The Perfect Stranger The Revised Edition

by Princess Jadykins

Yami is a half vampire/ half human guy on the run from his vampire family, however once he meets Tea Gardner he risks the chance of falling in love, which places them both in grave danger. Warning: Lemons and disturbing plots! CHAPTER 21 FINALLY UP

15. Chapter 15

Hey!

Long time, no update right? Sorry guys, I've been really, really busy lately, with studying, exams, assignments, and new love life! However, I am pleased to inform you that I'm finally done with chapter 15, and so help me – did it give me problems! So I worked some late night magic and spent most of my weekends staying up from 9pm to 4 am (I'm not kidding) bitching, and downing coffee and salty chips, and argued with the computer until I finally typed in the final sentence! So I really, really hope everyone is going to like it!

But before I begin! Thank you! Thank You! Thank you! All my amazing reviewers and readers! You guys are so awesome and great, and such a pleasure to write for! I don't know what I would do without you! Toxicinity, you always make me laugh and brighten my day when I read your reviews, and thank you so much for all the luck you bring me, because I always need it. IceFire Dragon Alchemist73, in your honour Yugi will do the next intro thank you for reviewing it means a lot to me. Darkness Bandit I'm so glad you enjoyed the Hannah remix, my sister never stopped singing it (rolls eyes), I love your reviews and I promise you that there will be a lemon soon. My dearest friend, PharoahAtem's Queen95…thank you for finally enabling your private messaging, I also love your reviews, thanks a lot. I Love Manicures– so do I girl, hehe. Thank you for your support and reviews, I love them as well, and Team Edward forever Babe! Germantownmaiden- Thank you for loving chapter 14, you even nearly convinced me that there was nothing wrong with it, thank you so much for your kind words. Koragirl - thank you so much for still following the story and always reviewing it, it really means a lot to me!

And finally, thank you to my new readers, Seeker Heart, Dorchica (seriously you sat and read it for 4 hours! You're my new hero! Thanks a bunch!), and Princess of Sorrow. You guys are all awesome and I'm so lucky to have the best reviewers on Fanfiction reading the Perfect Strangers.

Also a special thanks to Razz, for allowing me to use her character in this story, and another special thanks once again to Toxicinity for the use of her character…which is about to turn Domino City upside down.

So before you all get impatient and kill me, here is chapter 15. Please enjoy.

Disclaimer: Don't own Yu-gi-oh, never have, but I'm dating Seto Kaiba's twin brother. (Drools)

Rating: Yeah some of the topics that come up in this chapter are not suitable for children.

AN: Enjoy…

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Previously on Gossip gir- uh I mean…The Perfect Strangers. Looks like Domino City has a couple of new strangers in town, not that Ballet-Girl seems to mind, he's everything she wanted right…hmm, trust her to pick Mr. Mysterious over his uber-hot brother (Me!), but the party's over for now, three new psychos are raising hell, literally. As for the fair-haired devil's spawn that uber-hottie's (once again me!) got captive, seems she's on a mission of her own, too bad so am I. No point in hating me…because you know you love me!

XOXO

(Fuck who watches this shit?)

"CHAPTER 15"

It sounded so simple when he had thought it over in his head. Take the girl to Yami's apartment, chain her down to a chair, deprive her of blood for a while, and then conduct a thorough interrogation by means of "torture" if necessary…Simple! But no'ooooo…not with this bitch.

Like Yugi had previously predicted, she managed to break out of her chains…several times…and he had to chase her around the apartment and drag her back to the same chair and retie her up with a new set of even thicker chains…well, until her third attempt to escape, where she actually took apart the chair, as well, and left a pile of scrap wood behind.

So it really was her own fault that he was left with no other choice, but to practically 'cocoon' her in huge, bulky truck chains, which seemed to weigh over a ton, and probably felt terribly uncomfortable around her slim body…too bad! She squirmed around slightly, though found her movement was severely restricted, which automatically made her resentful of his presence, and therefore settled on glaring at him from across the room, with black-hateful eyes. Sucker.

Yugi snorted humourlessly, his eyes mirroring her hateful glare with one of his own from his corner across the room, as he leant up against the wall with his arms folded over his bare chest. After what she had put him through for the last three days and nights, she could rot in those chains for all he cared. Annoyed, he glanced around what was left of the living room, and mentally cringed at the state of it. Talk about it looking as though someone had been murdered. Yami was really going to flip-out on him this time.

The desk (and Yami's paperclip tower - thing) lay discarded and completely destroyed in the corner, along with the once-chair's remains, neither recognisable anymore, and couldn't really be told apart from the extensive damage and battery that they had sustained during the escape attempts. The carpets were also shredded with deep, long slashes that revealed the dark, blackened wood beneath them, which were inflicted by her razor sharp nails, as he dragged her from the doorway and back to her chair on her second try. There were also very noticeable pools of blood staining various areas of the carpet and the few items of furniture that had managed to remain partly intact; and the walls, which were still partly vandalised, now had patches of missing plaster and long, widespread cracks that trailed onward and upward towards the ceiling.

All three commotions had sparked some form of reaction from their neighbouring tenants…And all 'concerned' individuals had to have their 'minds set at ease' - that all that was happening in the apartment, was a little bit of foreplay and rough sex…thank Ra he had powers.

He gently pushed himself off the wall and unfolded his arms, rolling his shoulders back to relieve some of the tension that had somewhat built up after the past 48 hours, in which he had only got about a maximum of 4 hours worth of sleep from. Trying to compel her had also proved to be a fruitless task, mostly because he hadn't had anything decent to drink for the past week, and he was utterly exhausted, thus, his power became too weak to work on her properly, enabling her to break out of it just as quickly. And if that wasn't bad enough…she refused to answer his questions.

Day three; and she still hadn't spoken a word to him. All she did was throw a few murderous glares at him and occasionally sigh or growl answers, which pissed him off beyond the border of rage. It seemed as though the girl wasn't able to speak, which he really hoped for her sake, wasn't the case…not after what she had had the audacity to put him through.

Yami of course, as per usual, had the better hand of the deal. Bastard!

While playing the demonic babysitter/captor, and in some cases – victim - Yami had been caught up with a situation that involved his prized plaything-uh- girlfriend, and hadn't been able to leave her side since. He wasn't too clued up on all the details as of yet, as when he and Yami last spoke, his attention was more focussed on his own restless female that he had spent most of the day chasing around the apartment…And only caught some of what Yami had been trying to say, which was something about a box…and really - who gave a shit about a box?

His hand involuntarily stretched up to the centre of his bare chest, where only a few faint pink lines remained from what had once been a gory mess that was left after she had tried to rip him apart, literally, with her bare hands. He suspected that some of his skin still remained beneath her finger nails, the "claws of death" in his opinion…and yet it wasn't the wounds he received that pissed him off the most, despite how much it had hurt, but rather the fact that she had reduced his last shirt to the very threads of cotton that had once made it whole.

Glaring at her, he bared his fangs slightly in irritation, growing bored of keeping her alive for the sake of finding out what he needed to. She still had that contemplative look in her dark eyes, obviously planning her next escape. He had to give her credit though; she was a fighter, something that he would have found immensely attractive, if he didn't hate her just as much for it.

A sudden movement caught his attention, as she tried to break free of her chains again, only to find that they were stronger than the last set, and gave in to a loud, high pitched sigh of frustration. He growled irritably, "Fucking hell! Can't you just sit still for One – Single - Fucking minute? I swear to any god that you believe in – if you break out of those chains one last time…I will fucking super glue your ass to that Ra-damn chair!" She shot him a daring glare, as if to say, 'Go ahead and see if I care,' before trying to do the same thing again unsuccessfully.

Oh how he would enjoy killing this one when all this was over. So far he had been 'nice' to her. There wasn't a single mark on her body that he had put there purposely, in fact he had done very little damage to her, especially in comparison to what she had done to him, but no, Yugi hadn't even so much as left a scratch on her, though not even he was sure why, because there were so many times where he had wanted to kill her, yet didn't. That didn't mean however, once she had become useless to them that he wouldn't make the process as painful as he could possibly make it.

'Rather let her sleep through the night and wake up tomorrow when the blood is out of her system and she's weakened,' Yami had said so confidently two nights before, what a prick. Then again he had to give his brother a little benefit of the doubt; neither of them had expected her to be this strong without a blood supply. She must have been starving by now, hell Yugi had had to go without blood for 26 hours when he was transferring from Egypt to America on the hunt for Yami, and that alone was terrible, he couldn't imagine what it must have felt like for her, but spared her no compassion. He wasn't in the mood for her shit the day he met her, and he most definitely was not in the mood for it now.

The only problem was that although she was weakening, she was weakening very slowly.

She shoved herself forward in the chair, which caused the chains to lurch and rattle under pressure, yet fortunately remained intact. He was about to launch another one of his Ra-fearing threats at her, when he heard the door to the apartment being opened.

"Yugi?" Yami's voice called from the doorway, his eyes widening in horror as he took in his surroundings. What the hell happened to his apartment!"

"It's about time! We're in here!" Yugi responded.

Yami soon entered through the doorway, his eyes wide in shock and disbelief at what was left of his apartment. His sharp, scarlet eyes missed nothing in their observation around the room, picking out each injury that the pair had caused in their scuffle, and the broken furniture that lay discarded in pieces in the corner, and finally turned his gaze on the young chained up vampire, who sat glaring at him coldly, before making his way back to Yugi. "What the hell happened?"

Yugi glanced up at him tiredly, his exhaustion seeming to finally take an effect on him, though his temper was quick to flare. "What happened? I'll tell you what fucking happened…our little friend here and I have been playing hide and seek, as well as tag for the past two-and-a-half fucking days." Yugi glared at Yami. 'And that thing you said about her weakening if she's kept off blood – total bullshit! She's LITERALLY been climbing up the fucking walls, hence the cracks in the ceiling!"

Yami automatically glanced up at the ceiling upon hearing Yugi's mental voice and gaped in amazement, upon seeing what looked like dented footprints in his plaster-ceiling as well as cracks. He could only imagine what had taken place for something like that to occur. It seemed that the girl had really given Yugi a hard time. "Well I'll be damned," Yami commented as he slowly took his eyes off the ceiling and returned them to his brother's.

Yugi looked like he had been put through hell, with a slight yellowish tinge to his complexion that was barely noticeable, but there all the same, as well as finely visible dark shadows beneath his eyes, and bloodshot corners that made his eyes seem much redder than what they really were. He also noticed the dry blood that caked his skin, and the faint pink scars that lined his upper torso…though he had to wonder why he was walking around without a shirt on in the first place.

"Been a handful hasn't she?"

Yugi gave him a really dark, spine-chilling glare.

Yami sighed, feeling slightly guilty about not being there to help Yugi with her when clearly he needed it, but it had been impossible for him to have been in two places these last few days. "Has she said anything yet?" The last time they spoke, Yugi had told him that she hadn't said a word to him, though she did seem to understand what he was saying, which meant that it wasn't a language barrier issue that they were dealing with.

Yugi shook his head, still seeming to inwardly fume with agitation.

Yami nodded in understanding and turned his gaze back to an even more agitated vampire, which glared at him with hostile eyes that could have frozen hell over. Had she not have been securely chained to the chair, he would have without a doubt expected her to leap across the room and tear his throat out. And just by a quick, sketchy analysis of her mind – that was exactly what she wanted to do.

He pulled out another chair from the other side of the room and dragged it in front of her before casually sitting down on it, offering her a genuine, friendly and inviting smile. "Hi," he greeted her politely, to which she only glared at in response. "I'm Atem, but you can call me Yami if you like."

Yugi sighed dramatically behind him with a roll of his eyes, to which Yami simply ignored. His attention was solely focussed on the vampire before him. "I see that you've been keeping my brother rather occupied these last few days…I must say that I'm impressed, because you're the only woman I know that has been able to properly put him in his place, I really admire you for that."

Yami could hear Yugi's deep-throated growl and felt the daggering glare on his back, but continued to ignore him, as he saw a barely visible spark in her eye that could have been either humour or perhaps pride at been praised. "I apologize for the chains. I can't imagine them been comfortable at all, and I'm sure you must be hungry too, after all it's just after twelve in the afternoon, and you haven't had a single meal yet for almost three days. So I'll tell you what, I'll loosen these slightly, to make them more comfortable for you and we'll fix you up with some of the medic blood I have back in the kitchen…would you like that?" he asked her with a kind and gentle voice.

Yugi gasped, wondering if Yami had gone mad. 'What the fuck do you think you're doing? Are you insane! This little bitch should have more chains wrapped around her, not have them loosened! And you're not seriously going to feed her? We need her weaker, not stronger you douche bag!"

Yugi's attention was immediately snapped to the small movement of her head, as she hesitantly nodded once in acknowledgement of Yami's offer. His older brother turned slightly in his chair and gave Yugi a hard knowing look that sent a message to him without needing telepathy, asking him to trust him. "Yugi will you please go and fetch her a bag from our supply?"

Although he felt that this was a really, really bad idea and didn't really believe that Yami was all that smart - in fact he didn't trust Yami's judgement majority of the time - but regardless of all that, he knew that if anything went wrong he still had enough strength – and super glue at the bottom of the kitchen cabinet – to correct it…but most importantly, if anything went wrong he would take great pleasure in rubbing it in Yami's face later. So…he nodded hesitantly, but shot Yami a warning gaze, before disappearing into the kitchen and yanking the freezer door open.

A quick scan of its contents led him to the decision of yanking out an 'O' blood type flavour, deciding she could have the least favourable tasting supplement of their supply. When he returned to the living room Yami had already loosened the chains in a very gentle way that made his stomach churn. His brother was being too damn nice and gentle with her, which was a sure way to backfire on them, but he was too damn stupid to see it that way. He was treating her like a fragile human and not something that could rip his head off in less than a second. Seeing that if she did spring a surprise attack on him, his brother was in a rather fatally close range, so Yugi decided to situate himself closer to the pair, in case he had to intervene immediately. He flung the bag onto Yami's lap without a word and glared at her threateningly, hoping that it would kick any thoughts of escape out of her mind.

Yami ripped the bag open for her and poured its contents into a glass, making sure to get as much out of it as he could, before placing a straw in it. She didn't make any sudden movements or lash out at him like Yugi had expected from a hungry vampire, and the only indication of her hunger, came from a purely agonized look in her eyes, as they zoomed in on the glass. Yami brought it up to her lips and allowed her to gulp it down as fast as it would go, allowing her to finish what was left in the glass before taking it away and placing it down beside him. "There, do you feel a little bit better now?" his voice sounded so believably concerned that even Yugi had trouble deciding whether or not it was genuine.

The girl didn't answer, but continued to stare at the empty glass hungrily, clearly not satisfied yet. Yami smiled kindly at her. "I know that you must still be thirsty, but you have to understand that until we can fully trust you, we can't allow you anymore strength."

The girl turned her gaze on him, seeming angered by his denial, to which he nodded gently in response to. "I imagine you can't be happy about that, which is why I'd like for us to work on getting to know and understand each other…if we can do that then I promise you that by the end of today, these chains will come off completely and you'll be free to go."

Yugi stiffened upon hearing this and he shot a questioning look at his brother, whereas the girl seemed to grow interested.

"Deal?" Yami asked her with a kind smile.

For a long time the room remained in absolute silence, without even so much as a flinch of movement, until she slowly and hesitantly gave him a small nod, her eyes untrusting and slightly suspicious of his motives, which mirrored Yugi's own. He too, wondered what Yami was up to.

"Could you please tell us your name?" he asked gently.

Ha! Fat chance of that happening asshole, Yugi thought smugly. "I don't think she can talk Yami," he informed him with a bored sounding voice, though both were equally surprised when her soft – beautiful – voice sang from her lips, and Yugi had to double check to see if he had heard correctly or imagined it, but there was no mistaking that it had come from her.

"Lamia…my name is Lamia."

-X-X(Break)X-X

What a bitch! Yugi thought darkly, barely refraining himself from giving in to another angry growl. He had been at her for three days, trying to get her to speak and sit even a fraction of the stillness that his brother seemed to achieve in only the ten minutes he had been present. What the hell?

He swore that this was all just to spite him. She obviously didn't like been chained up and held hostage, despite the fact that she had started all this herself, and now had a personal grudge against him. How frikin childish!

"That's an interesting name Lamia…" Yami commented with a rather thoughtful gaze, seeming rather puzzled by something. Yugi glanced at his brother's face with a questioning look of his own, wondering what was so strange about the name, before rolling his eyes impatiently. Trust Yami to take his sweet damn time and look so deeply into trivial matters such as a damn name. It was almost as worse as concerning himself with a box…and speaking of the box, where was Tea anyway?

Lamia didn't answer, though she lowered her dark gaze to the ground, seeming disinterested in anything else he had to say, obviously wanting to be freed now. "Are you from Domino City?" Yami asked after a short pause, his words careful, though skilfully masked in a tone of casualness.

She hesitantly shook her head twice with a thoughtful and suspicious look in her eyes, seeming to have to think about it before answering, though to Yugi it looked like she had to try and remember where she came from…obviously what they said about blondes applied to all fair haired types.

"I see…have you enjoyed it here so far?"

Yugi gave Yami an incredulous look. What the hell was his brother doing? This wasn't a casual chat over a cup of coffee, or the time to ask what her favourite colour and pass time was – this was the time to get hard facts out of her on where Ryou/ Bakura/white haired freak dude/ whatever , was located! Yami's little chat was really starting to annoy him. 'Yami what the hell is this, a blind date? Get a fucking move on already; we don't have time to sit around anymore!'

Yami seemed to ignore him, and continued to give her that trademark 'kind-like' smile of his, his eyes seeming to gently encourage a reaction out of her. She briefly closed her eyes and shook her head once, before opening them. Yami nodded his head thoughtfully, seeming to think about his next question, whereas Yugi just gave a long sigh of frustration. This was going to be a very long, long day…

"Have you made any friends yet?" he asked finally after a long pause, which caused a dark swell of emotion to briefly form in her black orbs, though Yugi hadn't noticed…he was too busy grinding his teeth together and resisting the urge to smack his older twin on the back of his head.

"Yami…can I please have a word with you?" Yugi all but growled, beckoning towards the hallway with his thumb.

Yami smiled at Lamia, "Please excuse me for a minute Lamia. I'll be right back." He slowly lifted off his chair and followed Yugi out into the hall, before closing the door behind him and turning to face Yugi with an unsurprised expression, almost as though he already knew what his younger twin was going to say.

"Ra damn it Yami, what the hell are you doing? You're supposed to be-"

Yami held up a finger to his lips before tapping his right ear, giving Yugi a look that told him to keep quiet, while he made his way over to the kitchen.

Yugi rolled his eyes in exasperation, "Just great!"

Yami came back with a note pad and marker, writing something on it, before turning it over to his brother, which read; 'Before I answer you, I'd like to take this opportunity to rub it in your face that I just totally nailed you in your own "department" with the girls.'

Yugi glared at him, 'Getting a stubborn female to open up to you, doesn't make you an expert asshole, instead it only suggests evidence that you're gay.'

Yami smirked despite himself and hastily scribbled something else on the space beneath his previous message. 'You could learn a lot from me.'

Yugi cocked an eyebrow, 'I'll consider learning something from you when you have something worth teaching.'

Yami rolled his eyes, 'Well start learning, because here's something VERY worth teaching…it's called psychology.'

Yugi frowned tiredly, he hated big words on most days, yet alone when he was barely able to keep his mind functioning, 'What about it?'

He watched as Yami wrote his explanation in that delicate way of his despite its speed. 'With the right questions and the correct approach to any situation involving an individual, you'd be surprised by what I can find out.'

Yugi snorted with a bored look in his eyes, 'Wow…how could I have ever doubted your "infinite wisdom" after you managed to uncover her name, the fact that she isn't from this specific city and that she's not having a very good time here…Information that we can do fuck-all-with!"

Yami rolled his eyes and shook his head, 'On contraire little brother, it just so happens that we can. Don't worry I didn't expect you to be smart enough to figure this out all by yourself. Let me tell you what I know – she knows that she originally lived in a city, which one I do not know, but I'm clear on the fact that it's not Domino. Second; she was forced to come here, which is why she resents it. Third; she is in deed under Bakura's power, but she resents and possibly even hates him. I was trying to get deeper into that issue…but as usual you got involved-"

'Whoa, whoa, whoa! Stop writing for a sec…how the hell did you get all of this- ohhhhh…mind reading!" Yugi suddenly felt a little idiotic; now things started to make sense…he must have been more tired than he thought. "Ha-ha…oops," he said through a small sheepish smile.

Yami smiled at him, "I'm glad that you've now caught up with me Yugi."

Yugi smirked sarcastically, before turning a worried gaze back at the door that separated them from Lamia. 'Is it a good idea to give her so much room space though?'

Yami rolled his eyes and drew his gaze back down onto the notepad, seeming rather unhappy about having to communicate in this way.

'Must suck not having telepathic powers, huh?' Yugi taunted, to which he just received a venomous glare in return, before Yami continued to write down his thoughts.

'I take comfort in knowing that I was at least born with a brain…and to answer your question, yes, she's not going anywhere…how do I know this? Not only can I read her mind, I can also tell that she has enough common sense to stay put for now.'

Yugi frowned in wonder. 'Oh, because she's intimidated by the two on one thing, so she'll just stay put like a good little girl?'

Yami gave him a look.

"What?" Yugi asked.

Yami shook his head as he wrote, 'You need to go and catch a few hours of sleep before someone puts you in a fish bowl…it's the middle of the day Yugi, where is she going to go?'

"Fish bowl?" Yugi yawned, aware that there was in insult somewhere in there, but couldn't figure it out.

"It means that you're slow enough right now to have your level of intelligence compared to that of a goldfish," Yami stated in a dry tone with a roll of his eyes.

"Oh…are they stupid?" Yugi asked, rubbing the back of his head, still not quite getting the joke.

"Depends on whether you compare them to rest of the animal kingdom or you," Yami mumbled under his breath. "Look…I'm going to go and make sure Tea is some place that is safe, and then I'll come back here and take over for you so that you can get some sleep…I think you need it."

Yugi was still trying to figure out if what Yami had told him meant that goldfish were stupid or not, when his brother's words sank in. "Huh? Oh, yeah…something happened to her right? What was it again?"

Yami raised his eyebrows, "I've told you already."

Yugi shrugged, "Yeah well I wasn't really listening, and I was kind of focused on keeping our captive, captive.So what happened?" He frowned slightly when he saw the haunted look in his older twin's eyes and for the first time noticed a very dim pair of shadows beneath them.

"Someone sent her a package a few days ago…" he said slowly, his eyes darkening into a brooding gaze.

Yugi cocked an eyebrow, "So what? Did Michael Jackson jump out at her?" Call him insensitive, but unless some twisted and nose-less paedophile jumped out and touched her good stuff, he really didn't see any need to be so traumatised over a harmless cardboard box.

He shook his head stiffly, "Yugi…this isn't a joke. The thing was filled to the top with…used condoms, and some of them were even coated with blood. There was also a…picture of her in there, a recent school photo, that had her eyes and mouth cut out, plus a pair of woman's underwear that looked like it had been masturbated on, and…a note…"

Yugi immediately turned serious, "What did it say?"

"…Soon." Yami responded in an almost angry tone, though he managed to strain his voice enough to keep it under control. "That's all it said."

"Any idea who sent it?" Yugi asked.

"I can think of a few suspects…James is one of them…and the most likely, but then there's also..." his voice trailed off, as though he was carefully choosing his words, "Well, a man from her past that she is convinced is the culprit."

"Are you sure Bakura isn't behind it?"

"No, I don't think that this is his doing. We're looking at someone with a violent sexual appetite…and, I don't know, this just doesn't seem like his style. James on the other hand…"

Yugi bit the side of his lip thoughtfully, "Yeah that's true, James is the most likely candidate…and probably the only human that could produce that amount of condoms on such short notice…but I wouldn't rule out Bakura just yet. We can't think of him as one that is likely to display "normal" behaviour…I still think he could have done this."

"I don't know, but whoever it is…I'm going to make that bastard pay…when I find him. Tea's traumatised, she can't sleep at all, she keeps having nightmares, and even the smallest sound has her on edge. She's also convinced that by me being with her is putting my life in danger, and tried to talk me into leaving her." Yami sighed as he shook his head, before tiredly massaging his eyes.

"Humans," Yugi commented with a roll of his eyes, before frowning slightly. "But if you're convinced that we're dealing with a human…why are you not with her right now, I mean they can travel around during the day?"

"She insisted on working today, so I left her with Hardwick, but I'm not comfortable leaving her there with a frail old man, especially when I know that's where James got hold of her the last time." There was a strange, dark glow in Yami's eyes at the mention of James.

"Does she know about Lamia yet?"

Yami nodded his head.

Speaking of Tea knowing things…a sudden thought came to his mind. "Yami…Have you told her everything yet?" Yugi asked curiously, noting that Tea seemed too okay for someone who knew the whole truth of Yami's past, present, and most importantly his future.

Yami didn't need to ask what Yugi had meant, already in an almost instinctive twin manner, knowing the meaning of the question, and shook his head. "I don't know how to tell her…"

"Well, you don't have much of a choice…you're not going to be able to keep it a secret for very long, and you don't want her to find out in the same way she found out about us been Egyptian princes…" Yugi advised wisely.

"You're right…" Yami sighed in defeat. Her finding out in such a way again would have been almost traitorous on his part.

Yugi smiled, his eyes half closed with exhaustion. "You know what, let me handle Lamia for the rest of the day, go on a date with Tea and spend some quality time with her. She needs you…and you need her."

Yami gave him an incredulous look. "Not a chance in hell, you don't look like you've slept at all!"

"Neither do you actually – and before you fight me on this, I'll remind you that she can't exactly go anywhere, now that she knows what the time of day it is, so I don't think she'll be too much of a problem."

Yami shook his head.

"Yami, seriously go," Yugi commanded with a stern tone. 'I'm more than capable of handling her myself, so don't undermine me, and besides…aren't we supposed to be working on building 'trust' in this reawakening of our brotherly relationship? Well - trust me now.'

"Alright…" he said a little reluctantly, but a hard look came to his eyes almost immediately after, "But I'll first finish up with the conversation I started in there earlier, and while I do that, you should get some sleep."

"Fine," Yugi shrugged, opening the door to the living room, "I'll have a nap on the couch."

Yami eyed the couch, which he knew from experience was not nap-friendly, and decided it was safer not to comment. He looked up at Lamia and forced a smile to his lips. She seemed t have that faraway look in her eyes again, one that border-lined that of a caged animal at the zoo, as though she were a prisoner trying to remember a life where she was allowed the freedom of the wild. She was a very unusual vampire.

"Sorry that that took so long…we were discussing some issues that were concerning you." He said honestly, while taking a seat on the chair before her, and folded his arms.

She looked at him blankly as though she hadn't heard a word he said and didn't care either.

"Now where were we?" he said more to himself than to her, trying to think up his next set of questions, when she surprised him.

"I've never seen a shooting star before…" she mumbled randomly, her black eyes seeming vacant and hollow, as though she was slipping into a trance.

Yami stiffened in surprise and blinked once, "Uh…really? Is that so?"

She nodded once stiffly, turning her gaze to the ground, remaining silent and unmoving for a very long time.

Yugi rolled his head sideways from his lying down position and stared at her with a cocked eyebrow and half lidded eyes. "What the fuck?" he all but whispered, voicing his thoughts without thinking, which caused a surprise reaction out of her.

Her sharp black eyes that were so similarly shaped to Yami's, snapped in his direction with a look of dark annoyance in them, and she gave into a low growl before voicing her own thoughts that up until now she had kept to herself. "Stop swearing!"

Both boys widened their eyes in surprise. "What did you just say to me?" Yugi gawked. Surely he had heard wrong.

"I said stop swearing! Do you have a problem with your hearing?" she hissed irritably, and Yami struggled to refrain himself from giving into fits of laughter and expertly hid a smirk that was threatening to break out.

"F-"

"Uh-hum, Yugi…please continue with your 'nap' and try to refrain from using vulgar language around our guest." Yami interrupted, aware of the word that was on the tip of Yugi's tongue.

Yugi too tired to really argue, just shot her a venomous glare and rolled back to his original sleeping position before closing his eyes.

She went back into her trance like state, avoiding his gaze. He watched her for several minutes, before deciding to take the next step. "Lamia…why did you attack my brother that night?"

She frowned slightly.

"Why did he order you to kill him?" Yami asked, with a knowing tone that lacked doubt or caution. It took her by surprise and she gazed back up at him with startled and suspicious eyes, allowing her lips unintentionally to part. He nodded his head once as though answering a silent question of hers. "Yes Lamia I know of his involvement in all this…I know that he told you to kill Yugi."

She forced her lips together tightly and looked away grudgingly.

Yami was surprised to discover that Bakura, or perhaps he should have said Ryou, had given her no reason for wanting Yugi dead…only that he wanted it done as soon as possible…but for some reason, Lamia did seem to have some personal resentment towards Yugi, which went back even before she attacked him…which was strange. Had she perhaps known Yugi beforehand?

"You don't have to answer for him…but I would like for you to tell me why you went along with it. Did you want my brother dead? Or were you just following-"

"You're going to kill me…" she said quietly, her words sounding that of acceptance, without a single spark a fight left in them. "I wonder…what does touching mist feel like?"

Yugi's face scrunched up as he cocked an eyebrow, wondering if he had heard her rambling correctly, and even Yami had trouble holding back a questioning gaze of his own, but he forced himself to ignore it. "We made a deal remember? If we work things out between us today, we'll let you go by evening."

"Then he'll kill me…I didn't do what he told me to. He won't be pleased…I'm useless to him," she said in a plain emotionless voice that was barely above a whisper.

Yami was about to respond when Yugi's interference cut in. "Then where the hell have you been in such a hurry to go to, if all you were running to was your end?"

She glared at Yugi with hostile eyes, "To get away from you!"

Yami tried to read her thoughts to see if he could solve the mystery on why she spared his brother no fondness, but she had already moved on to her next thought, which was quite a surprising one for a vampire. "He made me…he should be the one to destroy me." She whispered, this time revealing a tiny hint of emotion that sounded similar to…sadness.

Up until this point Yami had believed she was just like the vampires back in the tomb, the cold heartless, inhuman things that he despised so much, firmly believing that they were all devoid of true emotion and feeling, after all, they no longer had souls…it was a belief that he held against Yugi, something that had fed the grudge he had against him, but now as he thought about it, he realized how contradictory it all was and it occurred to him then that he was starting to feel sympathetic towards her. "Lamia…do you wish to return to his side?" he asked quietly.

With her saddened gaze focussed on the bloodstained floor, it was expected that she wouldn't answer, but after a long, silent pause, a soft whisper escaped her lips that sounded as gentle as a breeze, "No."

Yami frowned in sympathy, aware of her predicament that been a newborn she needed to be constantly under the wing of her turner until she matured into her transformation, but obviously she didn't enjoy it one bit. Snippets of what kinds of torment she endured while under his guidance flashed through his mind as he read hers, and suddenly he couldn't blame her for preferring death, yet all the same discovered that the last thing she actually wanted…was to die.

Yugi sat up on the couch, his eyes still half lidded and dim, yet held a spark of energy. Having listened to this conversation long enough, he decided it was time to step in, before Yami decided to stick around longer than he should…and he needed him gone, because he could feel 'it' coming. "You are the most confusing female I know! You don't want to go back to the guy, but still plan to, even though you know that he's going to kill you – and although you have spent most of your time trying to break out of here, your just willing to sit still and allow us to just to kill you now? Are you that weak?"

That seemed to do it for her, as her eyes immediately narrowed angrily in his direction, hatred swirling within her black orbs, seeming to lose their self pity and defeat almost immediately.

"Weak?" she spat, as though the word tasted sour, and her fangs slowly slid down the corners of her mouth. "Oh, I'll show you weak!" In a motion so fast that Yami was barely able to process, a spurt of inhuman energy reached her limbs and with one jolt in her seat she managed to explode out of her chains and rush forward at his younger twin, her clawed hands reaching out to grab him by the throat.

Yugi however, didn't even flinch and moved faster than she did, despite her incredible speed, quickly grasping both her hands, before shoving her body against the wall to his side, pinning both her arms powerfully above her head, so much that a dent in the plaster was formed. The move seemed to startle her as she offered no resistance, and her thoughts immediately went blank, yet…she showed no other signs of fear, and if Yami really didn't know any better…it would have seemed to him as though she trusted him.

Yugi's eyes were hard and pitiless, wearing an incredibly serious expression that had always been rather rare for him, and only used for special occasions it seemed. His grip on her never loosened and neither did his stern, condemning gaze that seemed to hold her spellbound, and when he finally broke the silence, his voice was as dark and powerful as any fully fledged vampire's...but there was an extent of warmth intertwined in his tone.

"Now that's more like it...stupid…but admirable none the less. You have wanted to die since the day you were ordered to kill me. Why else you would you have taken me on, knowing that I was stronger? You are not a weak vampire Lamia. Your strength is quite impressive actually, for a newbie…now don't believe for one second that I actually like you. In fact I've been dying to kill you from the very beginning…but I don't kill things that I respect, and you will earn that when you stop feeling sorry for yourself and just deal with what you've become." Yugi hissed his words lowly, his stern gaze never faltering for a second. "Unfortunately your master is a dick. He may have had some confidence in your ability to assassinate me, but we both know he knew that your chances were slim…he knew that I was older and stronger Lamia, he knew that I could destroy you."

Lamia slowly turned her vacant, yet slightly troubled expression away from his, confirming the correctness of his theory.

Yugi briefly glanced at Yami, 'Now would be a really good time for you to step in and feed her that mushy-bullshit crap of yours!'

Yami blinked in offence, before turning his gaze onto her defeated expression, once again reminding him too much of a human's, making it hard for him to resent her. He couldn't believe he was about to say what he was about to say, "We are not enemies, Lamia…not anymore." He caught Yugi's gaze and held it briefly, realizing that his words were not for her alone.

Yugi, despite the brief flash of understanding and acknowledgement, immediately narrowed his eyes, completely unimpressed. 'How helpful,' his mental voice chastised sarcastically. 'You're losing your touch with charming women, big brother…for once you actually sounded realistic.'

Yami just stared at him, his narrowed gaze speaking for him before Yugi turned his attention back to his hostage. "My brother actually means that we don't have to be enemies. Since your master has taken the first step at trying to eliminate me in this war, we now consider him a threat, and regardless of what my brother may or may not consider him, I consider him my enemy…and I will kill him if given the chance. It's your decision on what side you want to stand on."

Yami opened his mouth to tell Yugi to stop, realizing that he was taking this too far. Lamia had no reason to trust them enough to pick a side right now, especially in comparison to her 'turner' whom she not only shared a instinctive bond with, which all newborns had with their turners, but she had also only known him during her vampire existence. They couldn't even be considered friends to her…then again neither could Bakura since he sent her to her death. However, Lamia beat him to it.

"Go up against my master?" she whispered quietly through a humourless smile, evident defeat in her eyes.

Yami was about to respond again, but this time Yugi beat him to it…damn vampires.

"Obviously not," Yugi said a little impatiently, his mood once again darkening for an unapparent reason. "We don't want you to fight him idiot, we want you step aside and let us without getting in the way."

"Yugi, hold on for a sec-" Yami tried to say, but Lamia once again interrupted him.

"And what will happen to me when you destroy him?" she growled, anger once again returning to her eyes. "Where will I go and what shall I do?"

"What the hell do you mean? Anywhere you like! You'll be free," Yugi responded in an obvious tone.

She smirked without humour, "Free? How will I be free without him?"

Yugi looked like he was about to lose patience with her, when realization dawned on him at about the same time that it dawned on Yami. "You're too young!" they both said at the same time.

She gazed at them with a sarcastic and triumphant gaze, holding onto her smirk that lacked humour as she made her point. "I don't have anywhere to go…I'm restricted to a life…no, not life…death, in the dark. I can barely even defend myself, and I can't turn another into a vampire so I'll always be alone."

Yami nodded in understanding aware of this condition, in fact lacking such an ability was not uncommon at all. There were only a few vampires that could turn others into immortals, though they themselves were not rare to come across, it was just that there were more without the ability than there were with the ability. However, another thought crossed his mind, which he decided to voice rather than ignore. "Lamia, have you received proper guidance by him? Have you been taught how to use your abilities and when or when not to use them? In fact, have you been taught all the vital vampire trainings necessary for your survival?"

She didn't answer his question, but by looking into her eyes and taking a peak into her mind, he received his answer anyway. Nothing…he had taught her nothing. She had been left to learn everything on her own, something that could not have only been extremely dangerous for her, but also for the human society he had allowed her to roam amongst, often unguarded. It occurred to Yami that Bakura may have been absent from her life in preparation for if she was ever captured by them, knowing of his ability to read minds, he may have not wanted her to know much about him in case they could use it against him…smart little bastard.

Yet there was still the problem of her been unguided. This not only put her in danger, but it also put those more fragile at danger…namely humans. Yami had no idea of her feeding habits or of her attitude towards human beings yet, which wasn't good. If she had the same type of typical vampiric attitude as the rest of his and Yugi's kind, they were going to have a serious problem on their hands. They had three ways of solving this problem. One was where they could just simply kill her. The second was a rather distasteful method in his eyes, where they could set her free and allow Bakura to deal with her. Regardless of what she was she was, he didn't like that option at all and refused to even give it a second thought. However, the third was far from easy and would require both effort and sacrifice as well as severe conflicts of morality…Yugi however, was going to be the least happy about it. Yet unfortunately, third option was the best…

"Lamia…I have uh… a proposition for you," Yami offered quietly, in a tone that alarmed Yugi who immediately sensed something wrong.

'I don't like the sound of that, what are you up to?'

Yami ignored him and continued to challenge Lamia's gaze, which had turned curious. "What kind of proposition?"

Yami bit the side of his lip thoughtfully as he thought about what he was going to say, "An alternative agreement."

She looked interested, though remained wary of him, not about to be conned into something.

"You do not have to join our side, but you can live with us until you are ready to live on your own, so you'll never have to return to your master ever again. We'll protect you as though you were one of our own, and Yugi will instruct you in the way Ryou should have-"

'The fuck I am! What the hell do you think you're doing Yami, have you lost your Ra damn mind?'

Yami continued without pause, "You'll never have to fight him…and most importantly you'll live…I know that you want to, and I know that you're finding it hard to live this way but…" He couldn't finish. For so long he had seen becoming a vampire as the end and had no words to comfort her at this point when he couldn't even find comfort in it for himself.

Yugi swallowed back a sigh, unbelieving of the position he was about to place himself in. "You've been given a gift to live forever, enjoy it. So what if it's in the dark for the rest of eternity, there's nothing during daylight hours that you can't see at night too, except a sun and a light blue sky. Our sky is much prettier and our 'sun' is much healthier to walk under, not just for us, but for humans as well. You'll get to see so many wonderful and incredible things during your existence…this doesn't have to be a curse unless you see it as one," Yugi said softly, though it was evident that he wasn't just talking to her. "But ultimately," he raised his eyes to Yami's, "It is your choice."

'You'll owe me big time Yami if she agrees to this. I'm not a fucking babysitter!'

"What's the catch?" she all but whispered, her interests indeed peaked.

Yami turned slightly to acknowledge her with a forced and what he hoped to be, an inviting smile. "That you don't try and kill any of us ever again, especially my girlfriend-"

"Yeah, don't ever hurt his girlfriend that's pretty much it. Oh and if you're going to be learning under me, you will do as I say and command-"

"Just listen to him and try to follow his instructions, you won't be his slave," Yami finished for him, giving him a slight smirk.

"I-I can't decide right now-" Lamia stuttered, but Yami quickly put on his charming persona and put a reassuring hand up to stop her.

"I know, of course you can't right now, you need time," he said gently with a rather compelling voice that made Yugi wonder if Yami secretly did have the ability to manipulate people, with his voice, rather than his mind, which brought him to another thought.

"And she can start thinking about it, while you go out and tend to those personal matters we were talking about earlier," Yugi said pointedly, practically willing Yami to just leave already.

"Oh…right, but-"

'Brother, just go before I throw you out the door!'

"Will you let go of me now?" Lamia requested with a somewhat strained voice.

It was only until she had pointed it out that Yugi realized he still had her pinned to the wall, and reluctantly freed her, half expecting her to bolt immediately and was surprised when she didn't. Then again as Yami had pointed out, it was the middle of the day.

She massaged her wrists with downcast eyes, not looking at either of them, though she particularly avoided Yugi, still having an aura of resentment towards him. She briefly glanced down at her clothes that were on the verge of been called rags after all the abuse they had been put through, the only thing still in good shape being her knee high, laced-up, leather boots. She was also decorated with smudges of dried blood, and she didn't even want to know what her hair looked like. It was then that she also felt the overwhelming wave of exhaustion and starvation that she had endured after a full sleepless day and night. "I'm tired," she stated quietly.

"I wonder why?" Yugi commented sarcastically, to which he earned a glare.

Yami looked back and forth between the two, "Can I leave you two alone with confidence that you won't kill each other?"

Lamia took his words seriously, and while still not meeting his eyes, she slowly nodded her head. Yugi on the other hand just rolled his eyes and folded his arms, whilst leaning back against the wall. "If the bitch behaves herself-ow!" She elbowed him hard in the side, casting a death glare in his direction without making eye contact.

"What the fuck is your prob-ow!" She did it again, harder this time.

"Stop swearing…" she said in a low voice that wasn't short of a whisper.

Yugi looked at her as though she were insane, whereas Yami had to cover his mouth with a closed fist to hide a smile. "Stop swearing? Are you kidding me? What are you in cradle school?"

Lamia glared at him with annoyance, "It's unnecessary."

"The fuck it is-ow! Damn it, go to hell! I'll swear all I fucking want-ow!" Yugi held his side, pain evident in his expression, which brought an even wider smile to Yami's lips. Ah, justice could be served in so many mysterious ways. He turned to leave, casting one final look at Lamia, catching her gaze, before giving her a friendly wink.

"Have fun you two," he said, a little too cheerfully, and with those last words exited the apartment. One thought kept overturning in his mind…that perhaps vampires weren't so different after all.

---

Tea had spent the last ten minutes, trying to scrub a barely visible smudge on the glass counter, getting more and more frustrated as it just refused to clear up. It had become a new concern of hers, to make sure everything was spotless, ever since that night…

(Flashback)

The cardboard fell apart, allowing its contents to explode across the floor, and in an almost instinctive way, Tea couldn't hold back the ear-piercing scream that she allowed free from her throat, yet ironically fell into frozen silence of both shock and horror once her mind registered at what she was seeing…before the gut-wrenching smell hit her…that horrible, stomach-churning smell of lubricated plastic and semen.

She wanted to look away, but couldn't, the sight had too powerful a hold on her gaze. She felt tears run from her eyes, and felt herself heaving and gagging, but her mind was focussed too greatly on the disgusting mess to register on what was happening around her. However, it was only when her gaze met with her own, in the form of a mutilated old school photograph that a scream escaped her for the second time.

Her beautiful blue eyes, as well as her mouth, had been removed so carefully and precisely as though surgically removed by an expert…which was a rather strange thing to do to a picture, but it only revealed what went on in the head of the sender. Luckily though, the moment she turned to flee the apartment, Yami had appeared and immediately took her into his protective arms, but even he couldn't hold back his gasp of horror.

Her body trembled violently in his arms, so much that he had to tighten his embrace around her as though she were about to fall apart, which may not have been far from the truth. She didn't register anything further from the protective contact he provided her with, and didn't realise it when he had lifted her off the floor and carried her to the bedroom. Her body was numb with shock and her heart thudded harshly against her chest as blood rushed through her veins. At some point he must have wanted to check the rest of the house for any other potential threats, or perhaps wanted to investigate the situation further, and had tried to pry her grip off him, but she wouldn't budge and instead snuggled closer to him. However, she remembered none of what he had said to her, or any of the ramblings that she had apparently responded or answered him with.

(End flashback)

Her memories of that night were blurry, something which Yami had told her were all symptoms of shock, yet one thing she remembered eerily clearly of, was that she repeated over and over in her mind that her father was responsible for this.

She bit her trembling bottom lip in frustration as she put more strength into the washrag, trying to get rid of the stubborn smudge that seemed to mock her efforts. She was so solely focussed on the smudge that she hadn't heard the welcoming chime of the door bell greeting its next customer, or heard his footsteps nearing her, or caught his delicious scent before his hand gently reached out to place itself over hers, halting her actions immediately. Her eyes immediately darted to his concerned ruby gaze, and her fear soon dissolved into embarrassment as she forced a sheepish smile. "Y-Yami, h-hey, what are you doing here? I-I thought you were going over to see Yugi and that new vampire-"

"Already have…and came over here to check up on you. Are you alright? Didn't you hear me come in?" Yami asked her softly, gently caressing her hand in a soothing motion.

"I…uh, no, I was kind of focussed on…" she automatically glanced down at the counter before returning her eyes to his and forced another smile, though it didn't reach her eyes, "Sorry, I guess I've got a lot on my mind lately."

Yami gave her a small smile of his own, though still concerned about her well being. It was obvious that Tea was not coping very well, though she did try to hide it. However, he would often find her, during the early hours of the morning still scrubbing the area where the box and its contents had once been, still trying to remove whatever she thought was still there, and was obsessed with keeping things spotless. She didn't eat all that much either, and would often complain that she felt ill when she did eat; then there was also the fact that she didn't get that much sleep either, which would sometimes cause her to feel severely light headed and close to fainting. One thing however that did seem to put her slightly at ease was his presence, which made her feel a little better, but for some unknown reason she held on to this ridiculous belief that she was putting his life at risk, which made her feel guilty and hence…she decided to work to put some distance between them…well not if he could help it.

"I know," he said simply, as a sly, knowing smile formed on his lips.

Tea slightly, cocked a suspicious eyebrow at him, wondering what he was up to. "Yami?"

"Why don't you ditch your post for the rest of the day, and spend it doing something a little more fun? It would be good for you, and besides, I have something important to tell you." He winked at her, causing a stir amongst the butterflies that fluttered nervously in that warm pleasurable way within her stomach, but she shook her head.

"I-I can't right now, I've already missed enough work as is-"

She was interrupted by the sound of someone walking in from behind her, and turned to face Mr. Hardwick as he causally strutted in from the back room, his expression friendly and cheerful as always, yet the moment he spotted Yami, he immediately beamed brightly as though seeing a long lost son of his after many years of separation. "Yami, my dear boy, how good it is to see you son," he greeted as he made his way over to him.

"Always good to see you too," Yami greeted back politely.

"What were we talking about now that I so rudely interrupted?" he asked, after pulling Yami into a quick hug before releasing him with some dignity, though Yami didn't seem at all to mind the act of the old man's affection.

"Oh, I was just busy corrupting Tea into running away with me for the rest of the afternoon," Yami answered with a simple shrug of his shoulders, saying it as casually as one would tell another what the weather was like, and Tea couldn't help but stare wide eyed at him in shock.

Mr. Hardwick clapped his hands together with a star-like twinkle in his eye, "Ah how wonderfully romantic! What are you two still doing here then?"

Tea gaped at him next in surprise, was this really happening? "Mr. Hardwick! You're not being serious are you?"

Mr. Hardwick gave her a comical look, "My dear, today is the perfect weather for a lovers outing. Why, in my day as a young man, I would purposely call in sick and spend a day like this with my sweetheart, back in the days when I lived in Cromer…ah yes, seems so long, long ago." He had that dreamy look in his eye that all old people had when they remembered the days of their youth, which made Tea feel a little sorry for him.

"But…Mr. Hardwick how could you…I'm busy working…For you!" she reminded him with wide eyes.

Mr. Hardwick smiled, before forcing himself to regain a straight face, though he still had a playful look in his eye, "Ah yes, but you're more than just my little employee Love, you're the daughter I never had! And it would be a sin on my conscious if I kept you cooped up in here all day when business has been slow all morning and shows no signs of improvement. Go out, be young!" He turned his gaze to Yami, giving him a fond smile as well before turning it back to Tea, "And I don't think you could be placed in better hands. Now Tea, as your 'boss' I demand that you see what this young man has in store for you and report back to me about it tomorrow…and while you're gone I think I'll drop in the 'Turtle Game Shop' and have tea with Mr. Mutou."

Tea was still trying to get around the fact that Mr. Hardwick had practically thought of her as his daughter, which felt like been placed by a warm fire after been caught in a snow storm, before realizing that he had given her the day off. "B-but-"

"So can I take her now?" Yami grinned as he winked at her.

"By all means!" Mr. Hardwick allowed, giving them both a wave before disappearing into the back room, leaving the couple alone.

"Y-Yami-"

Yami grinned and made his way over to her side of the counter, gently taking her by the wrist and pulled her towards the store's entrance. She sighed in defeat and allowed him to guide her through the doors and to his shiny car, knowing already that it was pointless fighting him on this, as well knowing that she would rather spend a day with him than with anyone or anything else, any day. "Fine, but just as you know, this is the first and last time my working hours are cut."

He grinned as he opened the door for her, "Deal."

---

As she clipped in her seatbelt and leant up against the leather seat, she found herself gazing over at him with suspicious eyes. "When did you and my boss become such good friends?"

"Oh, a few days ago I ran into him and started talking," he replied, with a rather mysterious tone.

"Talking huh? About what?"

He grinned as he started the engine, "Oh just stuff."

Tea narrowed her eyes slightly, wondering what kind of 'stuff' had been spoken about, but before she could probe him further, he immediately changed the subject. "Have anywhere in particular you want to go to or do first?" Yami asked, relaxing back against his seat comfortably.

Tea thought for a moment, and remembered something she had wanted to do with him, which she had thought about several nights before. She turned towards him somewhat shy, not sure how he'd react when she asked him. With a small smile on her lips, she forced the words to flow through them in a soft, reluctant voice, "Why don't we go to the museum?"

Yami raised an eyebrow in surprise. "The museum?"

She nodded her head softly, "Domino City has one of the best Ancient Egyptian exhibits in the country...and well…" She flashed him a cute smile.

Yami shook his head as an amused smiled curled onto his lips, "You want to learn more about my heritage?"

"Is that weird? I mean it's just…I want to know everything there is to know about you, and well, I've kind of always had an interest in the 'Land of the Pharaohs,' so…would you mind? I mean if you don't want to-"

Yami chuckled softly as he turned the corner, heading in the direction of the Domino Museum, "I don't think that it's weird at all, if it's something that you want to do then let's do it."

"Yeah but, are you comfortable with talking about it? I mean…last time you spoke about Egypt you didn't sound…" she racked her brain for words, but Yami already understood what she was trying to say.

"Yeah well, it's different now…" he said in that same mysterious tone he had used earlier, his eyes twinkling with amusement and a small grin twitching onto his lips.

Tea glanced at him curiously with a raised eyebrow, "How so?"

"Well…" Yami began as he pulled up in front of the museum, "My girlfriend finds it interesting…Just imagine how many points I'll score!"

Tea shook her head without taking her eyes off him, unable to hide her grin. "So you're telling me that for 'said-girlfriend,' you would purposely façade enthusiasm on a topic that secretly kills you inside, just so that you could…what? Impress her?" She raised an eyebrow questioningly at him as she folded her arms across her chest.

Putting on a mock look of defeat combined with a 'what-I-do-for-love' expression, he shook his head swiftly from side, before he leaned over and gently caressed the side of her cheek with the back of his hand. The expression in his eyes changed from amusement, to a warm, loveable fondness that awoke the ever restless butterflies in her stomach, as he gently brushed away a lock of hair from the side of her face. "For her, I would do anything…" he whispered softly, gently cupping the side of her face, before pulling her in for a gentle kiss, breaking it too soon for her liking to whisper in her ear, "Even if I must suffer a few hours of embarrassing family history."

She giggled softly, and pulled away from him, when she realized what his words had meant. Of course, being of a royal line would have related him in some way or another to many of the previous Egyptian pharaohs. She hadn't thought of that before, in fact, all she had expected to come of this was a new understanding of the world her boyfriend had come from.

"I'll make it worth your while," she whispered seductively with a quick wink, before she leaned away from him and unclipped her seatbelt.

Yami raised an eyebrow as a smirk formed on his lips, "Can't wait."

---

It wasn't ten minutes later when they found themselves strolling casually down the red carpeted hallways, glancing every now and then at the displays behind the glass of other exhibits as they made their way towards the Ancient Egypt section, until they reached a large golden arched doorway, that led to a room that was made to look like an Ancient Egyptian tomb, though hardly realistic in his opinion. Tea however, thought it was wonderful.

"Wow, I'd heard that this place looked great, but I never thought it would be this amazing!" She glanced around at her surroundings, taking in the vast golden treasures of the room and beautifully decorated walls that were the exact replicas of real tomb walls, among the many beautiful artefacts that were on display.

Yami chose not to comment and instead settled for a neutral smile as he examined the death mask of some unfortunate minor prince that had never made it to the throne behind the glass of a cabinet, propped up against the wall to his right. He frowned slightly at the sight and had to remind himself that he was on a date and needed to be cheerful about - everything! Unfortunately, she noticed his expression before he could hide it.

"Is something wrong Yami?" she asked in a worried tone, her eyes mirroring it.

He gave her a genuine smile, before taking her hand and guiding her forward. "No, I was just thinking about something…okay, where should I begin?"

Tea regarded him for a minute, before deciding to let it go, and gave him one of her many dazzling smiles. "Wherever you want, I don't mind."

Yami glanced to his side, and once again was confronted by the simply designed death mask. Taking a deep breath he turned to face her, "You won't mind if I jump around a little right?"

She shook her head fiercely, "Of course not!"

He smiled at her, and glanced around the room once again, taking in somewhat familiar surroundings, and forced himself to recover his prided history that had been jammed into him and Yugi as kids. "You know, people have a misconception that we're obsessed with death, because of the way we continuously depicted of our many preparations for it, as well as all our beliefs…like all we wanted to do, was die, but that's actually not true, in fact it couldn't be further from it. The Egyptians loved life…they loved it so much that they wanted it to go on forever…" His open ended words allowed room for Tea to grip on to what wasn't being said, and yet so clearly implied.

"Is that why you're dad…?" she began, but trailed off when she realized how it might have affected the rest of their conversation, but Yami was surprisingly completely unfazed by it.

"We'll get to the vampire part later…I kind of need to think about how I can put it in an easy and simple way of explanation, which isn't easy to do due to its…nature." The way he said it, reminded Tea of someone who had tasted something incredibly sour and desperately wanted to spit the taste out.

"That's alright, sorry, I'm paying attention now Professor!" Tea said with a wink, earning a grin from him in response.

"Okay, as I was saying, the Ancient Egyptians believed that two things entered the world of the dead from the body, the Akh – which was…how can I put it? It was the aspect of a person that joined the gods in the otherworld, which made sure they couldn't die a second time. Then you had the Ba - this was someone's personality, which they believed entered a person's body 'with the breath of life and left at the time of death.' Now in order to enjoy peace for all eternity, what one did in one's life time was all weighed in the afterlife. I'm sure you've heard of the 'heart-weighing?' If one's heart was light, they would move on toward the 'light' as most say nowadays, but if one's heart was heavy, they would be eaten by a creature and practically, stop existing. And there was nothing that an Egyptian feared more, than not existing any longer."

Tea listened intently, surprised and awed by his ability to captivate her with his lecture, and dared not interrupt him.

"Now Pharaohs…" he sighed and scratched the back of his neck, with an odd expression forming on his face that seemed an in-between of exasperated humour and probable, traitorous guilt. "Were all full of shit to say the least."

Tea couldn't help, but chuckle, though she was rather surprised to hear something like that coming from him, expecting that kind of statement rather from Yugi.

"The kings of Egypt were portrayed as gods...so pyramids were built in their honour, and lavish tombs were constructed for their eternal rest and comfort, of course working in those conditions ironically sent most of the builders to their untimely, eternal rests…but hey, as long as their king had a tomb to sleep in when he died." Yami rolled his eyes in an inconspicuous manner, as though trying to mask how he truly felt, "But I suppose I shouldn't be so biased…the actual reasoning behind the pyramid's construction, was to create a stairway to heaven for the deceased to, well…ascend."

"That's…quite smart actually," Tea said quietly.

Yami scratched the back of his neck, briefly cocking his head to the side as he gave her one of those mid-flinched winks that generally said, 'yeah'hhh but-'

"I guess," he said simply.

"You don't think so?" she asked after observing his reaction.

He just shrugged and smiled.

"Why not?" she pressed, now curious as to discovering what Yami actually believed in, "Don't tell me you don't believe in an after life or something?"

He raised an eyebrow with an amused smiled still planted on his lips, before shaking his head slowly, as though a little reluctant to give her his answer.

Her eyes widened, "Come on! You really don't believe one exists?"

"It's complicated," he stated simply in a friendly seeming tone that held a definite implication that this conversation was over, clearly uncomfortable with the topic choice. "Come on; let's move on to something else."

---

With the awkwardness of their last conversation that displayed a possible difference in opinion about what took place after death an hour behind them, Tea found herself holding onto Yami's hand as they continued to stroll through the museum, a wide smile on her lips and jewel like eyes sparkling with interest as he continued to gloss over the many different gods, rituals and festivals that had made up the Ancient Egyptian culture. Her favourite goddess was Bastet, the cat goddess, who as Yami explained was the daughter of the sun god Ra, and a protective female goddess. He also revealed an interesting fact about how cats in Ancient Egypt were regarded as symbols of fertility and sexuality, which was why they painted their eyes to mimic that of a feline's. She also discovered that the ancients didn't celebrate birthdays and that according to their beliefs, bees, were considered to be tears of Ra.

However, it was not until they reached the section that was dedicated to the Pharaohs that things began to get really interesting, though the look of dread on Yami's face almost had in her stitches. "Okay…before we begin…just remember that the royal linage is a little - strange."

Another realization dawned on her at hearing his words, something else she had forgotten about. "Oh, I forgot about that…"

Yami chuckled in an almost regrettable way and shook his head, "Do you know why?"

"Something about, keeping the line pure?" she offered, as a slight blush burnt on her cheeks. She had learnt about the practise of incest among the ancients especially where the royals were concerned back in school, and although as students they all pulled faces and made comments about it, she had never felt as uncomfortable about it, as she did now…

He nodded seeming almost embarrassed by this fact, "Yeah that pretty much covers it. My…father… in particular, was the product of…wait let me think about this for moment."

His gaze turned thoughtful as his arms involuntarily crossed, and casually leant himself up against the railing that surrounded an exhibit of a mummy in its sarcophagus, his back facing it as though he had seen enough of it. "Okay…his father was also his mother's father…and also her brother, because he took his mother as one of his lesser wives when his father passed away…" He was talking more to himself than to her, but that didn't stop the shock and disgust from welling up in her as she followed his words attentively, feeling her face drain of all colour and her eyes growing wider and wider at each mention of an involved family member.

He finally nodded his head as though he had finished calculating a difficult sum. "Yeah, basically my grandfather married his mother, had a daughter from her, then later married her as well, and from that-" he turned at an almost causal pace to face her, bringing his eyes up to level his gaze with hers, "Produced my fa- … Tea are you alright?" He immediately noticed the drainage of colour from her cheeks and horrified expression, wondering if he had perhaps gone a little too far in his explanation.

Tea swallowed an imaginary lump in her throat, trying her best to cover up her bewilderment over the topic, with a desperate shake of her head, waving her hands up in front of her at the same time, "No, no, no! I'm Fine! Don't worry about me I was just…just uh…just umm…"

"A little creeped out?" Yami suggested with a slight amused smirk.

Tea glanced away shyly and suddenly became very interested with her finger nails as he flicked them against each other, biting her bottom lips nervously as she racked her brain for an appropriate response. "Um…a little…" It reminded her too much of the relationship her own father had had with her in the past…and suddenly the package, which up until now she had almost forgotten about, flashed back in her memory, but she didn't want to remind Yami of that, in fact she didn't want him to even know that she was thinking about it, aware that he was doing all this to distract her, despite how difficult it was for him. God she loved him.

Yami chuckled at her cute response and slid an arm around her waist, pulling her closer to him, which she allowed without hesitation. "Sorry, I shouldn't have gone into so much detail, I'm used to talking about things like this with beings that were from the period in which it was considered practically normal. Are you okay? Do you need to sit down? Want me to stop?"

She shook her head from side to side, without removing her forehead from his chest. "No way! I want to learn more!" Even she had trouble convincing herself that she did.

Yami knowingly, smiled down at her, "Just leave out the disgusting bits?"

"If it can be helped…" she said softly, after cautiously thinking about her answer, flashing him a bright smile in return, before biting her lip again in an almost nervous manner, "But I have to ask one thing…why did he…marry his…daughter?"

Yami rolled his eyes just as disgusted as she was, "They were a bunch of psychopaths, already mentally dysfunctional from previous incestuous relationships. Who knows?"

Tea smiled into his shirt. "You know more than you're telling me don't you?" she said in a tone that completely lacked surprise.

He nodded and grinned, "Trust me, there's a lot you don't want to know…but for now, why don't we stray away from this topic and move on to another? Like perhaps…the almighty pharaoh Rameses the second, also known as Rameses the Great? Heard of him?"

Tea nodded her head, having vaguely recalled hearing of him, but not really knowledgeable about his background, other than knowing he was proclaimed as one of the greatest Egyptian kings and lived a really long time.

"Hmm…" Yami hummed softly as he brushed a strand of hair out of her eyes. "From text books right, do you want to hear about the things that most people don't know?" He wore a rather mischievous smirk on his lips, which she would have imagined belonged on a conspirator's face, and found it rather infectious.

"Oh? Like what?" she asked, casting him a curious look.

"Well, let's start with an overall picture of the man that is portrayed to the public…he was, and I will stand by it, a great leader, worthy of the respect he received from his subjects as well as from other kingdoms and also a military genius, often unmatched in the field by winning battle after battle, effortlessly…However, if there was ever a word more fitting to describe him by; 'horn-dog,' would most certainly be it. He had eight official wives, the principal wife being the infamous Nefertari, and several concubines and slaves to keep him entertained, in which he spawned over a hundred children from." He decided to leave out that two of his wives were also his daughters, for her own sake.

The boggled Tea's mind, "More than one hundred! How did he keep track of all of them or did he choose a handful of his favourites and ignore the rest?"

Yami chuckled, "You'd be surprised actually, children were the greatest blessing of all that the gods could give them, since most died during infancy or really young, so as strange as this might sound to you, considering the cold image often portrayed in other civilisations during that time - of their harshness towards their children and absence of fondness…the Egyptians loved their children, similarly to how much parents of today do. I don't doubt that Rameses was as every bit involved with each individual child's life."

Tea shook her head, continuing to be surprised by this magical ancient world that was so different from any other. "All I can say about this guy is wow! Was he like the heartthrob of Egypt at the time or something?" she grinned, aware that it wouldn't have mattered if he was a hunk or a troll, as the king, if he wanted sex, he would have gotten it one way or another without question, but Yami nodded anyway, yet there was a slight twinkle of secretive amusement in his eye.

"At the time he was...but do you want to know a physical characteristic of his that not many people know about?" he asked in a mysterious voice, which immediately intrigued her.

"Do tell," she grinned excitedly.

"He was a carrot-top."

She gasped, "No way!"

"He had red hair. I'm being serious, he had red hair," Yami repeated after viewing her disbelieving expression. "And not the dark type either, it was a fiery, orange colour, and according to rumour he was also had a fire-" his eyes widened as he realized what was about to allow slip, and choked on the last word, causing him to cough.

Tea glanced at him innocently, "A fire-what?"

"Uh…a fiery temper," he added quickly, which was actually true to some extent, just not what he had intended to say first. "A typical red-haired stereotype."

Tea grinned catching on to the joke, "Did he have freckles as well?"

"Undoubtedly," Yami said through a grin of his own.

She was about to make a joke, when another thought stopped her, and she raised her eyes excitedly to his. "Okay totally different pharaoh and topic, but I've got to know! What happened to King Tut!"

Yami grinned and removed his gaze from hers as he laughed at what seemed like a private joke, "The modern world's intrigue in the mystery surrounding his death fascinates me."

Tea took his hands in her own and gave him a cute pleading look, "Come on Yami! It's one of the best secrets ever kept by the ancient world! You've got to tell me, you have no choice!"

"Oh, really?" Yami asked through a smirk with a raised eyebrow, seeming to challenge her.

"Yes…" she began softly, before dropping one of his hands to use her own to trail an intricate pattern on his well developed chest that was one-hundred-percent muscle and nothing else. "I might be willing to reward a few hundred points for it."

"Well with that offer up for grabs, how could I possibly refuse," Yami whispered lowly with a wink, before glancing around him as though making sure that they were completely alone. He bent down and whispered the answer in her ear, causing here eyes to widen with surprise.

"Come on, you're kidding me! That's how he died?"

He nodded his head, "Afraid so, curiosity satisfied?"

She shook her head in disbelief, before nodding a reply. "Man, the more I hear about your family, the more I'm starting to wonder how the hell you ever came from it," she joked, to which he simply smiled and shrugged at in response.

"Your guess is as good as mine."

---

The minute Yami left the apartment Lamia took claim over the bedroom, slamming the door behind her and shutting Yugi completely out of it, richly claiming that she needed her sleep. He didn't know whether or not that she was suggesting that he didn't, or that she was implying her needs were supposed to seen as more important than his. However, her attitude was the last thing on his mind as he locked himself in the bathroom, his head pounding in that all too familiar way that he had known for most of his life.

He was breathing heavily an rapidly, as his vision dimmed and brightened in a continuous sequence, not yet swimming or spinning, but seemed to be just on the edge of it. He flung two supportive hands up against the wall and leant against it, closing his eyes as though trying in an almost ironical way to escape his blackening vision. A sudden cough erupted from his chest, surprising him into awareness by forcing his eyes open in time to notice three tiny droplets of blood that stained the white, porcelain sink below him.

Breathing in deeply, he forced his eyes closed again, knowing that what was about to happen was inevitable. It wasn't long after that he felt a surge of electricity, pulse through his entire being, which was soon washed over by a dark numbing wave that fell from the base of his neck and down his shoulders, finally reaching up and grabbing hold of his mind…and then he felt absolutely nothing, as his body slid down the wall and fell limply to the ground, the darkness swallowing him whole.

---

They didn't stay at the museum too long after that conversation, though Yami had managed to squeeze in a few more facts such as how the Egyptians used to make their houses with mud bricks that they made themselves, to an interesting fact about Cleopatra, which Yami made very clear, he was not related to, which was the fact that she wasn't actually Egyptian at all, but in fact Macedonian, and was the first ruler of her family who could actually speak the Egyptian language!

They decided to then take a casually paced stroll towards the beach since it was nearby, and enjoyed the salty sea air as it brushed over them. Her thoughts went back to the museum where she had learnt quite a bit about Yami's culture and in a way, his historical background, and although it was weird to learn about his direct and famous relatives, it brought about a realization that it was because of 'vampire existence' that she and Yami were able to be together in this particular time…had it not being for them, the only awareness she probably would have had of him, was a few paragraphs in an encyclopaedia and perhaps a picture of him, taken off his own tomb wall's art display, which would have never done his justice, not by a long shot.

It was scary to think that way…to know that she wouldn't have thought twice about him, yet alone love him the way she did. He would have been just another ancient dead guy to her.

And Yami? He would never have known her and would've probably taken the throne right after his father's death, since he was the older twin, and would have immediately taken another woman as his queen, as well as several others. And it killed her to think of him loving anyone else but her in such an intimate way, and even more so when she thought about him dying young, which was the fate of most of the ancients from that time.

The thoughts made her shiver, which Yami mistook for a sudden chill. "Are you getting cold? Do you want my jacket?"

She shook her head, feeling rather embarrassed to allow such odd thoughts to stir such raw emotion within her. "No, I was just thinking about something…weird."

They came across a colourful ice cream vendor that played a rather sweet - and yet somehow – creepy tune. Yami grinned at her and beckoned her toward it with a nod in its direction. "Ice-cream?"

She smiled, "Mint?"

"You've got it," he said with a small salute, before breaking away from her and heading towards it…making the girl behind the counter, very happy.

Tea didn't fail to notice the look of awe-struck astonishment that came over the girl's face, which was not only their age, but was also quite attractive. In an over-bubbly voice, she immediately greeted Yami, stretching her body slightly as though trying to make herself taller, revealing more of her slim and curvy body…especially her chest.

Tea's mood immediately darkened, but she immediately sought after her inner peace. Yami was hers, right? There was no need for her to be worried about some over-enthusiastic girl setting her sights on him, which was obviously bound to happen from time to time, he was after all incredibly hot…so why did she suddenly feel a squeezing pressure around her heart?

He returned a minute later and gently handed her a large cone with a tall, dark green tower of icy frosting, before dividing his attention to his own chocolate masterpiece that appeared to be coated with nut fragments. "Thank you!" she responded cheerfully, as she licked at hers, immediately flinching as its coldness burnt the tip of her tongue.

"You're most welcome," he responded with a smile, and tasted his own frozen treat, seeming more adaptable to the cold than what she was, and instead of flinching smiled in delight.

They continued to walk towards the docks, passing several of the tall and exclusive mansions that occupied the beach front…one of them belonging to Serena's father, though Tea wasn't sure which. They were near to the start of the dock, when Tea gave voice to a thought that had been nagging at her for a long while. "Hey Yami…can I ask you something personal? You don't really have to answer it, I'll totally understand."

They came to the wooden platform of the dock, which creaked on each step. The air smelt of salt and fish, and both could easily make out the caw of the seagulls above the crashing of the waves. However, Yami could detect several stronger odours that she couldn't, such as the rust on the little fishing boats, the stench of leaking oil, the sweat of the fishermen hard at work, and blood from the fish that were in the process of being gutted.

"I'll answer anything you ask me Tea," he answered immediately, though his attention instinctively drifted off in the direction where the scent of blood was strongest, but she didn't seem to notice.

"If everything was as it was supposed to be…and there was no such thing as vampires…and you would have obviously become king when your father died...would you have…married more than one woman?" The moment her last words left her mouth, she immediately regretted them, feeling so stupid for asking him such a stupid question.

For a moment there was an awkward silence between them until Yami quietly, and almost reluctantly, answered, "No, I actually wouldn't have inherited the throne, I would have been second in line for it…but if I had, yes, I would have taken more than one wife."

Of course he would have! By force right? Not by choice…he would never have wanted more than one wife surely? He wasn't that type of guy…was he?

"Yeah I know stupid question, you would have been forced to right, for political reasons?" Tea asked, though she hadn't been able to hide the slight nervousness in her voice as she said it. Why was she even asking him this? What point was it supposed to serve?

"Mostly…but I think my reasoning behind marrying others would have been just for the typical reason that I could," he said softly, which Tea would have thought was a joke, if it hadn't been for his dead-serious tone…and it hurt…it hurt her like hell.

She tried to get over it, knowing how stupid it was to get upset over something that was hypothetical. All Yami was saying that if he had been a pharaoh three-thousand years ago, he would have had a few more wives than necessary – for the sport of it – but that was typical royal nature back then, he obviously didn't think he would be any different, and it wasn't like he was going to lie about it. It didn't say anything about him now, did it? So why did it hurt?

She felt a tight squeeze of regret around her heart and gulped down a lump in her throat, and was so upset that she hadn't realised she was speaking until it was too late. "…can't believe you said that." She heard herself saying those last words, but she was at a loss with words that came before them, and desperately racked her memory, in an attempt to remember. What was wrong with her? Why was she taking him so seriously?

"It's the truth Tea…" Yami interrupted, his eyes on the sea ahead, "I would have married girl after girl, until I practically had a whole collection of wives." His voice seemed uncaring though not harsh; however he didn't seem to even notice her suffering or that his words were hurting her, in fact he seemed to be in his own world as he practically destroyed hers. Was this a bad dream? It had to be! The Yami she knew was not this impostor standing before her…he couldn't be!

"How can you say that to me!" she choked, fighting back the tears that were stinging behind her eyes. "I know that all this is hypothetical, but…would you really…want more?" she couldn't meet his eyes, which had turned on her sharply, realizing that she was over-reacting and feeling incredibly stupid for it, yet at the same time couldn't stop the pain from killing her inside. She hadn't even realized she was crying tears, until she felt him wipe them away and pull her into his arms.

"Hey, hey…" he whispered softly in a comforting voice, as he wrapped his arms around her tightly, squeezing her briefly before pulling away and lifting her chin so that their gazes met. "Tea listen…the reason why I'm telling you this, is not to hurt you…it's the truth, and I know it, not because I have some secret desire and fantasy to own my own harem as you're imagining now-" She moved her gaze sheepishly to the side, feeling vulnerable and transparent under his gaze, knowing that he could see right through her. "- but because I know for a fact, that if I lived three thousand years ago, I would never have met someone as amazing or as beautiful as you to fill the gap that would have taken fifty maybe even a hundred women to. No woman will ever amount to, or mean as much to me as you do Tea, you're the only one I want, and will ever want."

How did he know what she felt, or how to make her feel so much better? How did he always seem to know what went through her mind…? He understood her so well that it scared her sometimes. She bit her bottom lip as she placed her hand over the wrist of the hand that held up her chin, before a small smile stretched across her lips. "Smooth recovery," she accused, though her tone was more joking than angry.

He smiled. "The truth actually," he corrected.

She closed her eyes, allowing the breezy sea-air to dry her tears, which she hoped were permanently gone. "You scared me," she all but whispered in confession.

"I'm sorry," he said softly cupping the side of her face.

"Don't scare me like that again…just get straight to the point next time," she said as she opened her eyes, a small smile curling onto her lips as the tightness around her heart released its grip.

"I'll do my best…but it won't be nearly as romantic," he responded, before gently pressing his lips against hers, and was surprised when she pulled back.

"Hypothetically – if I had existed three thousand years ago would I have been a wife or a concubine?" she asked in an almost playful tone, though he detected some seriousness in it.

What a strange question to ask. "You would have been my queen," he stated simply, raising an eyebrow.

She smiled, this time turning playful, "So that would have made me your principal wife right?"

Yami smiled and shook his head, "Tea, hypothetically, if we existed three thousand years ago, you would have been my only wife."

"How do you know? What you feel like now might not have been the way you would have felt back then, I mean the modern world can influence you…"

He shook his head, "No I would have defiantly felt the same way…since I was raised in the same environment that I would have being raised in then…well close to the same…even worse in fact where the matter of sex is concerned, and see? Look at how I turned out after meeting you?" There was an almost playful hint in his tone that Tea found infectious, and suddenly all the anger and hurt that had once filled her, disappeared into a warm pleasurable feeling of ease, happiness and love.

She giggled before pulling him in for a kiss, loving the caressing movement of his lips against hers and the feeling of their bodies moulding together, and with much effort pulled away from him again, though this time it was more, gentle and not so brisk. "Thank you…that's probably the most, sweetest thing anybody has ever said to me before."

Both he and Tea had been too caught up in the moment to notice that they were been watched closely from a rusted boat not far from where they stood, and that the figure was no longer seated and relaxed, but standing upright with his foot propped up on the boat's edge for support.

Yami smiled down at her with a fond and loving expression, finding this to be the perfect moment to tell her what he had planned to tell her all day. He was about to tell her that he loved her, the words were right there on the tip of his tongue. Time had passed them rather quickly, and the sun had fallen considerably far down from the sky, almost disappearing below the horizon, sun-set had almost come and gone, making it the perfect time for this moment. He gently took her hands, and steadily held her gaze, parting his mouth slightly to speak. There was a look in her eye that revealed she suspected something coming, which he found to be a rather encouraging sight. Everything was so utterly perfect…too perfect.

He heard it before he saw it, the slight click of a metal weapon before it was fired. He turned his gaze sharply to the gun-wielding perpetrator, protectively thrusting Tea out the way to which it had been aimed at, placing himself in the line of fire, before the bullet left its barrel - before the explosion thundered against the early evening's silence - before the figure had time to register the change in target - before Tea had time to cry out…and before he felt a fiery pain explode through his breast plate heading towards his heart…!

To Be Continued

---

See you next chapter. You know you love me!

XOXO

BTW I meant no offence to red heads! I thought it was a really cool fact! (Yeah it's true and even I was suprised.)