Disclaimer: NO! For the last time, I do NOT own Yu-Gi-Oh! I simply have plans to take it over in the near future. Bwa ha ha!

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"Why is it, every time we run into each other, I'm in a bad situation?" Anzu asked as she slid into the seat across from Kaiba.

Anzu had hesitated at first, but then a crack of thunder had sounded, and a flash of lightning streaked low in the sky, and she had jumped a foot in the air and hurriedly accepted his, well, generous offer. Now she was dripping rain water in the interior of the limousine, which did not seem to faze Kaiba in the least.

"I think it's because you enjoy being the one to be saved. All of your kind do." Kaiba took a sip of something amber from a wine-like glass. Anzu stared.

"All of my kind? What, women in general?" Anzu wasn't in the mood for this. Kaiba could probably tell that from glaring straight at her face, but he answered. Much to Anzu's growing anger.

"Yes. I seem to recall a lot of books that depict women as the 'damsels in distress' and the men as 'shining knights in armor'." He sneered. Anzu bit back an ugly retort, and instead questioned the amber liquid in Kaiba's glass.

"Aren't you too young to drink alcohol? Or can you bend the laws in your favor, being a billionaire?" Anzu flicked some water off of her hand onto the plush violet carpet of the limousine. Kaiba didn't blink.

"This," He said, raising the wine glass, "Is apple juice. My brother Mokuba likes to play pretend with all of the fancy glasses and kiddy drinks." He took another sip of the apple juice. "It's quite fun, actually."

Anzu's irritation was increasing. She was also still wet, and was more than a bit certain her wet clothes were showing rated M parts of her body to Kaiba.

"Do you think I could have a, a towel or something? I mean, I am dripping all over your limousine." Anzu hoped she didn't sound too blank. She felt kind of exposed in the large seating area of the limo.

Kaiba muttered something before putting his glass down delicately on a silver lined tray. Presumably, it was a high end cup holder. Anzu didn't catch what Kaiba had mumbled, but she didn't care. It was most likely a snarky remark. Then Kaiba doubled over, retrieving a soft fluffy thing from a black glass case under his cushioned seat. It was a robe, stamped with the KaibaCorp seal on the waist pocket, and the name 'Mokuba' stitched in gold on the breast pocket. Anzu just stared.

Kaiba handed her the robe. She took it.

"That's my brother's robe," Kaiba started to say, but then the limousine stopped. Kaiba turned his head to the left, looking at the driver's window. He rolled his eyes, then pushed a button so that the wall between the driver and himself folded in half. Anzu could see a violet velvet cap sitting on the top of a gentleman with silvery hair.

"Why have you stopped, Watari?" Kaiba sounded annoyed, for some odd reason. Anzu was still holding Mokuba's robe loosely between her fingers.

"Sir, you have arrived at Miss Anzu's home. Should I walk her out under the umbrella? It is still raining quite steadily." Kaiba flushed slightly, a bit of pink coloring his cheeks and ears.

"My house? What? I didn't even tell you my address---" Anzu was cut off by Kaiba snatching back his brother's robe and saying, in a dark, frustrated voice,

"You should get out now. This is your house, as you very well can see. Get out." Anzu scrambled out of the limo as quickly as she could. The door slammed behind her, and she heard, in a distinct, clearly angry tone, "Watari! You're fired!" before the limo sped away. Anzu stood, blinking in the heavy rain, before coming to her senses and running up the sidewalk to a porch. She stepped back before ringing the doorbell. Even if it wasn't her house, she decided she must call her mother or father anyway. But, there was the dragon door knocker, and a chip in the wood of the door shaped exactly like a star, in the exact same place as where Yugi had scratched the shape out two years ago.

This really was her house.

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Ryou paced the floor of his bedroom, debating as to what he should do. Call Anzu, apologize again? Why had she even come? His father hadn't known the reason, and now he was pestering Ryou as to who she was and why she had run out in such a rush. Oh, he told his father who she was. Not exactly who she was, but who she was. A general idea. And why had she gone so quickly? Well... because...

'Because I was being a blithering idiot. Because no one should ignore their father while trying to achieve a self-activated pleasure burst. Because Anzu was horrified by the awful truth, that I'm not a good person... I feel so dirty..."

Ryou stopped pacing and sat on his bed. He wouldn't be able to face her in school tomorrow...

"Better you than me, fool. Didn't I tell you your father was calling?" Bakura sneered. "But you chose to continue on with it, ensuring your fate. You should have seen the ghastly look on her face, Ryou. She looked as though all of her bloody world fell apart. Like everything she believed to be true wasn't. Like---"

"Oh, bugger off. You're no help." Ryou swung his legs onto his bed and stared gloomily at his star-studded ceiling. He had always liked those glow in the dark stars, refusing to throw them away when he and his father moved to Domino City.

Sadly, and to add to his guilt, Ryou had finished the job after Anzu had zoomed out of his house into the gray afternoon. He had just been so close to reaching it... but now it seemed the wrong choice. In fact, after he had done it, a horrible storm began beating at his windows, as if reprimanding his decision. The awesome feeling decreased to none in less time than it usually took, and he felt extremely guilty, but there was nothing he could do.

"Stupid boy. Anzu will never forgive you now, although the gift basket seemed to have worked." said Bakura quietly, adding the last few words as an afterthought to himself.

Ryou blinked at the glowing stars. He unclasped his hands and settled them at his sides, pushing himself up to lean against his bed headrest.

"What gift basket?" Ryou asked, curious. Bakura, in Ryou's mind's eye, blanched.

"Er, nothing. I was just... you must have misheard me. There is no gift basket. I said, um, 'bad casket'... because..." Ryou smirked, a smile that did not fit his soft features.

"You're rambling, Bakura. I know what that means. You forget how well I know you sometimes... so, care to tell? Or do I have to find out from Anzu?" Bakura was then gone in a flash of silvery shine. Ryou found himself in a tiny black space, and understood what had taken place.

"Bakura... you can't hide the information from me forever. I'll find out at school tomo---"

"Hold your tongue, you insolent boy! We're off to the jewelers shop. I have a sudden urge to steal." Ryou couldn't feel anything, but if he strained his ears he could hear Bakura walking down the mahogany staircase.

Ryou sighed, and folded his arms across his chest. It wouldn't do any good to arouse Bakura's anger, or he would find himself sore next morning. He would have to ask Anzu when Bakura least suspected it, so that he wouldn't be able to freeze Ryou's tongue in place as he tried to get the question out. Ryou heard his father calling to him, and Bakura snapped back that he was going out to the park. That was the usual lie. Ryou's father yelled back okey-dokey or something lame like that, but Bakura had already closed the front door harder than necessary.

Ryou laid down in the black 'room' and hoped Bakura wouldn't be caught, like he had two nights ago at a Walmart, carrying an oddly large package over his shoulder. Ryou had wondered what it was at the time, but Bakura had told him to be quiet or he would wake up looking worse enough to break three mirrors instead of the usual two.

He had shut up about the item, but now he thought he knew what it was.

Oh yes. He knew what it was...

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Anzu woke up at 3:45 a.m. Monday morning burning under her covers. She thrust them off, but then was shivering so violently she had to pull them back over her body. Then she was sweating, then freezing, as she threw and pulled on and off her covers. Finally, her stomach felt so queasy of this whole affair that she retched all over her polished wood floor.

"Dear me..." her mother had said when Anzu's temperature read 101 degrees. "You're pretty sick, sweetie."

Anzu would have nodded her head, but she couldn't manage. It felt so stuffed and awful.

"You shouldn't have run around in the rainstorm, sweetie." Her mother told her, shaking her head. "Stay in bed today, that's what I recommend. I'll be home at 5:00, okay?"

Anzu closed her eyes. She heard her mother gently close her bedroom door. 'Of all the days to be sick,' Anzu thought before she drifted off into a feverish sleep, 'I'm glad it was today.'

Outside, a dark clad figure started climbing up the tree right next to Anzu's window.

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Bakura had climbed before, up and down numerous things, without so much as breaking a sweat. Now, however, scaling up the side of this wretched tree, his hands were wet and his feet kept slipping. Near the top, he cut the index finger of his hand on a sharp flake of the tree. He cursed, which caused a startled bird to fly off of a branch beside him.

"Accursed tree! I don't remember trees being this tall in my day!" Bakura paused. "Actually, I don't remember there being any trees at all..."

Shrugging to himself, he continued climbing.

It was approximately 10:00 at night, and he was sneaking into the mortal girl's room for a certain object. He couldn't believe that he had lost the last... object... while on the way to a sweet shop a couple of nights ago. He needed a new one. And the insufferable girl was just (well, the only) the mortal from which to steal it from. The way it smelled, felt, and sounded as he snapped the elastic was enough to make him high. It was a different way of accessing the pleasure center of his brain than the actions the foolish boy did. Bakura had warned him that one day his jerking off would bite him in the back. Ryou hadn't listened to him. His loss, literally.

Bakura's bleeding subsided, and he made a mental note to take a bandaid from Anzu before he left.

It was curious, Bakura thought as he raised the window to Anzu's room, that the girl hadn't been in school today. His host had been very relieved. Bakura did not know why, but he had been sort of worried. He had grown less concerned during the school day, reassuring and scolding himself for his caring. Bakura did not notice, when he pushed the window to the top of its extent, and swung himself into Anzu's room, that he knocked a little white box to the muddy ground, two floors below him. It lay there like a baby pearl surrounded by wet gooey sand.

'Alright,' Bakura said to himself, 'Time to put my thieving fingers to the test...' He left the window open and crouched on his hands and knees, crawling cat-like to Anzu's dresser. The girl herself was asleep, tucked under a number of thick blankets with a peaceful look on her face. Bakura straightened up just a tad to glance over at her, then shrank back down and continued to her dresser. He liked to pretend he was a shadow liberating people of their useless junk, but tonight he knew this object was just for him.

Quite suddenly, so quickly that Bakura wasn't even expecting it, the door to Anzu's room swung open, creaking slightly. Bakura barely managed to hide under the nearest undercover spot: the bed.

He adjusted himself so he was lying on his stomach, and tensed up every muscle. He waited quietly while the intruder upon his plan walked with careful steps to Anzu's bedside. The person had feet clothed in bunny slippers, and was close enough so Bakura could see blue veins running up and down their legs. 'Disgusting,' Bakura thought, noting that the person had not shaved her legs in some time. 'Must be Anzu's mother.' Bakura let a sneer spread across his face. How he longed to cut a mark into the woman's leg so she would bleed. 'What an insane idea.' Bakura tried to determine what color Anzu's carpet was, but it was too dark. He waited for five minutes more, and then the woman retreated back the way she had come, and closed the door.

"Finally. Stupid woman." Bakura pulled himself out from under the bed. "Now to get on with it..."

Bakura leaped nimbly to the dresser, once again. Carefully as he could, he took ahold of one of the knobs and gently pulled it forward...

A rustling of Anzu's covers made him almost duck underneath the bed again, but she was still asleep. She had just pushed all of her covers to the floor, and Bakura could now see she was dressed in a silk nightgown that did not cover her legs.

His breathing sped up, and he could feel his heart in his throat. His eyes greedily drank in her perfect, smooth body, oh, her legs, chest and arms... Bakura had no idea why he was suddenly walking over to Anzu, foolish mortal girl that she was, pretty, bathed in moonlight, and he had a sudden ferocious urge to climb on top of her and fu---

Her bedroom door opened again, and Bakura heard a tiny gasp as he threw himself underneath the bed once again. Hurried footsteps rushed to the window, and Bakura noted that they were the bunny slipper feet. She apparently thought he had escaped out of the window. He restrained his growl and laughter.

Bakura heard a little 'huh' from the bunny slippered woman, then the sound of a creaky window closing and locking. Damn it. Well, he could open it again no problem...

The woman stooped to pick up Anzu's blankets from the floor, and Bakura tensed, barely breathing, knowing at any second he would be noticed, but the woman scooped all of the blankets in her arms and rearranged them over Anzu, taking her precious time. Bakura had a cramp ten minutes later, when the woman had finally lovingly smoothed out the last wrinkle in Anzu's top blanket. Then she tiptoed to the door a second time and closed it. Bakura breathed again.

"Glad that's over." Bakura whispered, then straightened up, stretching his back. He looked at Anzu once more. "You have a horrible mother, you know that? My mother was never that keen on making sure I was under so many suffocating sheets. Good god."

Rather less sneakily than before, and wanting desperately to return to Ryou's home, Bakura pulled open the dresser drawer quickly and with less caution. His eyes roamed around it before he spotted what he wanted. Bingo.

"And now, the panty raid is complete." Bakura whispered in Anzu's direction. He folded the panty into a square and stuffed it into his pocket. He snuck over to the window and looked for the locking mechanism. To his dismay, he found it. Three little keyholes, evenly spaced across the top of the window. He cursed quietly. He needed to pick the lock, but did not have any paperclips on his person. He turned around and searched the room with his eyes for something, anything, long, narrow and sharp. His eyes instead lit upon the very thing that had secured the window: the key. He was too lucky...

The key was resting on Anzu's bedside table, near her alarm clock. He crept over to it, thanking the gods for his good fortune. His light fingers snatched it up, and he silently zipped over to the window, jamming the key into each of the three locks and turning it. The key worked for all three. He raised the window without a bit of difficulty, and would have kissed the key if it hadn't been so dirty looking. He just looked fondly at it before tossing it somewhere into Anzu's dark bedroom. He heard a faint 'clunk' and turned to see what it had hit. Oh no...

Anzu sat up and rubbed her head. It was full of more pain than she remembered going to sleep with. Something cold touched her hand and she flinched. It was the window key... huh? Anzu looked up at the window just in time to see a head of white hair tumbling out of it, and she fancied she heard a thud two floors below her. Weird...

Even though she was freezing, Anzu got out of her snuggly bed to close the window and lock it. The funny thing was, she didn't remember her or her mother or father opening it.

Anzu walked back to her bed, got under the twenty or so sheets and blankets, and let herself sink back into sleep. She wouldn't remember the incident in the morning.

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Under the apple tree, Bakura rubbed his bottom where it had hit the ground. "Good thing it wasn't my head," Bakura said aloud angrily, standing up but immediately sitting back down. The pain was too great at the moment to take off with his prize. He lay down on the soft ground to wait out the pain, subsequently getting mud in his hair. Bakura stared up at the stars for twenty minutes before scolding himself, pushed himself off the ground, and started walking quickly in the direction of Ryou's house.

Ryou would discover dried mud in his hair the next morning, but Bakura would deny having any idea about where the mud came from.

As Bakura sprinted to his host's home, he smashed a little white box further into the muddy earth. The notecard glued to the top of the box lost the gift giver's signature under the wet dirt, but not the name of the recipient.

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Bakura, a panty stealer? Surely not! Oh, but he is...