I'm back! And I think my internet's rebelling against me using it too much or something. My device keeps shutting itself off or disconnecting at random moments. It took me several tries to upload this.

Anyways, thanks a bunch to ScarletBlackberry for giving me the Arabic word for dragon, which is "taneen".

To all my lovely reviewers, thank you so much for your reviews.

Disclaimers: We all know 4kids majorly screwed up Yu-Gi-Oh so it just goes for show that I don't own it, because otherwise 4kids wouldn't own it and yugioh would be the Teen rated anime it was always meant to be.

Warnings: Cussing of course.

Chapter 4: My Taneen

Ryou smiled brightly at Yugi as he shook his fellow hikari awake, and moved on to Yami, before frowning. The crimson eyed chibi was curled around a small wooden box that Ryou was fairly certain he had never seen before. The contents rattled as he pried the box from Yami's arms, making the chibi whine.

For a moment, Ryou didn't understand what he was looking at when he went to open the box, only to discover various pieces of wood intertwining in senseless patterns. Then he realized the pieces were a puzzle, cleverly designed as a lock for the small chest. Turning it over in his hands, he discovered a cartouche carved on the bottom of the box, complete with hieroglyphics.

[[Atemu]] Bakura said suddenly, and Ryou jumped, scaring Yugi.

[What?] Ryou asked, setting aside the box to pick Yugi up. The chibi didn't like loud noises.

[[The hieroglyphics in the cartouche. It says Atemu, Yami's birth name.]]

[Okay, but why is it carved on the bottom of a chest, and why is the chest here?] Ryou asked, eying the chest which Yami had picked up and was now fiddling with the wood pieces.

Bakura was silent for a moment, then: [[Yami was telling the truth when he said Queen Halima gave him that necklace.]]

Ryou nearly fell off the bed anime style. [WHAT?] The hikari managed to right himself, glad his fall had not made Yugi cry because he had no desire to experience another one of Yami's pranks. Especially after the little incident concerning Jou and Honda. [What makes you say that?]

[[I've seen that box before, several times in fact. The first time I ever saw it was when I saw Queen Halima. She was carrying in her lap as she rode by on her horse. I saw it again in Yami's room, back when he was still the Crown Prince.]]

[What were you doing in Yami's room?]

[[I'm a thief. What do you think I was doing?]]

[Oh. Right, of course.]

[[I saw the box before that though . . . Yami was holding it on the funeral barge.]]

[Funeral barge?] Ryou squeaked, a little alarmed.

[[When they were carrying Queen Halima's mummy up the Nile to her resting place. Yami was clutching the box the whole time like the world would end if he let go of it even in the slightest.]] Bakura retreated into his soul room before Ryou could say anything else.

The hikari sighed and turned back to Yami, just as the box made a grating noise and the lid clicked open. From its depths, the chibi pulled a very familiar necklace out. Ryou blinked at the lookalike of the necklace he had made Bakura put back in the museum last night, utterly confused. Were there two of them? Or was there some kind of magic that summoned the necklace into the box when it got too far away?

He made a mental note to check the news later that day, because if he let Bakura break into a museum for no reason, he was going to be upset.

Yami, oblivious to Ryou's thoughts, dumped the box upside down. Wooden pieces scattered everywhere on the bed and Yami cooed happily as he started fiddling with the pieces. Ryou picked up a piece and inspected it. For being over three thousand years old, the box and the pieces of wood were in pretty good condition. Of course, that could have been the result of some spell cast over it.

What Ryou wanted to know, was where the box had come from, and why it was so special. Bakura had said he saw Yami's mother with it when she first became Queen, and before Yami was born. So the box had been Halima's before Yami had it. The box was rather plain, nothing but the complex puzzle on the front and a cartouche that read Atemu carved in the bottom of it. And if Yami really had told the truth, the Queen had somehow come back from the dead to give Yami a necklace and a box that had another necklace and a bunch of wooden blocks.

What was it that made it so endearing to the Queen and her son? Ryou didn't have an answer.

It was a group of four perplexed teens that sat around the living room, staring at the TV screen. Mai had left town earlier this morning, off to another Duel Monsters tournament. The three former Swordsmen had returned to their hotel last night and were going to spend the day doing their own things in town.

Ryou had told them all about the weird box, making Bakura return the necklace last night, finding an identical necklace in the box, his conversation with Bakura, and the pieces of wood Yami found in the box. After watching the news a few minutes ago, they had learned that the necklace was indeed back in the museum, and the necklace currently around Yami's neck was an exact replica of the first. None of them had any clue of what to think about it all.

Without his memories, Yami would be of no help. Ryou had gotten yelled at by his irritant yami earlier, who claimed he didn't know anything about the box other than it belonged to Queen Halima before Yami was born, and it was somehow important to both Yami and his dead mother. Who by the way, seemed to be up and walking about. An eerie thought, since they knew from Yami that spirits couldn't move things by themselves, so she had to have been solid.

None of them appreciated the suggestion from Jou that she had possessed her mummy and used it to give Yami the necklace and box. The thought that a mummy had been in the house while they were sleeping and have been standing in Yugi's bedroom was creepy. But none of them had any other ideas on how she had touched anything physical.

So there they were, watching Yugi play with a ball while Yami was playing with the wooden pieces from the box. It was of no surprise to the gang that it was a puzzle. Unlike Yugi, who was easily amused by anything that was colorful or made funny noises, Yami was always playing around with the puzzles. Jou had discovered an entire shelf full of puzzles in Yugi's closet, and although it had only been a few days, Yami had put together every one of them already, with and without Yugi's help.

The wooden puzzle, however, seemed to hold Yami's attention for far longer than the other puzzles. He worked slowly, turning each piece over in his hands, before putting it with another piece. Yami didn't have his memories, but he treated each with the familiarity of having played with them all his life. And perhaps, in Ancient Egypt, he had.

None of them had any idea what the puzzle was going to be, except that it was a 3-D figure judging by what Yami had already put together.

The sound of something shattering caused the teens to jump as a ball bounced off the wall and smashed into Yami's puzzle, smashing it. Crimson eyes blinked uncomprehendingly at the ball and the scattered pieces of his puzzle. Only a few pieces remained together from what Yami had put together.

All eyes turned onto a wide eyed chibi who was looking at the shattered antique vase Jii-chan had brought back on one of his archeological digs. "Oopsies," Yugi said, and went to poke one of the shards. Honda grabbed him and carried him away from the mess.

"Perhaps we'd better go to the park and let them play. I don't want to explain the reason why all of his artifacts have been shattered to Grandpa when he gets home," Anzu said, glancing at the broken vase and wondering just how much it was worth.

Yami wasn't exactly happy about them leaving behind his puzzle when they took him and Yugi to the park. Yugi immediately took off towards the sand box and started playing in it, with Honda and Ryou trailing after him to keep an eye on the toddler. Yami didn't seem interested in the sand, and wandered off around the playground. Jou seated himself on a bench to watch him as Anzu followed the chibitized Pharaoh, trying to get him to play.

He didn't seem to understand why the other kids were running around screaming. Yami just stared at them as they tried to get him to join in on their games. After a while, they gave up and Yami walked off towards the swings, which were strangely unoccupied. He cocked his head at the seat, not understanding its purpose, and lightly pushed it. It swung slowly back and forth with a slight creak.

Anzu came up from behind him and lifted him into the swing. Jou couldn't hear what was being said, but from the way Yami gripped the chains, he assumed Anzu had told him to hold on. She started out slow, before pushing him faster, making him giggle in delight. Jou smiled at the sight. There wasn't much that could hold Yami's attention for long, unlike Yugi, whose attention could be caught and held by the simplest of things for long periods of time.

He was always exploring, always trying to find something new, curious about everything. More than once Jou had to pull him away from things that could hurt him, like last night when he tried putting scissors into the light socket. Jou had even woken up in the middle of the night to find the chibi had wandered into the kitchen and very nearly got himself burned on the stove after he switched it on, trying to figure out what the knobs did. The chibi hadn't realized that the stove slowly turning hot beneath him was a bad thing.

It made Jou wonder how someone who could sense something bad was coming, and was one of the most powerful Pharaohs in history could be so clueless about the simplest of things. Sure, he was a little kid with no memories now, but he understood things Jou couldn't even began to comprehend.

There was a loud wail and Jou looked up to see Yugi crying in the sandbox with an older boy standing over him. He held one of the shovels Yugi had been playing with and had obviously pushed the much smaller kid down. Ryou was hugging him, trying to calm him down as Honda got into an argument with the bully's mother. Anzu rushed to help, leaving Yami behind on the swing.

After several minutes, the mother walked away with a huff, dragging her son away and muttering something about a bunch of no good teenagers messing with her darling son. Yugi stopped crying as his shovel was handed back and Ryou encouraged him to start playing again. Jou turned to glance at the swing where Yami was. It was empty.

"Oh shit . . ."

Yami giggled as he ran through the trees, following the strange white, familiar white light. He loved that light. He had seen it here before, but Bennu had caught him and his black taneen had carried him back to tenshi. But not now, he was going to find white taneen and black taneen was not here to take him away now.

The trees thinned and the crimson eyed chibi found what he was looking for. He ran forward, giggling as he latched onto the black covered leg and clung to it as hard as he could. Icy blue eyes stared incredulously down at him as a raven haired boy crouched next to him.

"Aw, he's so cute!" the boy spoke, pinching one of Yami's cheeks. Yami scowled at him and shuffled away, still holding onto his taneen's leg.

"Mokuba, I don't care if he's cute or not, get him off my leg," the blue eyed one spoke.

Mokuba shrugged and wrapped his arms around the chibi and pulled, trying to get Yami to let go. With a whine, Yami was pulled free and Mokuba lifted him into his arms to get a better look at the chibi.

"Hey Nii-sama, he looks just like a Yugi. Well, a miniature and darker version of Yugi anyways," Mokuba commented, holding Yami up to prove his point.

Blue eyes widened before he took Yami from Mokuba's hands and lifted him up to look into deep crimson pools. The chibi smiled widely at him, before giggling and wrapping his much smaller hands around his. Why did he suddenly have a bad feeling about this?

"Yo Kaiba! That's considered kidnapping ya know!"

Kaiba groaned and rolled his eyes at the sound of the Mutt's voice and turned to see the dweeb patrol running towards them, but they seemed to be missing the runt. Then Kaiba noticed the tiny bundle in the annoying friendship girl's arms. It was Yugi, down to the large violet eyes and cherubic features, only in miniature. Well, more miniature than before, anyways.

Then Kaiba processed what the Mutt had said. The friendship orgy knew the kid in his hands. The bad feeling suddenly got worse as he looked from Yugi and slowly turned back to the darker look-alike he was holding.

There was no way . . . he was a spirit . . . wasn't he? This had to be some distant relative to the runt. There was no way HIS rival had been turned into a chibi along with his annoying other half.

"Are ya listening money bags, give Yami back now! Ya can duel him when we figure out how to remove the curse."

Kaiba disguised his shock behind a sneer and shoved Yami into the blonde's arms and turned to walk away. Yami squirmed in Jou's arms, reaching out and grabbed the brunette's wrist. "Taneen!" he whined. Yami's eyes went wide and moist.

Don't tell me he can do those accursed chibi eyes, was Kaiba's only thought, before Yami's lips trembled. He whirled, grabbing Mokuba's hand and walked as fast as he could without actually running. He could hear the dweeb patrol calling things after him and Yami crying that word, taneen, over and over again. He tried not to think of how he understood the meaning of that word.

The doorbell to the Kame Game Shop rang cheerfully and Jou got up to open it, Yami and Yugi on his heels. He opened the door to admit Honda, Anzu, and Ryou who stumbled in, laden with groceries. After Yami near threw a fit when Kaiba left earlier this morning, the gang had returned to the Game Shop.

When Anzu remembered that was no food left in the house she had dragged Ryou and Honda to the store (Honda because he was the only one there with a driver's license and Ryou because he knew more about cooking any of the others).

Jou had been practically ordered to stay put by the lone female of the group, but he didn't mind so much. Looking after Yami and Yugi was far more fun than being dragged around a store by a girl, especially if said female would have been dragging him around by his ear.

The groceries were put away, with Anzu keeping a close eye on Jou, in case he tried to sneak any food. Afterwards, they got a few games and started playing. Despite having trouble counting, the twins were surprisingly good at Monopoly. Honda had been kicked out of the game by Yami, who was playing with Jou's help. With several unlucky rolls of the dice, Ryou lost all his money to Yugi after landing on his property three times in a row. Then it was just Yugi and Yami playing, helped by Anzu and Jou.

The shrill ringing of the house phone interrupted the game and Yugi hid under the table at the sound. Ryou, who was sitting next to the phone, reached over and answered it. "Jii-chan's at the airport," he announced, after hanging up the phone.

Ryou took Jou's place as Yami's helper, since Jou left with Honda to pick up grandpa from the airport. They were still playing when the door opened and Jii-chan walked in with Jou and Honda behind him, carrying in his things for him. He saw Yugi and Yami sitting in Ryou and Anzu's laps and smiled brightly at them. As if they knew who he was, both jumped up and hugged each of his legs.

The old man chuckled and, with a little effort, managed to scoop them up and set them in his lap as he sat on the couch. "Oh my, it's been a long time since I've had a child on my lap like this. When Yugi grew up, I knew I wouldn't have any more grandchildren to take care of like I used to. But now I've got two grandsons to look after all over again."

"But sir, didn't you come back to help us look for a way to get Yami and Yugi back into their teenaged forms? I mean, Yami's getting haunted by some ghost thingy and we have no idea why," Honda pointed out as Jii-chan went back to cooing at Yugi and Yami.

"Yes, of course. But indulge an old man and let him play with his grandsons before he starts looking through dusty old books. I'm going to need to find my book of hieroglyphs. At my age, you start forgetting things and blurring the meanings." Jii-chan answered, before going back to play with the two chibis.

Crimson eyes blinked open in the darkness and looked around the room. His other was curled up asleep next to him. His eyes moved upwards towards the skylight and stared at the faceless figure of the familiar spirit. The figure turned and vanished from the skylight. He crawled out of bed and climbed awkwardly onto the desk and peered out. The spirit was standing on the sidewalk below, still looking up towards him.

Looking back at his light, he slipped from the desk and wobbled carefully down the stairs, trying not to trip in the overlong white shirt he had been given to sleep in. Carefully, he peered around the corner at the sleeping teens and looked towards the glass sliding doors. With a faint rumble, they slid open of their own accord. The faceless spirit looked back at him through the open doorway and turned.

Curious eyes glanced hesitantly towards the slumbering group crashed out on the floor and couch, before scampering across the living room floor and out the door into the night, chasing the glowing figure of his haunter.

He lost track of the streets and alleyways he trod, thinking only to find the faceless spirit. But he had vanished. Only then, did he realize he didn't know where he was. But there was nothing and no one in the darkness. Only patches of dim flickering light provided by forlorn street lamps.

The night air was cold. The ground beneath his bare feet was like ice and each step he took numbed them. He shivered, wincing as he stepped on something sharp, but it was too dark to see. He was afraid to go near the light. In the darkness he could hide, but the within the pool of light, everything else hiding in the darkness could see him.

The wind blew, and he heard the sound of quiet creaking. He knew that creak. His footfalls were silent as he made his way off the hard black floor onto the damp feeling he knew to be grass. The creaking grew louder, until his searching hand brushed the seat of the swing.

He stood there, listening to it creak. Gentle hands surrounded him, and lifted him up into the swing before giving him a gentle push. As he swung, a soft voice began singing. He could have stayed there forever in the darkness, listening to that quiet lullaby, letting those gentle hands push him back and forth. But all too soon, it ended.

A pale hand grasped his own, and he let himself slip from the swing. He looked up into the smiling face, the familiar violet orbs, and toddled along at her side as she walked, still singing her lullaby. Together they walked through the darkness until Yami's eyes began drooping. Delicate hands lifted him into those warm loving arms and his head fell forward against her shoulder and the realm of dreams claimed him.

Early the next morning, Anzu went upstairs to get the twins ready for the day. She was picking up a sleepy Yugi when she noticed something. There was mud and bits of grass all over the sheets. She frowned before her eyes landed on Yami. The bottom of his feet were completely black and speckled with mud and grass, like he had spent the night walking barefooted on asphalt pavement then walked through a damp lawn. There was even mud and grass all over his legs and his shirt.

Setting Yugi down, she picked Yami up and took the barely awake chibi down the hall to the bathroom. He didn't stir as she ran the water until it was the right temperature, before plugging the drain and letting the tub fill. When she stripped him of his shirt and set him into the water he jerked awake and had escaped her grasp before she could even blink.

Finally coming back to her senses, she rushed downstairs to capture the runaway. It wasn't hard; his feet left tracks on the carpet and wooden stairs. By the time she got into the living room, everyone else had been woken by the chibi and the tomb robber had already caught Yami, who pouted as the thief carried him back upstairs.

Anzu blinked when she found the bathroom door locked and gibberish coming from inside, like Bakura was having a conversation with Yami in Ancient Egyptian. She shrugged and decided to stay out of it, as strange as the idea of Bakura being even remotely civil to the former Pharaoh was. Bakura may have hunted Yami for over three thousand years, but the thief knew him better than any of them.

The brunette looked up as Jii-chan came out of Yugi's bedroom with the amethyst eyed chibi in his arms, dressed. Azure eyes glanced at the bathroom door again and followed the elder downstairs just as the doorbell rang.

Jou opened the door to Rafael, who shrugged when asked where Valon and Amelda were, saying they went off somewhere this morning. "So, anything interesting happen yesterday?" he asked.

"Naw, not really. Unless you count Yami running off again, finding Kaiba, and crying when we took him away from the suck-up prick," Jou snorted, before heading into the kitchen, muttering profanities under his breath at Kaiba.

Rafael coughed lightly at the mention of Kaiba, earning him some odd looks from the group. He shook his head, holding back a smile. Obviously, they haven't figured out the connection yet. Ryou's features flickered for a second and the tomb robber grinned knowingly at him.

After breakfast, the group decided to take Yami and Yugi back to the park to them play and take a picnic for lunch.

The morning passed slowly, Jou making sure he kept an eye on Yami the whole time, in case the chibi decided to run off again. He spent most of the time on the swings with Anzu pushing him. At one point, Anzu had encouraged him to join Yugi and a young girl in the sand box. During lunch, Yami had curled up between Ryou and Rafael on the picnic blanket and took a nap.

Ryou almost regretted waking him when lunch was over and it was time to go home. They packed away the blanket and headed home. They heard the sirens a block away and when they found the source, it was an unwelcome surprise.

Three fire trucks, two police cruisers, and an ambulance were parked on the street in front of the corner where the Kame Game Shop sat. Five firefighters were busy hosing down the two story house next door to the shop, but another pair was busy putting out a small flame that roared on the side of the Game Shop.

The police tried to hold them back as they ran up to the scene, until Jii-chan explained he was the owner of the Kame Game Shop. After a brief conversation with their neighbors, they learned that an electrical plug had sparked in one of the upstairs rooms while they were downstairs and it had spread throughout the house and eventually jumped across the narrow alleyway to the Kame Game Shop.

After they were allowed to inspect the damage, they found that the old bedroom belonging to Yugi's parents was the only room to suffer burn damages. Unfortunately, it had burned through the walls and the outer wall had mostly crumbled away, exposing the room to the elements. There was also a large hole between the room and the bathroom. On top of that, there was going to be water damage due to the water used to put the flame out.

Jii-chan announced they were going to have to vacate the house until the damages had been repaired. There were harmful toxins in the air from the fire burning and releasing gases trapped in household items made of plastic and such.

Anzu and Ryou stayed outside with the twins while everyone else went to gather up their sleepover things and helped Jii-chan pack his own bags for himself, Yami, and Yugi. Fifteen minutes later found them sitting awkwardly back in the park, unsure of what to do now that they couldn't stay at the Game Shop.

Jou had Yami on his lap, arms wrapped tightly around him, in case the chibi decided to run off again. Part of it, Rafael suspected, was because Jou had subconsciously realized Yami was drawn to the CEO. The other part was that Jou was rather protective of Yami; and Yugi as well. But considering all the people that's came after the Pharaoh, it wasn't all that surprising.

"So . . . what are we supposed to do now?" Honda asked, flicking a fallen leaf off his shoulder where it had landed.

Anzu shrugged and leaned back on the bench, before shooting to her feet with a wide grin. "I know! Come on! Let's go guys!" She grabbed her travel bag with her sleepover things and Yugi and ran off, leaving the others to scramble after her, calling for her to wait up.

"Hell to the fucking no!" Jou shouted once they caught up to Anzu.

"Oh come on guys, we need a place to stay and he's got plenty to spare," Anzu reasoned. The brunette was currently looking up at the tallest building in Domino city, otherwise known as the Kaiba Corps Tower, the headquarters for the company and where one Seto Kaiba's main office was located.

"What makes you think he's going to do us any favors, anyway?" Honda asked, shoving his hands his pockets and eying the two security guards by the front door as they continued to give the odd group suspicious stares.

"One word: Mokuba," Anzu said, before the gang grinned at her. There was no way Kaiba would say no to his own little brother; and there was no way Mokuba would say no to them. Especially not after seeing the raven haired preteen coo over Yami in the park.

Once inside, they went straight to Mokuba, who was in the video gaming department, testing out the new games Kaiba Corps was getting ready to put on the market. After explanations about why they were there and what they wanted, Mokuba was happy to lead them several floors up to his older brother. They bypassed Kaiba's secretary without resistance, and went straight into the office.

Needless to say, Kaiba wasn't very happy to see them. He was even less than happy to hear that they wanted to stay at his mansion until the damages to the Kame Game Shop could be repaired. Even when Mokuba started giving him puppy dog eyes, he had remained firm in his refusal. Until Yami suddenly clambered onto his lap and latched onto his white dress shirt.

Yami smiled happily up at him and Kaiba froze at the sight of the crimson eyes gazing cheerfully up at him. Yugi joined him moments later, causing the normally unaffected CEO to lean away as their eyes grew big and round. "Fine! Alright! You can stay at the mansion!" Quickly he pushed Yugi into Mokuba's arms and set Yami gently on the desk.

"Now get out and let me get back to work!"

Rafael doubted anyone noticed the lingering look Kaiba gave Yami as Jou pulled the chibi off the desk after the chibi started crawling towards the blue eyed brunette. Yami whined as he was carried away as the group followed Mokuba out of the office.

Mokuba had summoned a limo, and the gang chatted on the way to the mansion, gleeful about staying in the mansion and giving an imaginary toast to Yami and Yugi's chibi eyes. Yugi kept giggling, sensing the cheerful atmosphere. Yami however, was curled up next to Bakura, but nobody else had noticed he had switched with Ryou, Rafael noted. They were having a conversation in what he assumed was Ancient Egyptian.

He gave a slight smile when Yami laid his head on the tomb robber's leg and snuggled up closer to him. Bakura awkwardly patted the royal's head, like he wasn't sure what do in this situation. Luckily for him, Yami had dozed off, so he was saved with having to do anything else. Ryou came back to the surface and he smiled down at Yami, stroking his back lightly.

*taneen means "Dragon" in Arabic.

*the "black taneen" Yami mentions is referring to Jou, because of his Red Eyes Black Dragon.

*tenshi = "angel" in Japanese, referring to Yugi.

This chapter was rather hard to write. Between Father's Day, my Dad's birthday, being dragged around shopping by my mom, being dragged down to see my grandmother who lives an hour and half away, driving lessons, laziness, my internet screwing up, and writer's block, my mind just didn't want to work. At one point I sat here for quite a while trying to type something and nothing would turn out. It was just so frustrating!

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I'd love to hear your opinions on this. Ja ne!