Three hours later found the two girls occupying an outside table at a conveniently placed coffee shop, surrounded by shopping bags. Kisara already wore one of her new outfits at Anzu's insistence, a formfitting pair of low jeans and clingy baby doll t-shirt. She sat contentedly, sipping warm chai. Anzu had wisely thought it best to save her introduction to caffeine for another day.

She studied Kisara thoughtfully. Over the course of the afternoon, she had managed to pry out and piece together most of the girl's history with Seto, getting people to spill personal information was one thing she was very good at, and the story was about the sweetest thing she'd ever heard. Even if she did question her new friend's taste in men.

Seto still occupied the bottom rung on her list of favorite people but Kisara seemed to like him. Seemed to like him a lot. So that must count for something, right? And she did like and admire Kisara a great deal. It was nice to have a female friend for a change. She loved her boys but they were, well, boys. Despite that though, she had always identified with them and got along with them better than the girls her age. Except for Kisara.

Anzu had always liked to think of herself as tough and strong but she had nothing on the cute blue haired thing sitting across from her who had given everything, even her life for the one she loved. Anzu sighed. It was just to cute! She found herself, more than anything, wanting Kisara to find a happy ending for it. Though considering the two personalities involved, the relationship could probably use a teeny, tiny, little push.

She leaned toward Kisara, trying hard to keep her expression and voice as casual as possible.

"Your boyfriend is gonna love your new clothes."

Kisara nearly choked on her drink then set it down hastily lest it spill.

"He's not . . ." she started to protest but Anzu quickly cut her off.

"Well he should be! You've certainly been through enough for each other."

The blue haired girl sighed and picked the drink back up to stare into it, lost in thought.

"You still think he loves me?" She asked, almost in a whisper. "It's been such a very long time since he said it in Egypt."

Anzu paused, taken by surprise. The Seto of the past must have been very different from the one of the present. The boy she knew was far too reserved to admit something like that straight out. Though changes she had observed today spoke almost as loudly.

"Alright, so I don't know Kaiba as well as you do, but let me tell you this. Every high school boy looks at girls. Every single one will turn his head when I walk by in a miniskirt and tube top. Except yours. In fact, the only things your boy has ever shown any emotion towards, what-so-ever, are his brother, and his dual monster cards. The one relating to you, in particular. He was so obsessed with that silly card that I can only think of one scenario where that level of obsession wouldn't be cause to have him locked away in a padded room, and that would be if the card was his only link to a sweet girl that he once knew, and even after three thousand years, his own death and reincarnation, he was still head over heals for. Kisara," she placed a hand on the blushing girl's arm and looked her in the eye, "Seto Kaiba has smiled more today than in all the time we've known him and they've all been directed at you. I think the answer to your question is an absolute, definite YES."

Kisara grinned widely and Anzu knew that her work here was done.

Anzu hugged Kisara goodbye after adding her number to her friend's new cell phone, and retrieving Kisara's number for her own.

She watched from the limo as the sweet girl bounded up to the house where Seto stood waiting for her.

"Where to ma'am?" the driver asked her but she waved at him to be quiet.

"Wait! I wanna see this."

She continued to watch as they greeted each other warmly and he put an arm around her shoulders to escort her into the house. Anzu looked closer and was pleased to see that, with no one else around, Seto had dropped his normally guarded expression and was grinning broadly.

Anzu sighed happily. She loved seeing the beginning of a cute romance.

The door of the manor closed and she finally gave the driver directions and allowed him to take her home.

A few days later, Mokuba's car edged in on Jou's, pushing it into the wall where it ground, metal against concrete, paint chips flying at the camera, before hitting a barrier and exploding. Unfortunately, Mokuba didn't get away in time and was caught in the ball of flame. Both boys cursed and Kisara's sports car shot past the wreckage and took the lead.

"Suckers!" She yelled, taking Jou by surprise. He looked at Mokuba who was grinning proudly.

"You little skank! What else have you been teaching her?"

"As much mischief as I possibly can." He answered seriously and Kisara giggled.

The three heard the front door open from where they sat in the gaming room of the Kaiba mansion and Kisara immediately perked up. She leapt off the couch, sending her controller flying and sprinted from the room.

Jou ducked and Mokuba snatched the delicate prototype from the air.

"Damn, what was that." Jou asked, pointing to the now empty spot beside him. Mokuba rolled his eyes.

"Seto's home." He made a gagging gesture. Jou grinned and mussed his hair.

"You won't be gagging in a couple years, kiddo."

The two quieted to better hear the voices drifting in from the hall.

"Yugi's visiting Ryou and Jou's playing racing games with us." They heard Kisara explain apprehensively. "He's really good, you should join us, it's fun." She sounded hopeful, and Jou looked over to see Mokuba's face mirroring that hope, though he seriously doubted the answer would be yes. Sure enough, Seto started to make the work excuse and, as Jou watched Mokuba's face fall, he found himself contemplating something he never thought he'd do in a million years. Encourage Seto to be in the same room.

"Yeah, he's just afraid to get his ass whooped." Jou shouted his loud commentary into the other room, deliberately antagonizing Seto.

It worked. Seto appeared in the doorway, arms crossed, giving Jou and odd look. He was too smart to think the comment anything other than what it was. A quasi invitation. From there, one look at his brother's large pleading eyes, and another at a similar expression from Kisara, and Seto caved.

"Congratulations on developing opposable thumbs but you're still light years away from being match for me on my own system."

"You're always the first to point out how slow I am, so you shouldn't be surprised when I say 'prove it, moneybags.'"

"Gladly." Seto crossed the room, setting his briefcase down on the coffee table and opening it to pull out an unmarked disk. He handed it to Mokuba who was closer to the system. "Here, load this up."

"What is it?" The younger Kaiba asked suspiciously, gingerly taking the blank disk and popping it into the machine.

"The battle version of the game you were just playing. Beta. Fresh from the developers today. It's still full of bugs but should be more than adequate to put the mutt in his place."

Jou grinned, for once not bothered by Seto's insults as he also knew them for what they were. Quasi acceptance.

Two hours later, Kisara and Mokuba gave up the fight and retreated from the room as the steady stream of insults and trash talk got more and more creative and more and more ear scorching. They had just began a rather complex card game of Mokuba's invention when Yugi joined them, looking slightly drained but smiling none the less.

"How'd it go." Kisara asked gently.

"He seems ok with me again, thankfully." Yugi answered, flopping down into one of the many overstuffed chairs that littered the room made to accommodate board and card games. "I think he still likes you more though. He was rather insistent on knowing where you were and I promised to send you in later."

Kisara nodded. Ryou liked having her around, though he detested leaving his room. "So that the shadows won't find me again," he always replied when asked.

"Fucking camper!" Seto's shout from the next room interrupted them, making Yugi jump. Kisara and Mokuba were now used to the random outbursts.

"It's a legitimate strategy!" Jou shouted back. (1)

Yugi looked toward the adjacent room in alarm. "Jou and Seto are in there by themselves?"

Mokuba nodded.

"Should I be worried?"

Kisara and Mokuba exchanged a hesitant look.

"Well," Kisara answered slowly, "we're not sure . . . but we think they're having fun."

"Legitimate for the brain dead maybe!" The shouting continued.

"You're just mad cause you can't hide for shit!" Jou's reply was immediately followed by the sound of an explosion and much cursing from Seto.

"Damn it, Jou, quit screen watching!"

"Fun? Are you sure?" Yugi asked.

"Well, it hasn't come to blows yet, and they've been at it for a couple hours." Mokuba presented his proof.

Yugi shook his head in disbelief. "Well I guess stranger things have happened."

"Within the week even!" Kisara quipped wryly.

Yugi and Mokuba grinned at her but didn't get the chance to respond as there was an explosive round of cursing from both boys. The three looked at each other and rushed into the other room, expecting the worst, but found the two rivals casting rather vile stares at the now dark screen.

"What did you do?" Seto asked, irritably, reaching for a pen and paper.

"What did I do? What did you do? It's you're dumb game."

Seto pinched the bridge of his nose. "No, tell me what you were doing before the crash so I can put it in the bug report."

"Oh." Jou gave him a few details and Seto scribbled them down along with some other quick notes.

"Do you remember the score or any of the other figures?" He asked distractedly.

"I remember I was way ahead of you."

"You were not! I trampled you in the last round, putting me way ahead."

"Yeah, well I was smoking you in this one, putting me way ahead."

"Only by your own deranged counting and everyone knows you're flunking math."

"Uh, huh, you just get that game fixed so I can finish whooping your ass properly."

"Keep dreaming mutt, your car's gonna be the one smeared across the pavement next time."

"Sure, Kaiba, just gimme a call when it's ready and we'll see who can and can't count." Jou looked down at his watch and jumped off the couch. "Aw crap! You ready to go, Yug? My dad's gonna kill me, I was supposed to be home like, now."

"Why didn't you tell me earlier, Jou?" Yugi asked exasperated, "I would have kept a closer eye on the time!"

"Um, I forgot?" Jou said sheepishly.

Seto smirked. "Isn't telling time a form of counting?" he commented dryly.

"Stuff it rich boy. Hey!" He brightened up as a though crossed his mind. "Help a guy out and call that limo of yours around, would ya?"

Yugi gaped at his blond friend's bold request while Mokuba turned to gape at his brother who rolled his eyes, but didn't hesitate to bark the order into the intercom on his lapel.

Jou and Seto noticed the odd looks they were getting at about the same time.

"What?" They asked in unison.

Two nights later, Kisara roamed the halls of the mansion, unable to sleep. Something about the conversation with Anzu days before had bothered her and tonight she finally managed to put her finger on why. Most of the conversation had soothed her doubts and reassured her of what she already knew. That she loved her priest, and that he felt the same for her. Neither said it, and they hadn't acted on it yet, but they both knew and were content to let things develop at their own slow pace. A slowness that drove Anzu up the wall and Kisara giggled to herself as she remembered the other times she had spent hanging out with her friend, trying to explain the very different relationship she shared with Seto and staving off the other's attempts to speeding the process along. Eventually she had relented and agreed to let things be.

Still. Anzu had unknowingly hit upon something that first day they met. She had implied that Kisara knew Seto better than any of them . . . After much thought and deliberation, Kisara had finally come to the conclusion that, well, she didn't.

She had been close to his mind, close enough to sense distress, danger. Close enough to know when he needed her protection. But for all those years in the shadows her mind and soul had been so closely entwined with her creature that she had lost most of her conscious thoughts and acted mostly on instinct, driven only by the need to protect her priest.

When she had regained a body, she had also regained her human mind. Once again, she could think, reason, and, she chuckled to herself, even spend hours on self-reflection as she was doing now.

She stopped and looked around suddenly realizing that, at some point during her musings she had managed to get herself lost. Damn this place was big. She still made wrong turns sometimes, trying to navigate the endless halls. Ah well, so much for trying to find the kitchens. She'd settle on just being able to find her way back to bed.

She backtracked as best she could, slippered feet making soft, padded tapping noises on the hardwood floor. A couple more turns and, though the hall was still unfamiliar, she could at least see light pouring into the hallway from an open door.

She pulled her robe tightly around her and peered in to see who was still awake.

Seto sat with his back to the door, staring at his computer screen. A common enough sight, except that this computer was turned off and the screen was black.

Kisara took a deep breath. The only way to learn more about the reserved boy was to ask, and there seemed no better time than the present. Especially since the late hour meant that there wouldn't be any interruptions.

She knocked timidly on the door to draw his attention. And Seto turned around quickly in the chair, startled out of his thoughts. He smiled when he saw who caught him still awake.

Reassured, Kisara felt a smile of her own light her face.

"Hi," was suddenly all she could think to say.

"Hey. What are you doing up still?"

"What are you?" she countered, not quite ready to give up her reasons yet and slightly berating Seto for not even trying to sleep. The boy had a reputation for never sleeping, a habit his brother had been trying to break him of for years. Seto ignored the undertone of the question though.

"Just thinking." He replied, his amused expression indicating that it was now her turn to answer the same question.

Kisara looked away, leaned self consciously on the door jam and used her nails to pick at a spot where the wood had started to splinter.

"I want to know about something. . ." She spoke softly at the wall.

"When don't you?" Seto teased, laughing lightly in what he hoped was an encouraging manor.

Her eyes shot up and met his directly.

"I want to know about you." She blurted out before she lost her nerve.

Seto's eyes widened a bit, the request took him by surprise. It was his turn to look away.

"Why would you want to know about that?" He asked, trying to brush it off as unimportant.

"Because I should! Because I want to." She said vehemently and he looked back up, meeting her gaze. She blushed when their eyes met again. "Because I want to know everything about you. In this life and the last." She admitted quietly.

"What about you? I don't know anything of your past either."

Kisara knew a dodge when she heard it but addressed the response, looking away in slight embarrassment.

"I don't really remember much from then. Just roaming from village to village, always under suspicion and eventually chased out because of what I was."

"What were you?"

"Different. Foreign. But I don't even remember where I was from. Or who my parents were, if I even had any."

"You're lucky."

"Why lucky?"

"I was cursed with a nearly photographic memory in both lives. I could tell you all about my life in Egypt in excruciating detail. I could recall for you most of my magic lessons, all of the rituals and incantations memorized from them, and all the elaborate, lengthy courtroom rituals that we put ourselves and the poor pharaoh through . . ."

He trailed off as Kisara giggled cutely. As much as she really did want to hear about his life in Egypt, she was more interested in this one at the moment. More interested in what he didn't want to talk about.

"Tell me all of that later. I want to hear about this life now."

Seto's face grew serious and his tone was no longer light and playful.

"Are you sure? It's not a very pretty story."

Kisara nodded.

"I told you already, I want to know everything about you. The good and the bad." She finally entered the room and seated herself on one of the two couches that decorated the office, making herself comfortable. Also making it clear by her posture that she wasn't leaving until she got what she wanted.

Seto relinquished his desk chair and claimed the couch opposite of her, sitting forward slightly and considering where to begin.

"My parents died when I was ten. Everything else just seems to stem from that . . ."

Dawn lit the halls as the two stopped outside of Kisara's bedroom door, reluctant yet to part company.

They had talked until there were no more words and now just stood in comfortable silence, one beside the other, not knowing how to end. Not wanting the moment to end.

Finally, Kisara stepped closer and wrapped her arms around Seto, fitting her body to his in a warm, intimate embrace. He followed suit, wrapping her in his arms and holding her close, breathing in the scent of her hair as she snuggled into his shoulder.

Minutes passed before they finally began to untangle, but before Seto had a chance to move away, Kisara reached up and placed a soft kiss on his cheek before whispering goodnight and disappearing into her room.

Seto spent another minute grinning at the closed door before retreating to his own room to sleep, just as Kisara made him promise to do.

The creature stalked it's prey while the shadows whispered to it of hate, destruction, and killing.

It hated the boy. The boy was light and it hated the light.

Night finally fell and the being stepped foreword, up to the building that contained his target.

It spared a reproachful glance for the full moon that cast its shadow against the game shop.

Still too bright by far.

Round the building he snuck making no sound at all. Not even the air stirred in his wake. The only thing that moved was the creature's shadow.

Damn moon.

Soon though. Soon its light would be gone and he would be a god.

He would take care of the small one before that. The small one and the dragon master, he would kill them both then reclaim what they had taken. He would return the dragon and the dark one to the shadows and the shadows would be pleased. Perhaps then they would let him rest.

He spotted the window he was looking for. The small one was there. He could still feel the small one's light. He waited for it to dim, dim like the light bulb on the desk, dim enough for him to enter the room without feeling pain.

When it was finally safe, the creature began to climb the wall, the darkness provided the only hand holds he needed.

He reached the small window. It was closed but that was no matter. A closed window couldn't keep him out. His form fuzzed to a fine mist and he used the shadows to flow through the cracks in the sill. Once in the room, he took solid form again.

There was the small one. Sleeping. Vulnerable. The light that usually surrounded him only a faint glow as he rested peacefully. When the small one was awake, his light was too bright for the stalking shadow beast to even get close. It had kept him at bay, watching for the right opportunity.

But now, now he could get close at last and snuff the hateful light for good.

The creature drew a knife, one of carved obsidian, the blade so dark it refused to reflect even the bright moonlight, and advanced on the boy.

A/N: not much of a note this time, just wanted to point out that I am, in fact, posting this during the full moon which was something totally unplanned but is an awesome opportunity that I just couldn't pass up even though i had to rush the final edit and am TIRED beyond frigg'n hell right now. XD so now that the danged thing is posted, I go get some sleep for I am not cool like Seto who never seems to need rest or food in most fanfics that I've read. The boy is just freakish like that . . . awesomely freakish . . .

1. Seriously could NOT resist throwing in the Red vs. Blue reference. http://rvb. roosterteeth .com/archive