First update of the new schedule! YAY So from now on updates are gonna be Wednesday night/Thursday morning to better fit everyone's schedule ^^ Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Dedications: to my wonderful reviewers who stayed with me and put up with my long absences ^^

As always read, review, comment, critique, ask questions and go nuts! Now the moment you've all been waiting for! Yugi's reaction!

Chapter XXVI: Persuasion

Yugi ran until he was exhausted. Too exhausted even to cry. He robotically found his room and collapsed in one of the chairs. He didn't bother with the bed or the blankets. Food had been left on the table: a combination of fresh, juicy pomegranates, dates glazed with sweet-smelling honey, and two separate plates of Nile carp lathered in butter and seasoned with his favorite combination of spices. The scent of them filled his nostrils and adrenaline forced him up. He scowled at the meal and enraged with a sudden strength, scattered it and across the floor with a single swipe of his arm. The table crashed, chair fell over and plates landed in thick, clay pieces.

His strength drained, he dragged himself to the coach and collapsed, sobbing in an expensive pillow.

The servants, wisely, left him alone.

X X X

His sleep had been short and uneasy. He'd awoken, not even an hour later to footsteps crossing the threshold to his private chambers. He pushed his face deeper into the pillow "Go away!" He commanded in a scratchy, hissing voice rough from screaming and crying, "I don't want to see anyone! Least of all you!"

The answer was a giggle like a string of bells. "Not even me, habibi?"

He sat up and spun to her and watched as Mut approached him carefully. She sat on the end of the coach, her arms opened but never once moving to embrace him. He threw himself into her arms and let her warm arms encircle his back. His cheeks were wet and raw with tears, his eyes puffy and red from crying, his limbs felt heavy and weak, but in Mut's arms he found sanctuary.

"Yugi?" she said softly, almost apologetically. Yugi pulled away and found her eyes clouded with worry and her pretty mouth was a small frown.

Dread seeped into his heart and it sank into his stomach. "No…"his voice was a broken whisper and he backed away from her. "No…Mut…you can't be…please, tell me you aren't considering this?" He pleaded desperately. "Please…" Don't make me marry him.

She closed her eyes and breathed. Her mouth set in a small frown. His heart sank further. When she spoke, her voice was even and steep. "I approve of his proposal. He'll make a fine husband." She said with conclusion.

Yugi stumbled backwards and backed away from her. "You…approve?" He gasped, horrified. "We're speaking of marriage, Mut, my marriage to…" He couldn't finish the sentence. Couldn't say his name. Like the silence somehow made it less real.

"Yes," Mut spoke, her voice scolding. "It is not your responsibility to negotiate your own marriage. It is the duty of mothers and sisters and aunts, and for fathers to approve. Kin, who know you well, and know what you need in a husband. It is time you were married, habibi," she said gently with her voice steady. "You are young, Yugi. You are upset and angry now, but I also know you have thought of this before. We've spoke often of it, and I remember it well." Her tone was even and patient. "Look me in the eye and tell me you haven't thought of it?"

He wanted to protest it. He opened his mouth to do so, but the sharpness in her eyes made his shoulders shake and the words died in his throat. The worst part was, he had thought of it. Had he not imagined it just that morning? Imagined the House of Amun decked in all its finery, his father's statue shining in its resplendent prime? His sister reading the chants honoring Mut and Amun, and Pas drawing up the contract with King Dartz as a witness?

Timaeus at the end of the chapel waiting for him…and the two of them together pressing their signatures permanently into the stone. Hadn't he imagined them on the helm of that magnificent ship, Kemet at their backs and the vast open sea before them? All those possibilities and hopeful dreams?

His eyes lowered and he turned his head, his mouth was set in a frown but he made no effort to verbally protest. He collapsed in a chair. His heavy head flopped into his hands with the tips of his fingers massaging his temples. "I can't do this, Mut," he said shakily. "I can't."

Mut stood and placed her warm hands on the backs of his shoulders. He made no effort to stop her.

"Nothing would please me more to see you wedded to a kind man who would love and honor you well and make you happy." Her words were soft but her eyes were sharp. "He's very fond of you, Yugi, I've seen it in his eyes," She paused then added with a firm smile. "I know you liked him. You like him still. I see it growing every day. Don't even try and deny it."

"But, I am not a prize." Yugi spun to her and snapped. So quick and fierce, that Mut whirled back in surprise. Yugi made no effort to apologize. "I'm not some helpless child he needs to shelter and protect, and I'm not some living treaty he can claim and barter and I'm not some glittering chit he can spoil and please with pretty things and kisses." He stopped himself and calmed his mind.

"Well," Mut said with a sly chuckle. Her words were sweet. "If you like him well enough to kiss him then you like him well enough to marry him."

Yugi gawked at her: eyes wide with shock.

"Tis, no secret," Mut said with a chuckle. Her smile curled smooth and catlike.

He expelled a heavy sigh and looked away unable to face her. "What you want…what you all want isn't a marriage. It's a business arrangement."

"I don't understand," Mut sat down, bewildered.

Yugi accepted her hands on his shrugged shoulders. "I'll solidify our precious treaty with Atlantis, Pas will rule the Delta and you'll rule the desert by ruling Menkheperre and in exchange Timaeus will whisk me away to Locri. I will become his consort and perform my duty of running his household without otherwise interfering in his life and he will give me his titles and pay for my gowns,"

"And make love to you," Mut said with a sly smile. He knew she meant it as a joke but not that the idea was in his head… "I know you've thought of that."

Unable to voice his shame, he bowed his burning face and nodded. It mortified him to admit it. Oh Ra, making love with Timaeus? How often had he thought about that? Wondered what it would be like? He was certainly handsome. He had the traits Yugi had wanted in a lover. Just the memory of his searing kisses left his face burning. This morning the idea had thrilled him but now…it terrified him.

Yugi could never resist him. How often had those searing kissed left him burning and wanting more? How often had Timaeus' blunt teasing and honest compliments set a fire under his skin? How easily had the Trierarch's brutal teasing baited him into a challenge? How blindly had he fallen for the man's every trap? Timaeus was a master of seduction: he was charming and he wielded it with skillful ease and deadly sharpness of his sword. But he was chivalrous too: never had he forced Yugi to do anything he hasn't wanted to. He was kind too. And patient. And he was honest: secretive and honest.

And protective…if he was being honest. His earliest memory of the man was the green shadow who rescued him in Mut's temple. Then his memories of their journey returned and he found himself categorizing them between the Fierce Knight who promised him protection and declared himself Yugi's Guardian when they returned to Kemet, and the proud and playful rouge that teased and flirted with him openly as long as Yugi played along. That was all it was, he realized, with a heavy weight of dread in his heart: protection and seduction. Fondness, born of duty and lust. The more he thought of it, the more he lifted the dreamy-eyed veil of his memories, the heavier his heart felt.

That wasn't what he wanted. That wasn't love. "I don't want that kind of marriage."

"I don't understand?" Mut asked, deep with concern.

"That's all our relationship is: fondness. It isn't love that makes him want to marry me, its duty…duty and lust. I don't want a marriage like that," he admitted voice rising with breaking volume.

"It doesn't have to be, Yugi," Mut mollified. "We have all had repercussions about facing betrothal. I did."

Yugi started at her shocked.

"Yes, little one I did. We both feared our love was nothing more than fondness. We were afraid to think anything else. Betrothal gave us the freedom to try."

"But Pas chose you," Yugi protested. "He had many sisters but it was you he chose."

"It was duty and fondness that made him chose me, not love," Mut admitted. "It may be duty that compelled Timaeus to propose, but I trust your 'fondness' enough that had it happened any other way, you would have no objections." The steadiness in her voice returned. Her smile was that of a scolding mother. "Marriage is a duty, Yugi, not a right. We do not marry for pleasure, but for quality to wed is a burden; to bear children is a burden, to hold power over any sphere of influence is a burden. The duty of marriage is to ease that burden."

She slid across the couch closer to him. Her smile was fierce with delight, even if he only gave her a glance "That does not mean we cannot bring pleasure into our marriages. Men need to appear strong for their houses. They keep their hearts secret rather than admit to another holding power over them. When they are alone with us, it is the only time their hearts are open. We are their secret keepers. It is not the wedding that brings love Yugi, it is the wedding night. They give us love, and we give them trust. Love is not just a show for the people; it is the secret to the most successful marriages."

He pondered her words but his mouth remained a firm line. Trust and Love. Hadn't that been what he'd wanted? Hadn't he'd prayed for that that morning the day his life changed, and again when he asked Sekhmet for a savior and sent him his emerald shadow as a protector… but that was a mask drawn from anger and betrayal. He categorized them all in his head: his fierce captor who saved him from flinging himself over the side of The Eye, the Trierarch who commanded his ship and crew with merciless honor, the Knight who promised him protection before his King gave the order, the Trickster who'd kissed him in front of his siblings and their council and called him fiancé, and the one who teased him mercilessly and set his blood ablaze with searing kisses. But what of the man who'd listened to his history and held him as he cried? And what of the one who asked him about his dreams and kissed him tenderly at Mut's Sacred Pool?

He'd never organized their past encounters before, but flooded by the chaotic memories, it hit him, suddenly, how little he knew of Timaeus and how much of him of what he did was an invention. Timaeus was a man of masks and rumors and buried secrets. Secrets he would not share, not even with Yugi. How many secrets had he entrusted to Timaeus in the short time they'd known each other? If he was to marry a man like that, could he trust him? How could he, when he didn't know who was the man and who was the mask?

At his silence, Mut sighed and smiled again. "You are fortunate to have a man who already pleases you, do not throw the happiness you could have with him away simply out of pride, habibi."

He stood quickly, his form rigid and his eyes sharp. "I am so tired of everyone telling me how 'fortunate' I am to have my decisions made for me! Telling me they know what will make me happy! Menkheperre and Maatkare said it. Timaeus said it," He hisses, his fingers writhing, "And now you are saying it? Does my own happiness truly matter so little to you!"

"Of course it doesn't," Mut said quick and sharp. "The only thing we want is to see you happy."

Yugi rolled his eyes saying nothing.

"It is the truth, whether you believe it to be or not," she rose suddenly and took graceful steps towards the door.

"Where are you going?" Yugi blinked in surprise.

"I've said my share. Whatever happens next is for you to decide. I will leave you to rest now. Tomorrow, when your head is clear, think it over again." She stopped in the doorway. With a heavy sigh she turned to him and said with regal gentleness "I suggest you get yourself used to the idea." She left without another word.

Enraged and still writhing, Yugi flung himself onto his bed and screamed into his pillows.

Originally, this chapter and last chapter were going to be one chapter, but I decided to split them to keep the focus between the two. I'm very interested too see all of your responses now that you got both sides. Yugi's gone to full-brat mode, Timaeus is trying to hold it together, and none of this is how either of them wanted things to go, and everyone else is doing the heavy lifting. Bet none of you saw this coming!

1) Again, remember we CANNOT look at arranged marriages in the past with modern eyes (the idea of people choosing their own marriage partners based purely on love is really a modern invention, and by modern i mean the 60s onward) granted it DID happen annd often parties DID have choice and chose their partners, but family approval, was CRUCIAL and depending on the culture, in ancient times parents negotiated or approved of wedded unions, but then again since people married in their early to mid teens in those days and as well all know teen marriages and first loves HARDLY last, how could parents NOT offer their wisdom and judgement in making such an important decision, and at the end of the day ALL parents in ancient times simple want their children to have a happy life and a good marriage.

2) The involvement of woman in marriages depending on culture, while it was always fathers who had to APPROVE of the union and set the date, it was woman who chose and recommended the suitors and chaperoned events in the ancient world. Many times, queens, concubines, mothers, older sisters, aunts, all of them would offer their feedback to a girl of age on what she'd want to look for in a spouse. All dad had to do was give away the bride...not much has changed in that regard.

3) Fondness and duty were pretty much the pre-recs for marriage. Marriages was meant to be a LASTING union, not like today where one-fight and couples divorce. Their ideal was rather than the honey-moon phase to the hot and steamy period to the best friend stage wen it cools down, they wanted the Best friend (someone you love spending all your time with) going in and then the hot and steamy phase intermingled as you went: so marriage was basically going into the marriage you wanted fondness, love was meant to happen during the wedding night and then continually grow from there. Not so much a "learn to love" deal but rather a "emotion that continue to grow" kind of thing.

4) Pinedjam I had nine children four of which (including Mutnejdmet and Maatkare) were girls. Mutnedjmet was the oldest daughter and Psuennes I was the oldest son but it is unknown what the order or the age difference between them is since record of their birth dates are kind of scattered.

Hope that offers some clarity.

Next Time: The oblivious citizens prepare for a Royal Wedding. Meanwhile, Yugi has gone into isolation, Timaeus hopes to smooth things over, and the Royals have a plan for a happy ending neither the bride nor the groom is gonna like.