Yugi tried to reassure himself with the knowledge that Millie would have eaten an entire box of Fruit Loops even if he had warned her about sugar highs, and that there was nothing he could have done to stop her from entering her current state of...hyperactivity. The reassurance didn't work.

The floor was littered with stray cereal, apple cores and the contents of the flour bag she had spilled whilst looking through the pantry. Yugi was grateful that she hadn't discovered the fridge yet.

She was currently running about the entire upper level of the house; it was all Yugi could do to make sure the door to downstairs was locked so that she couldn't find her way into the main shop.

Solomon was not a light sleeper, but there was only so much noise Yugi could handle before he began to wonder if his Grandpa was ever going to hear it.

Yugi was chasing after Millie, who was currently bolting back into Yugi's bedroom to examine the view from the window. "Hey, Yugi!" she yelled. "Yugi! Look at-"

Yugi stopped in the doorway, panting. "Wait...a second...please..."

She widened her eyes. "Oh!" She bit her lip anxiously. "I'm sorry! Am I being a nuisance? I'm so sorry! How can I help? I'm sorry, Yugi!"

Yugi sighed, unable to stay mad at her. "It's okay, Millie; I guess...it's a very new thing, being able to eat, and run around."

She nodded excitedly. Then, before Yugi could say more, she glomped him again. "I love you, Yugi!" she squealed, squeezing the breath out of him.

"Erm..." Yugi blushed. "C- can we just clean up the kitchen?"

She released him. "The kitchen is where the food is, right?"

Yugi instantly regretted asking for her help. "...The very same."

"Then hells to the yeah!" She darted past him, out the door. "I've always wanted to say that!"

Despite her complete inability to handle anything for more than a minute without trying in some manner to either break it or dance with it, Millie was obviously genuinely trying to assist Yugi in cleaning the kitchen. He managed to set her at sweeping the Fruit Loops and flour off the floor while he cleaned and dried the dishes.

"So..." Yugi hesitated. "Are all the Millennium Items...female?"

Millie shook her head. The light dusting of flour that had settled in her golden hair clouded around her face like a veil of smoke. "Just me, the Millennium Necklace and the Millennium Scales." She frowned. "I think."

"Are all the Items friends?"

She shook her head again. "We don't really speak to one another...for obvious reasons. A lot of the time since we were first created we've been separated in one way or another. Some of us are ememies, some we hardly know, others are closer because they're together more. Like the Necklace and the Rod, that Marik and Ishizu had; or the Scales and the Key."

Yugi leaned against the kitchen sink, looking at her while he dried a bowl. "What about you? Do you have...friends?"

Millie sighed. "I don't really know..." She looked down. "I spent most of my life in a tomb. Before that..." She bit her lip. "I guess I was friends with the Millennium Rod and the Millennium Necklace." She looked as though she wanted to say more, but held it in. "But the Millennium Ring...we never got along. I didn't trust him."

Yugi was instantly on alert. Those same three Items were upstairs in his bedroom, and the Millennium Puzzle knew it as well as he did. "Why didn't you trust him?"

"Well, he..." She hesitated. "I was worn by the Pharaoh, and the Ring was worn by...a friend of the Pharaoh. But the Millennium Ring...favoured somebody else as his wearer."

"Who?"

Millie was still staring at the floor, gazing into space as ancient memories came flooding back to her. "I- I...um...he was my...um..."

"Millie?" Yugi asked gently.

Suddenly, she laughed. "I cleaned up the floor; didn't do a very good job, though, did I? How do you pick it up once it's in a pile? The dust pan and brush - I'll get it." She brushed past Yugi and opened the cupboard under the sink.

Yugi felt his spine prickle, and looked to his left to see Yami, looking back at him.

As he met his other self's deep, red eyes, he knew that they were thinking the same thing.

Just what was the Millennium Puzzle not telling them?

When Millie was off zipping around his bedroom like a butterfly and Yugi was crouched over his desk, Yugi could barely feel the Pharaoh's presence. Fortunatly, it meant that Millie wouldn't be able to hear his thoughts, either.

Yugi wondered why he was keeping secrets from her - she was still the Millennium Puzzle; he had never kept secrets from it - her - before now, had he?

But then again, Yugi hadn't known that she was a conscious entity until that morning.

He noticed that she had already developed a habit of asking him questions, only to answer them herself without pausing: "Yugi? What time is it? It's half past nine. Yugi, what are you doing homework about? Algebra."

While she nit-pickingly examined the contents of his wardrobe, Yugi hesitantly pulled out the bag that contained the other three Millennium Items in his possession.

Marik had given him the Rod and the Ring at the end of the Battle City finals, while Ishizu had given him her necklace during the tournament.

Yugi looked at the Necklace and the Rod with a new light. So they were 'alive'? And they were...friends, with his Puzzle?

Yugi picked up the Millennium Ring. He hadn't dared to touch it since Marik had given it to him, after everything it had put him through.

Millie had said something about...the Ring 'favouring' a different wearer. What could she have meant by that?

He knew that the Millennium Puzzle had been worn by Yami during his time as Pharaoh. And now he knew that the Ring had belonged to Yami's friend, whoever that was. But the Ring hadn't liked Yami's friend, and...what?

Something had happened, in which the Millennium Ring had somehow...betrayed, Yami's friend?

It would explain why Millie didn't 'like' it - him. Perhaps Millie hadn't trusted him from the beginning and had seen the Ring's betrayal before it had happened. And then what? She hadn't been believed?

Yugi's thoughts fell onto the Spirit of the Millennium Ring, Bakura's darker half, who had been sent to the Shadow Realm during Battle City. Was he somehow connected to the Pharaoh's - and the Millennium Puzzle's - history in Ancient Egypt? It would make sense...perhaps he was the Pharaoh's friend. Judging by the hatred he harboured towards Yami, that was not the case.

The other wearer, whom the Ring had 'preferred', then? It made more sense.

Yugi sighed. There was still so much he didn't know.

One thing was clear: whatever had happened five thousand years ago, Millie knew everything about it; she and the other Millennium Items had all been right there in the thick of it.

Replacing the Millennium Items in the bag and sliding them back under his desk, Yugi looked at Millie again, who was on her knees, sorting through Yugi's wardrobe, muttering something under her breath.

Another thing was also clear: she didn't want to tell him about it just yet.

Yugi looked at his fingers. He would just have to be patient; she had changed herself into a human for a reason, and Yugi trusted that when the time came, she would reveal that reason.

After all, she was the Millennium Puzzle. And Yugi had always trusted the Millennium Puzzle.

"Quick, hide!"

"Wh-"

Feeling more guilty than he had ever felt in his life, Yugi slammed the closet door closed with Millie inside. "Shh!"

The silence only lasted for a moment before Solomon Moto opened the door to Yugi's room.

"Morning, Grandpa!" Yugi said, smiling weakly.

"Good morning, Yugi," Grandpa replied, his eyes scanning over the room as though something was out of place that he couldn't lay his finger on.

"Would you be able to watch the shop when you get back this afternoon? I have somewhere I'd like to be."

Yugi didn't break his hesitant smile. "S- sure, Grandpa; no problem!"

"Thanks, Yugi." Grandpa left.

Yugi opened the door. "You okay, Millie? I'm sorry; that was unfair."

Millie scowled, looking up at him from lying on her back on the floor of the closet. "Why didn't you just tell him the truth? I mean it's not like he's ignorant about the whole 'Ancient Egyptian spirits and magical Millennium Items' camp."

Still feeling guilty, Yugi helped her up. "It's just easier this way."

"You'll have to tell him eventually," she pointed out, dusting herself off.

Yugi knew it was true; if Millie insisted on remaining human, he wouldn't be able to hide her in his bedroom forever.

Millie just shrugged. "Actually, never mind!" Suddenly, she was bright and peachy again. "I'm sorry - I'll be more co-operative next time. I'm sorry!"

"You don't need to apolo-"

"I don't? Great! So when are we leaving? Joey and the others are getting here at eleven, right?"

Yugi had to admit that he had completely forgotten about it. "Yep."

"Cool! I'm going to get some more food while your Grandpa is downstairs - you can finish your homework and we'll get ready to leave at half past ten!"

"Please don't go back into the-" Yugi called after her fleeing figure.

A loud clatter sounded from down the hall. Something resembling the noise made by pots and pans colliding with the floor when they were tossed aside during a search for food.

"...Kitchen."

Yugi made a face. It was going to be a long hour.

So thank you SO much for reading :D You are my angel :3

I'm really annoyed at myself; Yami hasn't had many lines in these first few chapters D: I promise he will come in again later :'D He is a very important character in this story ;D

Please review :'D I love you so much *glomp* And thanks again~! *squeezes you until your eyes pop and you can't read anymore*

~IA