Chapter Five – Aria: The Past Uncovered

Yami's POV

Yami leant closer to Yugi, making the latter blush. Yami then did something very unexpected; he licked some of the blood of Yugi's cheek.

"Mmm… you taste sweet, my Aibou." he said with a smile. He licked a little more off then stood up straight. Yami could tell his hikari didn't know how to respond to this, and laughed.

"You are so cute, my little Light, so cute and sweet. I will have to keep an eye on you, I wouldn't want anyone to try to taint my little innocent one, now do I?"

Yugi nodded slowly, blushing bright crimson. Yami looked around him, everyone was frozen with their eyes tightly shut, he smiled more.

"It is time I had a look at my new place of residence, my little one, so you and your friends can leave this tomb." He then spotted the Princess, "Aibou, who is she?"

She has a strong magical energy about her… I can feel it coming from that pendant… but who is she..? Why do I feel like I know her..?

"That's Princess Aria, she's your descendent. I don't know that much about her other then Marik is, like, her bodyguard and this evil person wants to kidnap her." Yugi said.

"Would that evil person be the one who hurt you, my Aibou?"

Yugi nodded. Yami clinched his fists and jaw. Next time they saw this person he was going down and the spirit was determined to be the one that made him.

"My Aibou, I would like you to find out as much as you can about the Princess and the person after her. But be careful my little Aibou."

"Of course, Yami, I was going to ask Aria about her past anyway and I want to find out as much about this guy as possible…" Yugi's voice trailed off. He was obviously remembering the knife being thrown at him.

Yami wrapped his arms around Yugi's waist and whispered in his ear, "Don't worry, my Aibou, I will not let this man hurt you again, I promise, I will keep you safe."

He kissed Yugi's good cheek and disappeared into the key. Everyone else opened their eyes as if no time had passed at all.

Aria's POV

Blinking a few times, she looked around her. Nothing appeared to have happened, other then a blinding light and the fact that there was now what appeared to be a lick mark in the blood on Yugi's cheek.

"Princess Aria… what was your past like?" Yugi suddenly asked.

That's right, I may know a little about them but they know nothing about me…

Aria walked past Yugi and headed for the door, "Firstly please just call me Aria. Secondly, as you know I grew up in the palace, the only daughter of the king and queen. My mother and father would often leave to go to other places as part of their duty, but back then I was to young to travel, so they left me with some old family friends, the Ishtars to be exact. Although Marik is two years older then me, we got on very well, our parents had initially intended me to befriend Ishizu but she was way to bossy. Plus, there was something about the way Marik acted that I really liked, while Ishizu always treated my like a princess, Marik treated my like a friend, like a sister. As we grew I taught him about the outside world and he taught me about tombs and stuff." Somehow she managed to dodge the traps while speaking, "He even taught me how to speak Ancient Egyptian, English, Japanese and a little Latin – and of course my native language is Arabic. My mother wanted me to use my artistic ability to its fullest, she didn't like it when I spent ages drawing tombs and mummies, she even taught me how to sew to try and stop me drawing them. I decided for Marik's birthday I would make him a book. I sewed it together myself and drew all the pictures and added captions. It was full of drawings of tombs, the outside world, me and Marik and other things we'd talked about. One year, when my sewing had improved, I decided to make him a doll. I made two, one for him and one for me. The first one, his, looked like me, and the second one, mine, looked like him. It was meant to be a sign of our friendship. I never got to give them to him for his birthday, he left for Japan a few weeks before I got the chance…" As Aria spoke she saw the memories playing in her head.

Her carrying the dolls trying to find him, her being told he'd left, Ishizu saying she'd bring him back, the day she was told he was returning… she remembered that day the most, every single detail was etched into her brain. She had sat at the docks waiting for him, a present in her hand. She'd kept it all that time. The boat pulled up and she ran and hugged him, sobbing into his shoulder. She'd felt so alone without him. Yeah, she had guards she talked to, but they didn't know her as well at Marik did and she didn't know them as well as she knew Marik. She had missed him so much. She pulled back from the hug, wiped her eyes and handed him the present.

"I made it for your birthday, but you left before I got the chance to give it to you…"

She looked at her feet, she had missed him a lot. Marik smiled and opened the present, the doll of her looked as it had even after being wrapped up for so long.

"Wow! It's amazing; you really have gotten better at sewing. Thank-you, I will always keep this close. And I am sorry for leaving so suddenly, Aria my friend, I won't do it again."

Her face lit up in a huge grin, then her expression became stern, "Marik, is that a promise?"

Marik laughed, then nodded. "It's symbol of our friendship, you have the one that looks like me and I have one that looks like you, that way we'll be friends forever."

Her grin returned. She hugged him again.

"Friends forever and ever…" she whispered into his shoulder.

She finished telling her story of her past, and started to look at her feet as she walked. She had missed him back then and was missing him now.

Where is he..? He said he would never leave again… I thought if I went with Yugi he would catch up… I miss him… I need him…

Aria walked out of the tomb, squinting against the sun, she saw a very familiar figure walking towards them.

She ran and threw her arms around his neck; he wrapped his arms around her in return.

"Oh Marik, I thought I'd lost you forever this time, I was so scared. I was so stupid; he nearly got me today, just outside the hotel. Oh Marik, he hurt Yugi, he threw a dagger at him! What if Yugi hadn't moved in time? I don't want them to get hurt, they're my friends. Oh Marik, what if next time he actually kills one of them for trying to protect me? Oh Marik, I can't keep putting people in danger; I don't want to lose a friend to a dagger. I don't want to see my friends get hurt because some weirdo wants to kidnap me!"

"Shhh, Aria, it's okay. Calm down, I'm here now. That's all that matters… plus. from what I heard, Yugi did get out of the way in time and the dagger only left a scratch… though I would like to have a look at that, Yugi, so I can clean it."

Aria didn't turn to look at Yugi, she was to busy clinging to Marik's chest, but she heard his reply.

"I would really appreciate that. It stings like hell, I think its got sand in it."

"If it does it could get badly infected so as soon as we get back I'll take a lo-"

Aria cut him off before he could finish, "You said that you being here now was all that matters, but I would like to know where you have been and why you didn't catch up sooner."

She was frowning at him, in the exact same way Yami normally frowned at Kaiba, she waited for Marik to answer.

He smiled, "I was trying to find information on that guy… so far all I know is that he is the new Thief King Sennen Bakuru and that he's a descendent of the old Thief King Akefia Bakura," he paused and looked at Ryou before continuing, "I was also getting a few things from the palace…" He held up two dolls, Aria's expression immediately lightened. "Y-you kept it… all these years… Oh Marik!"

She hugged him tightly, not wanting to let go in case her fellow Egyptian suddenly left again.