I finally got pants that fit me. O.O my maternity pants keep falling off my butt while I'm walking and my pre-pregnancy pants are too tight (because your hips widen so you can birth a baby). So I've given up, taken the hour long drive to get to the closest mall, and got myself pants that FIT!

I was quite surprised. Had to go to the junior section to find them. I didn't think I was that small. The curvaceous women were giving me insulted looks when I asked them where I could find size such and such. (How dare you ask us where you can find such a petite size over here in the WOMANS section, you little girl!)

My butt is happy.

Chapter 8: Envy of the Outcast

Ms. Ishtar's blue eyes contrasted brightly against her cinnamon Egyptian skin. They were staring at the panting group of teenagers, bemused.

"You're lucky I'm here," she said, "I don't live in the museum, you know. What is so urgent?"

"White slave," panted Tea, "I need you to tell Yugi all you know about the white slave of the pharaoh's."

The Egyptian woman did not appear pleased. "What has that to do with you?"

"We think she's here!" protested Yugi. "The white girl—she time traveled!"

She pursed her lips in annoyance. "I never knew you to be the kind to make such farfetched assumptions, Yugi. You don't even know what she looks like."

"But the pharaoh remembers her!" cried Joey.

Now they had her attention.

"He remembers her?" she blinked. "And he says this girl you've met is her?"

"More or less." said Yugi.

She considered this for a moment, arms folded. Then, she finally shook her head.

"That's very strange. Does the pharaoh remember anything else?"

"No, miss. Just her name and age a few random bits about her."

She asked a few more well placed question before sadly shaking her head.

"I always was confused about the mentioning of time rather than her name, but even if it is her returned back to her home, I don't see what good it can do you. It is probably best that you do not pursue her. After all," she gave Yugi a pitying look. "The pharaoh is dead."

"That's not the point!" he said, and with that he delved into explaining about Shadi strange (or at least stranger), behavior and how he claimed that Aleah was never meant to be. He talked about the shifting items phenomenon and how Shadi sait it to be the young woman's fault messing up their timeline. Ms. Ishtar listened attentively. She too shared that some lights in her studio had randomly switched into wax candles and back, and agreed it was all very strange.

When the three of them had given all that they knew concerning Aleah, excluding Tea who hardly knew anything about the situation, Ms. Ishtar still shook her head.

"There's not much I have to tell about this girl, or her place in all this. She was very mysterious. The pharaoh made sure to keep her out of any spotlight and in the end she just…vanished, just as mysteriously as she came. I thought of her more of a myth than any real person."

Yugi visibly wilted. She smiled at him, however, and brushed her fingers against a display case as a few last visitors walked by.

"Have you even thought to ask the millennium necklace I gave to you? It is what can answer your questions."

"That thing is so fickle. It's only worked, what, once now? Twice? I don't really even think of it as an asset anymore."

"And it will always be that way to you until you understand time properly and the way it flows."

To this, he perked up once more. Joey gave her an incredulous look.

"This sounds like it's border'n the edges of something philosophical." he twisted a finger in his ear. "Let me know when you two are done, I'm gonna go check out some things."

"Oh no, you don't!" And Tea grabbed onto his retreating collar. "We are going to learn all we can so we can help out Yugi in this, aren't we?"

"But I don't even know what for!" protested Joey, "So the girl doesn't belong here. Not nothing I should mess with."

"But the pharaoh remembers her!"

"Well, if I had a girlfriend that pretty I'd remember her too!"

Yugi sighed heavily. "You were saying? About time?"

The Egyptian woman looked bewildered at his friends before turning her attention back to him. She looked uncertain for a moment.

"Time is something you understand with your senses, or as my brother would say, your gut feelings. It isn't something I can so easily explain. I can say that there is one thing I think peculiar about Shadi's purpose. Time is not something that is easily denied by anyone. Every living creature is affected by the flow of time in one way or another. The ability to travel through time is simply a gifted awareness. I do not think that just because the girl can see when these opportunities arise that she is automatically exempt from time and has no purpose." She looked at the display case and at the cracking mud statues inside. "Change is not bad. Even if it's a change in the future. Whether we want it that way or not is up to us, and our choice. Because in the end, we always have our choices. One girl giving new information should not change that." She looked back to Yugi, her eyes hard. "Nothing can change our power of choice. Kaiba has taught me that."

"Then what about destiny?" asked Tea. "And fate?"

She nearly smirked at this. "Well, if you know someone well, can't you predict how they will react to a set of choices? Perhaps destiny is what we are intended for, and fate is the prediction made by some intelligence we do not yet know who simply knows us very well."

There was a contemplative pause at this—and a confused one on Joey's part. Before he could open up his mouth and give the first blank note of his question, Yugi spoke up.

"And knowing this, or understanding time—will that help me use the necklace?"

"Understanding what I've said can help, but time is something to be understood by instinct, not by logic."

Yugi's mouth twitched. "The pharaoh isn't going to like that."

Tea looked down at her watch and squeaked. "Oh gosh, I have to get home for dinner. It's the one thing my mom's anal about."

"And it's about time we close." The Egyptian bowed. "It was a pleasure seeing you again, Yugi and friends."

"No! The pleasure is ours! We did load you with a lot of questions."

"Oh, come on guys, I'm starving. Can we go already?"

"Joey! Have a little decorum!"

"She knows I'm grateful. Don't you, Ms. Ishtar?"

She smiled. "Yes, and I can understand the distractions of an empty stomach."

With that they parted. In the front of the museum Tea gave a quick goodbye for running off in the opposite direction. Joey and Yugi huddled at the bus stop as the wind began to blow, icy and cold. Joey rubbed his arms furiously.

"Damn, this weather is so weird."

"You can say that again."

"They predicted sunshine! With record breaking highs! And it's freaking May!"

"It feels more like February." said Yugi through chattering teeth. He tightened his rain coat tighter around himself. A part of him wished that Aleah was still at home, waiting for him so he could curl up in blankets with her again and talk of all this weird timey wimey stuff and whatever else came to mind. An ache throbbed in his chest. Too late, it seeped through the mind link before Yugi could have the present of thought to block it.

Yami floated into the cold air besides him. "What is wrong, abiou?"

Yugi shivered and made sure to think his words so as to not freak Joey out. 'Nothing. I'm just cold.'

"No. You are sad. I know what I felt."

He hesitated, but realized there was no escape. 'I was just thinking about Aleah. I miss her. She was…fun to talk to.'

He could feel the spirit's eyes examining him closely and feel his probing at the edges of his mind. Before he could think of a way to change the subject, Yami floated in front of him, his expression serious, if not even more so than it usually was.

"Do you care for her, Yugi?"

'Of course I do! I thought we could've been friends.'

"You know what I mean."

To this, the smaller boy fell silent. What was he suppose to say to Yami of all people? That he felt affection towards the girl who had once been his yami's lover? Which probably had been only days ago for her, though it had been thousands of years for him? Even then, how could he feel such feelings for someone he had only met a few days ago? No. It wasn't worth risking it. Blocking up every corner of his thoughts, he took a deep breath.

'Of course not, Yami. I've only known her for a few days.'

Still, the spirit watched him carefully. He could feel the probing against his thoughts again and knew the pharaoh sensed his resistance. His expression fell uncertainly.

"Yugi…"

"Hey, Yug! Snap out of it, the bus is here!"

Brushing past Yami's spiritual form, he stepped up after his friend, dumped some change into the fee box, and curled up next to a window near the back to watch as rain began to fall.

!$*^%^ $!$##%^&*(*%! #$^**^%

The rain poured. Shivering in the chill of the room, she brushed her fingers against the grimy window pane. While she should have been suspicious that Shadi chose to stash her away in the office of some abandoned warehouse, it's not like she, who did not belong, should have expected a fine hotel room or even an apartment. And she had to hide somewhere until another rip in time opened. At least it was dry, though she admitted this skeptically as she listened to the water from the roof patter into buckets and trays behind her.

Besides, she kind of liked it this way: alone, watching the sky bawl on the earth. It was peaceful. At least she belonged with herself. At least she had the rain and this room for shelter. She could believe anything she wanted here and no one would be the wiser.

Adjusting the shirt and shorts she still wore, Aleah stood from the lone chair of the room and searched around for blankets of any sorts. She could wind herself up in a quilt and pretend she was back with Yugi, looking up at the rain and talking of adventures. Trying to ignore her shivering, she stepped about buckets. She dared to open the lone door (she hadn't opened it before in fear of spiders), to find a dirty, small half bathroom, but no blankets. After a full ten minutes of searching she found a dusty box filled with some moth eaten curtains. They were the most garish orange imaginable, but they were large and thick, and she was grateful. Pushing aside the chair, she curled up on the floor in the musty curtains and looked back up at the rain.

What would she say if she were just Aleah? Not some strange time traveler, but just a girl. She only knew Yugi for a few days, but she had never met anyone so open, so innocent, and so kind, and she had given her trust to him easily. He probably didn't know what a relief it was to her to finally trust after so long of treading about an ancient culture and king she did not know. So, smiling through her chattering teeth, she closed her eyes and imagined him there. Yugi would never hurt her. He could come into her lonely sanctuary.

"Thank you," she said, "for standing up to him. For trying to make a spot for me. But, I guess that doesn't matter now. How was your day? Did you hear about that skyscraper that turned into a pyramid? I hope the people inside are okay."

She imagined a smile on his round face and the twinkle in his eye, and when he opened his mouth she could hear the kindness, just not the words. She had, after all, only known him for a few days. Her eyes burned at the silence. She sniffed.

The quiet could be so scary. Because that's when he came, uncaring to her wishes that he stay far, far away from her thoughts. It surprised her to no end how alike Yugi looked to Atem—almost as though he could've been the pharaoh's little brother, but nothing more. Yugi was soft, gentle, with wide, open eyes. Atem was sharp, commanding, confident, and his own features guarded well when he faced down his enemies. He had been guarded to her as well, at first. But, of course, the man must've had a weakness for women she hadn't seen, huh?

"Liar." she breathed, watching her breath rise in the air. "Bastard. Horny jerk."

But calling him such would never make him such. No matter how hard she tried.

And that was the real problem.

Suddenly angry at herself, she tore at a piece of the curtain until she felt as though her fingernails would tear off. When had she allowed herself to let that…that ass in? When had she started to ignore her common sense and listen to his mushy love words? Well, whatever the case, she didn't care. She didn't love him. She never had! She was smarter than that. So him with another woman shouldn't have bothered her, even if they were in such a compromising position…

Even as her chest tightened to the point she couldn't breathe, she clung tenaciously to her anger. By all that was holy, she wasn't heartbroken! She refused to be! She was just angry and disappointed at being lied at. After all the effort he made to convince her that he loved her, that he wanted her, that she could trust him, it was all just a ploy to add her to the collection. She should have known. Stupid, ancient, polygamous kings. She should be glad that she was out of there! All that was there were horny men, weak women, and stupid, lying, handsome kings.

But she could hear the lie in that. She knew that people were just people, no matter where they were. It was unfair of her to clump all the Egyptians together. It wasn't their fault that Atem had decided to play her.

Staring up at the rain, it took her a few minutes to realize tears were pouring down her face. Growling, she wiped at her cheeks with the harsh, dusty material of the curtain and tried to imagine Yugi there instead. Yugi, who she couldn't imagine ever betraying her. He would've been the friend she needed. She would've had someone to finally talk to after months and months of bitter loneliness. He could understand her culture far better than Atem ever could, even if he did live on the other side of the globe. He didn't demand of her to act a certain way, he didn't put chains about her ankles whenever they were in public, and he wasn't a foolish, charismatic king. He was safe.

Yet it only dulled the pain. She still couldn't stop her tears.

"This all crap." she muttered. "Just a load of crap."

For deep within her, she knew why she had messed up going home. She hadn't kept her mind focused on only North Dakota. Even though Atem had carelessly used her, a piece of her had still hesitated on leaving. He had looked so pathetic begging on the ground like that. More importantly, he had looked more sincere and desperate than she had seen any man. But she was not so weak as to be manipulated! And yet…she had seen what she had seen. There could be no trick of the light in what she had seen him doing with another woman.

If only she could run. If only she could've gotten some good tenne shoes from Tea rather than these girly looking sandals. But should the opportunity arise, she would ditch them. Especially for weather like this. There was nothing like running in the rain with winds howling about you and thunder threatening to boom your body off the world and the cold staving off your sweat. Maybe she could cock open the window. She was far enough from Yugi and the others that she wouldn't cause any harm, right?

The door of the office opened with a quiet whistle. Among the many sounds of dripping and rain upon a tin roof came the quiet footsteps of Shadi.

"The time rift should come soon."

She rubbed the curtain roughly on her cheeks. Shadi was the last person she needed to see her crying.

"That's good." she mumbled.

There came a tinkling of cans. "I brought you some food."

"Thanks, though I don't see why you bothered."

"I am not a cruel man."

"I didn't say that."

Shadi crouched besides her in a pool of linen robes. In front of her he placed a few cans of fruit, some canned beans, and a few cans of various vegetable soups.

"I tried to get all the necessities. It wouldn't do for you to get a cold in this weather."

She snorted. "I have the immune system of a horse. I'd like to see a cold try."

To this, he gave her a dry look. "Oh really?"

"Yep. Haven't gotten sick for almost two years now."

"That just means you are overdue."

"Don't jinx me."

For the first time, the smallest hint of a grin came to the Egyptians face. After setting a can opener delicately on top of the cans, along with what looked like a second hand camp burner, he settled himself on the floor across from her, leaning against the wall with an almost inaudible groan. She watched him warily. She remembered Shadi as a member of the Pharaoh's high priests, but that didn't mean she knew him by any means, even if he had found her in secret to inform her of her place and her abilities to see and travel through the time rifts back then in Egypt. She had always supposed he was just one heck of a smart magician, like all the priests were. Now that he had finally revealed to be of the same kin of her, instead of making her relax, it made her more wary than ever.

"If…if you're the same as me, did you stumble upon ancient Egypt too? Or were you born somewhere else like me?"

Shadi didn't even bother to open his eyes. "I was born in ancient Egypt. But since then I have jumped through countless times. Although, it is too that land that I will ever have a kind of place I can call home. Sort of like this North Dakota is to you."

"But how did you know about time travel back then? How were you able to help me?" she considered the can of fruit cocktail skeptically before reaching out for it. The moment she popped the lid with the can opener, she realized what was missing.

But he was ahead of her and had a plastic spork held out to her as he spoke. "There is only ever one of me wherever I am, so sometimes I return to that time to replay my part, but only ever for a small time so I do not mess up the events."

She paused mid-stab for a piece of pineapple. "Huh. That would explain why you didn't even recognize me the next day. That must've been a different you. How…wait…" she hesitated, "But I'm alive in this time too. I'm just eight years old. Does that mean—"

He rolled his eyes. "You are over thinking this. The other you is all the way in North America. If you had known better how to control the time stream you would've come here as your eight year old self and in North America. Just another reason why you should leave."

This aggravated her. "I get the idea, you don't have to tell me twice."

"You do not belong—"

"Shut up. Please."

Finally, he pulled his turbaned head away from the wall to glare at her through his oddly pupil-less eyes. His eyes hadn't always looked like that, she noted. Once they had been warmer, more natural, more...alive.

"I remembered you being much sweeter."

"You would get mean if someone kept rubbing in your face that you're worthless too." With a growl she devoured several grapes and a cherry in one bite. As she chewed she muttered, "Something the dear old pharaoh seemed to never grasp."

"The pharaoh appreciated you far more than you deserved. You may have been a slave in title, but I've never known a slave of your temperament to be so well cared for."

She spat out a bit of corn syrup. "He had his reasons. Didn't change that I was still nothing."

Shadi considered her as she continued her can of fruit. It was the first time that day she had chosen to eat, and he presumed she should be ravenous, especially in this cold. Outside the storm gave an extra roar against the noisy metal walls of the warehouse. Slowly he started to bend forward. Instantly, she tensed.

"You keep that stupid key of yours away from my head." she snapped. She even stabbed the pointed end at the spork at him as though that could deter him.

But instead of reaching for his key, he reached for something on her face. She held absolutely still as his fingers brushed against her cheeks and below her eyes.

"You really shouldn't rub that awful material on your face when you cry. Your soft skin really can't take it."

She smacked his hand away. "Do you mind?" Then she froze. Shadi didn't look angry at her outburst. Instead he looked at her with a tenderness she hadn't thought possible from the emotionless rock. He pulled his hand back to examine his now wet fingertips.

Softly, barely more than a whisper, he asked, "You were thinking about the pharaoh before I came, weren't you?"

She did the only thing she knew to do then. She glared. "Why does it matter to you? I don't matter to his world, just like you. I can see in your eyes how you've disconnected yourself. The only reason you deal with Yugi and the others as I've heard is probably because they have to do with your precious Egypt and you've found a role as you say."

But she faltered at the softening gaze of Shadi upon her. He drew up close to her, though he didn't dare the edge of her curtain shell, let alone her.

"He loved you, Aleah."

The words made her tremble. How dare he! How dare he even talk as though he knew better!

"Sure." she said, barely avoiding it coming out as a thick whine.

But he pressed on. "He truly did. He…he was never intimate with Isis. They only ever saw each other as comrades."

It felt like every bone in her body turned to lead while her muscles went ramrod straight, though she didn't move an inch. Instead, she turned her head.

"I don't care." she said, lowly enough that the rock in her throat wouldn't interfere. "Why should I care what was between him and Isis?"

"Because it obviously hurts you. You must have cared for him."

"That pompous ass? Ha."

"I know this isn't you. You aren't acting like yourself."

"And how the hell would you know? Why are you even still talking about things you don't even know about? Can you please talk about something else?"

There was a long silence that wore on her as though it had turned the air to stone. She could feel her insides trembling and her hands, so icy cold, sucking the heat from where she had stuffed them in the bends of her knees. She could feel her eyes burning and her chest constrict till she could barely breathe.

Finally, he spoke. "I'm sorry."

"What for?" she said none-too-kindly.

"For deceiving you. For hurting you. I had only hoped for the best, and…I admit, I had been terribly jealous."

This confused her. She finally looked back to see Shadi bent over his knees with his face in his hands. It looked very strange to see his long legs folded up against him like that. His stature was never made for such a position.

But she didn't say anything. She only looked at him. Finally, he took a shuddering breath.

"I know what you saw that broke your faith in Atem."

"How?" she was almost ready to be angry again.

"Because…I was the one who created that illusion with my millennium key. It wasn't him. The pharaoh was always too noble for anything like that. I was surprised how easily you accepted what you saw after all your experiences with the powers of our millennium items. Perhaps it is better that you left, because you were too ready to not trust him. There can be no love where there is not trust."

But Aleah was already on her feet with the ugly curtain in a dusty mess at her feet.

"You!...You!..." but she couldn't think of a profanity sick or violent enough to do him justice.

"I did it for the best. Your place wasn't there."

"Who were you to decide that!?"

"I knew how the time flow must happen. You were disrupting that. And…"

"Like hell I was! What about you? Why the freak weren't you just blunt with me? How do you know I wouldn't have gone home without you scarring me for life—I mean, even if I did have feelings for him, you are such a pervert! That was awful!"

"I was just trying to make something effective, and I know how you Americans—"

"We're not all perverts! We don't all watch whatever YOU think we're watching! Gods, what is wrong with you?"

And now he was on his feet, his expression more sharp than ever.

"You weren't suppose to be attached to him. He was someone you were never meant to meet!"

"For the last time, who died and made you God!"

"I just didn't want to be alone anymore!"

Hearing something she wouldn't have usually heard from a man she had supposed didn't feel emotions shocked her into speechlessness. He took advantage of her silence to step over the dusty rim of her orange nest.

"You don't know for how long I have been alone, not belonging anywhere. I've only ever met two of my kind, and even then only once each. After decades of no one who could understand my pain, my agelessness, and then I found you on a trip to Egypt. You could be…you are…"

For a moment, she was afraid he would kiss her. She had never seen the priest this worked up. When his hand moved up she flinched horribly, but instead he brought it to his chest to twist his robes between his fingers.

"Please, Aleah, I am so sorry for what I did. But we are of the same kind. We are all we have. We may never meet another of our likeness again." his eyes were shifting from one of her eyes to the other. "When I realized you hadn't returned to your time, to your home, and that you could've been anywhere…"

"You know I would've still been on my school's student ambassador trip to Egypt, don't you?" she said flatly. "How did you find me anyways?"

"My first clue was the death of Yugi Motou…seven years previously, when I last knew him to live a long life into old age."

Goose bumps covered her body from the frigid weather of the warehouse. Her extremities had nearly lost feeling. But finally, her blood ran cold too.

She stumbled away from him, toppling over a bucket of rain water on the way. It splashed water all the way to her thigh.

"H-how do you know that was because of me?"

His eyes narrowed. "Think about it. If you had given the pharaoh his name before the time he was ready, the seal on Zorc would have broken and he would've faced a most powerful foe."

"Zorc? I'm guessing I left before that chapter."

"Indeed you did."

"A fat load of evil overlord, right?"

He gave her a confused look. "What?"

She shook her head. "Nevermind. I get the idea already. Thanks for the food."

He flinched and glared at her in disbelief. "Are you actually thinking to make me leave?"

"If you don't, I will." She set the bucket back up and grimaced when she noticed the water had reached some of her precious orange curtain. "And you wouldn't want me to get that lovely cold I've been waiting for so long for, would you?"

"I can get you blankets. Or you can even have my robes—"

"No thanks. I can take care of myself."

"But—"

"Shadi," she turned on him with a sharp glare, "you're not in the greatest position to be getting all close and fuzzy with me right now after what you just told me, if you get my gist. Let me know when the time rift is here. Other than that, I don't much feel like talking to you."

They glared at each other in turn. Finally, after a particularly loud howl of wind against the warehouse, he sighed.

"I am sorry for hurting you. I'll go fetch some blankets. The time rift should be at least another day or so."

And with that, Aleah found herself alone again, with her half eaten can of fruit on the floor. Without Shadi there to glare at she turned her glower to the fruit, as though the waterlogged grapes in there had somehow done her wrong as well. She had begun to tremble with more than cold, and she brought her folded hands to her chest in attempts to ward off the chill.

She suddenly missed the white-hot desert sun of Egypt.

"Am I really the kind of person," she said to the can, "who just get's in the way of everyone else's destiny and safety? Do I really have no place in this world? Even barely with my own family? Half the things Shadi say don't make sense…"

Another flash of lightening turned the office bone white. A roar of thunder rattled the walls.

She clenched her teeth as tears once more pour down her cheeks.

She couldn't take this anymore.

Tearing open the window, she climbed outside and relished the icy rain on her already freezing skin. Then, once she hit flat pavement, she tore off Tea's girly sandals and dashed off into the wild rage of the storm.