spite the relationship that we had?"

"No man and woman should share in each other's company as much as you two did, it was unnatural!" The man spat, displeasure dripping in his voice as if it were venom. "The way you two would smile at each other and go off with each other for long hours by yourselves was scandalous! No one in town was going to marry my daughter with you hanging around so I did what I had to! Our family was in enough trouble with our lacking financials so I made an agreement with the Kaiba's in exchange for my daughter and my connections. Small prices to pay, if you ask me!"

Yugi was a calm person who rarely ever lost his temper, some have called him the most patient in town, but hearing what he just did caused something within him to snap. His lilac hued eyes narrowed and briefly flashed with a red hint of anger. "Tea is a person, not a bartering chip! How could you sell your own daughter?!"

The man grabbed Yugi and shoved him against the alley wall with a bark of a laugh. "I brought her into this world with the cost of her own mother's life, it is my right as her father to do as I please with her." His sneer returned as he leaned close enough to the young man so that his nasty breath wafted Yugi's face. "Go home, Mutou. You have no business with our family from here on out. Stay away from her if you know what's good for you." And then he was gone, disappearing into the lowliest tavern in town.

His anger for the man truly knew no bounds. Tea had confided in Yugi several times of how her life was at home despite the smiles she wore outside their home but to hear just how much the man didn't value the girl was almost too much. He cursed their society under his breath as he walked past the tavern, eyes widening as he overheard her father's loud scoff of how she had run off and hadn't been seen for several hours. "Oh, no, Tea, tell me you didn't…" Yugi's breath hitched as a strange feeling passed through his being that radiated from one of the trinkets his grandfather had given him. He quickly retrieved it from within his clothing, a small upside down pyramid with the Eye of Horus upon it, and found it pulsing with a faint glow. The softest of whispers tickled his ear and he knew where to go.

. . . .

Seto rested his head against his closed fist as he reclined behind his desk. The preparations had gone on without much of a hitch, despite the lacking presence of the bride, but he doubted that she would care of what flowers were whatever color. Not that he blamed her, he wished he could have also dissipated like smoke as she had. For hours he had to listen to planner upon planner fuss over everything from wardrobes to color palettes. How he wish that he didn't have to endure it all. A pounding came from his office door just a split second before it was blown open by the dreaded man he was forced to call father. "I've had enough for one day, you said we were finished."

"We've run into a bit of a problem, Seto, so look alive. One of the many things I have taught you is that no plan is set in stone, that things can change so it's best to roll with the punches." Gozaburo moved to stand before the large window, his eyes paying no mind to the matter s the raindrops made across the glass. "It appears that your bride-to-be has fled without a trace. Not everyone is as capable of handling the pressure of what needs to be done." He scoffed at Seto's nearly hopeful expression. "Sorry to disappoint but the wedding is still on."

Their attention shifted back to the door as a knock sounded and a man dressed in overly extravagant, even by their means, clothing and had pure white hair sticking up in various directions despite it being pulled back into a low ponytail. His skin was almost just as pale as his hair but the blue in his eyes gave away his relation to the Gardners. "Ah, good evening, gentlemen."

"I believe you are his younger brother, Bakura, is that correct?"

The guest bowed lowly, lips lifting into a smile as he relished in the adrenaline still pumping through his veins from earlier. The tavern owner hadn't even noticed that he slipped something into his "brother's" drink, something so potent yet untraceable even if the law had been involved. He truly would never forget the feeling of his brother's heart struggling beneath his hand nor will he ever tire of recalling the way the light had left his eyes.

"Can you repeat to my son what you witnessed this evening?"

Bakura's expression flashed with grief as he straightened and turned to Seto. "My dear brother was telling me all about your impending union when he suddenly collapsed without warning. I am a visitor so it took me a while to find a doctor and by the time I did he was already…" His hand came up to dab at his eyes as though he were fighting tears but it was used to cover the sinister sneer he let slip. This was all going perfectly, he couldn't have asked for a better scenario. Never would he have guessed that meeting up with his brother the other night would lead to this prosperous turn fo events. To think that his selfish brother would barter his own daughter for a fortune of this size proved that they truly were siblings. However, he had far more finesse than his recently departed older brother. "I beg your pardon, I'm still a bit shaken, but he would want this seen through until the end. That is why I have stepped forward today as the head so that my poor niece does not have to walk herself down the aisle."

. . . .

He had found the museum door open, but he ignored it as he focused on not slipping on the puddles that littered the marble floors. There was no mistaking it, she had gone this way. "Tea?" Yugi called as he searched the rooms, his alarm growing when he received no answer. He searched every exhibit twice but the puddles ended at the fireplace that they never used. Flipping the nearby switch caused the little lantern above the fireplace to turn on, casting enough of a light for him to spot familiar clothing laid out. She had been wearing them and now they were laid out as though they had been drying. His eyes widened when he spotted a familiar artifact within the soot of the fireplace and felt his stomach drop as he bent to search. "Branch of lavender…looks like broken pieces of that wooden stick that gramps thinks is a staff…ripped strips of what looks like the cloth we had received, that's going to sit well with him…" His breath caught as he came across an ivory brooch that he had never seen before. Had it been pinned to the fabric without anyone knowing? The faintest sounds of drums caused his attention to shift to one of the nearby crates, hoping against all things that what he thought wasn't true, and slowly removed the top.

Inside was one of his grandfather's most treasured finds and most valuable artifact in the world: The Book of the Dead. That he was handling it was enough to boggle his mind but it was too shaken by the fact that it was open when he lifted the lid. His eyes darted over the pages and felt as though a rock settled in his stomach. The page it had turned to was one of the pages his grandfather had warned about most, that the spell upon its pages could revive the dead or send one to the underworld.

. . . .

She shifted as something warm enclosed around her, filling her senses with the scents of sandalwood and water lily. A hand was gently caressing the top of her head with fingers lighter than a feather. It retreated as her eyelids fluttered and she flinched slightly as something glimmered brightly. "Five more minutes…"

"Forgive me," a deep masculine voice whispered as she made to snuggle back into whatever was around her. "I did not wish to disturb you." She was instantly awake as the unfamiliar voice caused her heart to quicken and she bolted upright, clinging to the fabric around her. Her movements stalled as her eyes found striking amethyst that caused warmth to fill her being the longer their gazes held. He had retreated slightly so as to give her space, offering her a soft smile as she simply stared at him in wonder, and couldn't suppress a light chuckle when she blinked up at him for several seconds but remained where he was even as she reached up to touch his face.

His skin was the darkest shade she had ever seen, making her skin almost seem like milk as her fingertips brushed against his cheek, but there wasn't any warmth under them as she gently traced his jawline. She had initially thought he was Yugi, what with their strikingly similar eye colors and wild hair, but his features were much more defined and his eyes seemed to glitter as though they were gems. Realizing that she had been touching him without permission, she quickly retracted her hand as heat flooded her face. "S-so sorry, I shouldn't have done that."

He shook his head, the Eye of Horus upon his forehead glittering as it caught the light coming from above them. This caused her to look around for the first time, earning a gasp in awe at the canopy around them. She had never before seen cloth this white and it was incredibly soft to the touch! "I do not mind." Her attention shifted back to the stranger before her as he offered his left hand. Tea's eyes widened as his bandaged hand grasped her own and felt skeletal fingers faintly squeeze her own. "We shall be learning many new things about each other in the days to come."

This caused her to jump to her feet, suppressing a shriek as his hand came with her and she held perfectly still as he retreated it with an apology. Tea closed her eyes for several seconds, mumbling that this was all nothing more than a dream and that she would wake up in her own bed soon, but a feeling of dread filled her when he still remained after she had opened her eyes. "You're…not a figment of my imagination, right?" she asked, searching his eyes for any hint of foul play but found only sincere concern as he slowly nodded. Her eyes traveled down his being and took notice that his left hand was wrapped in bandages but also what was visible of his right leg and there looked to be missing flesh on his torso that caused the clothing he wore to flutter as a light breeze swept past. The dots began to connect in her mind as spotted the golden bands decorating his being and would have fallen as her knees buckled if it weren't for his quick catch.

"Are you alright?" His concern and worry were evident in his voice, providing her a little comfort, but she contain her confusion any further and asked what he had meant before. He debated on moving her back to the bed but dismissed the thought and took a deep breath as their gazes met. "The answer to your question is a long one. Are you well enough to take a walk with me?"

Big thanks to Sunrise Phoenix for reviewing!

Ooooooo things are getting interesting! See you next time!