Cheyenne: Wow. I was looking over my chapters to this story, and got thinking: "These chapters are pathetically short." Frankly, I'm feeling more than a little disgusted with myself. Oh, don't get me wrong, I'm still going to finish this story and its sequel, I'll just be trying to make the chapters longer, that's all ^^

I'm trying to make them longer from now on. In the meantime-Disclaimer! Yu-Gi-Oh! does not belong to Me!

I also apologize for the horribly lame title of this chapter xD

AND OHMYGOSH I AM SO SORRY FOR THE LONG WAIT! *Ashamed* But I want to thank all my reviewers! THANK YOU! And keep reviewing ^^

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//Asoka//

It must have been a week; maybe more. Asoka didn't know, nor did she care to find out. She knew only that Mana and Mahado must be worried sick, and she felt horrible that she couldn't do anything about that. Much to Asoka's relief, however, Atem had made a nearly full recovery. His wound still pained him from time-to-time, but hey. He had gotten stabbed with a sword; what else would you expect? Asoka smiled again, which caused her father to look at her with concern.

"Asoka?" The aging man said his gray hair tied back in a ponytail, and his emerald eyes questioning. "Asoka, did you hear me?"

"Did you say something?" The midnight-haired girl replied, blinking twice before dropping her hands onto her lap, realizing she had been playing with the fabric of her dress. She hadn't meant to tune her father out, but she had been thinking a lot lately. It was time for her and Atem to return to their home. She knew her father would understand; he always did.

"Yes. I don't like the sound of that Anzu girl, and I do hope you'll be careful!" The old man waved his index finger his front of him like he was lecturing a small child about something. "She sounds a real fright. I wouldn't want her to ruin anything more than she already has! Imagine…" Neferarius shuddered, and Asoka smiled softly. "Imagining does no good. I imagine I'll scare myself stiff if I try!" She laughed once, placing her hand on the wooden table to her right. "But we must return to the palace. Mahado and Mana… Oh, great Ra! Mana!" Asoka laughed again, and Neferarius looked confused. "Mana?" He inquired.

"A friend," Atem's voice came from the doorway, where he was leaning casually against it. A warm sparkle lit up his violet/crimson eyes, and Asoka turned to nod once at him.

"I see…" Neferarius said, though it was obvious he did not. Asoka stood up out of her seat, her white linen dress falling just at her ankles. "We should be off," the Egyptian said. "Mana would have… Well, being Mana, who knows what she may have done!" Atem chuckled from his spot in the doorway, and he walked up behind his fiancé; wrapping his arms around her waist and burying his face into her hair before whispering something that Neferarius could not hear. Asoka giggled once, and nodded. Atem was dressed for riding, with his now-clean navy cloaked hanging around his shoulders, attached by golden clasps. He wore a simple white tunic, with a blue piece of cloth down the front. His waist was covered with a gold belt-like thing, and the rest of the tunic flowed down just at his knees. Asoka slipped out of his embrace for a moment, intent on grabbing her own cloak. Since her original cloak had been white, however, they hadn't been able to clean the blood out well enough. Instead, she had gotten another one custom made by the village tailor. Throwing it over her own frame and doing it up at the front, she pulled the hood over her head and smile brightly.

"I suppose you're going to drag me with you?" Neferarius said with a chuckle, as he reached for his cane. Standing up out of his own chair, Neferarius walked towards the door, flinging it open before stepping out into the sunlight. Since it was early morning, the sun not being too high in the sky; the heat wasn't as searing as it would surely be later on. Asoka followed her father, after throwing her hair up into a quick, yet tight braid. Neferarius grinned, his gray goatee giving him a classic old-man look. His own gray hair was pulling back into a ponytail, as was custom. Asoka smoothed down her plain white dress. There were no sleeves, and she wore a simple golden belt around her waist to hold shape. On all three of the travelers feet were black sandals, good for desert travel and quick getaways, should they be attacked again. Atem stepped out after Asoka, his penetrating gaze landing on the three horses on which they would be traveling. Asoka's white mare, his black stallion, and Neferarius's mare. While Atem's horse was completely black, and Asoka's was completely white, Neferarius's mare had a chestnut colored coat. A white sock could be seen on said horse's right foreleg, and both mane and tail were black.

"Ready to go?" Asoka inquired of her father, who nodded. Asoka smiled, as the old man walked down the path and up to his horse. Atem offered to help him up, but Neferarius merely shook his head with a chuckle saying: "I may be old, but I gotta prove I have some strength left in me!" After he said that, he spent maybe a minute or two grappling with the reins; securing a hold before hauling himself up with a satisfied grin; completely unaware of how Asoka's eyes danced and sparkled with amusement. Stifling his own laughter, Atem mounted his horse after helping Asoka up, even though both of them knew she didn't need help at all. Asoka pulled back on the reins of her horse once, making the white mare back up with a small snort. The dagger that Asoka wore at her waist jabbed her once, but it was in its scabbard so it didn't do anything except cause her mild discomfort until she shifted it. Atem's sword was clasped at his side, too; a clear warning to any attackers who might try something.

They would not be caught so off guard again.

"We're going home." Asoka smiled as she said this, and Atem turned to smile at her once before clicking his tongue, making his horse go forward; taking the lead while Asoka rode next to her father, who in turn rode slightly behind Atem. In short, they rode in a triangular formation, following the path they had used to first come to the small village of Asoka's birth.

==Two Hours Later==

"Omens." Neferarius had been muttering to himself for the past five or ten minutes, mostly talking about his aching joints and wondering how long it would take them to get to the palace itself. Asoka knew Atem was smirking in front of them, as they all urged their horses to go a little faster after dismounting to give them some water before mounting and starting off again.

"What's that about omens?" Atem called from his stallion.

"Wrotten little things, they are. Omens; dreams; the likes of them. They all mean something, and they certainly aren't 'just' dreams or omens. They all mean something, and it's a shame when people suffer after not believing in something the gods told them; especially since they just dismiss them as nonsense. Take that one village I heard about… Te-Te-Te-something." Neferarius shook his head, obviously not able to pronounce the name correctly.

"Yes?" Atem urged.

"Well, I heard the prophet for the village predicted that an army would come and destroy everything. Only a few survived. Those lucky enough to actually live through the disaster were both super lucky and escaped; or far more likely taken as slaves by the Hirrak people."

"Hirrak?" Asoka echoed, a sickening feeling clench her stomach.

"Yes. Why?"

Asoka blinked three times, and closed her eyes once. "I know someone from there… one of the survivors of the village raid." The girl smiled ruefully.

"Oh?" Neferarius cocked an eyebrow, looking at his daughter with curiosity.

"Yes."

"Hirrak!" Atem's voice was filled with venom. "That's Anzu's 'kingdom'." ((AN: I could never think of a name for the tribe until now. T_T I'm so incredibly lame.))

"Oh, really?" The old man frowned, scratching his chin with a wrinkled hand. "I never made the connection. Asoka never really told me the name…"

"I never knew it myself! Everyone just referred to it as: 'The Tribe', or something like that. I just hope we've heard the last of them…" Asoka sighed as she said this, and another rueful smile crept across her tanned features. Blinking again, she spurred her horse forward to match the new pace Atem had set.

"We want to be there by nightfall at least," Atem said as Asoka sent him a questioning look.

"Oh," was all the girl said, deciding not to question him further, as the young Pharaoh was obviously pissed off about something. Probably Anzu. After that, the trio rode in silence, each the slave to their own thoughts until Asoka was struck by an almost horrific memory. Her dream! She had been so caught up in the naming of Hirrak… she hadn't connected her dream to her father's speech. What if her dream wasn't just nonsense? What if it…? No, it wouldn't. It couldn't. Not after all that had happened, no sir. Smiling, and trying to persuade herself that her dreams were merely gibberish, Asoka rode on into the stretch of desert before her.

==Seven Hours Later==

Asoka groaned. Her back was stiff, and her braid stuck to the back of her neck. Beneath her, her white mare was sweating, too. Lifting her gaze she noticed her father seemed almost asleep is his saddle. Stifling her giggles, Asoka increased her speed until she was beside Atem. "I see the palace," the girl said with a longing sigh. Atem smiled, turning his head to the right and nodding at her.

"Race you," the Pharaoh said with a wicked grin. Asoka returned it, and leaned back to tap her father on the shoulders. "See you at the palace!" The girl laughed before they both spurred their horses again and rode as fast as they could towards the palace. They were going at such great speed, it was even more of a surprise when Neferarius finally caught up to them, just as they were about to reach the gate. All three of them laughed, which quickly turned to a yelp of surprise from Asoka as she realized how close they were to the palace gate. "Stop the horses! We'll crash!" She called as she jerked heavily upon the reigns, watching as Atem and Neferarius did so, too. At the last second, however, the gates to the palace were thrown open and Asoka could hear Atem grunt as he struggled to make his horse obey him as the animals' hooves slipped across the polished stones of the front palace gardens.

"Ra!" Atem cursed as his horse finally slid to a stop in front of the stairs leading up to the palace.

"I'm with you on that one!" Neferarius panted.

Asoka said nothing, merely groaning in discomfort as her horse, too, came to a stop. "This is madness!" She said as she blinked the grains of sand out of her eyes. Atem wiped his brow once and looked up at the gold-glittering staircase.

"We should head inside, lest-"

"ATEM! ASOKA! YOU'RE BACK!" A white-and-brown blur ran down the stairs, tripping near the end and falling until she crashed into Asoka, who had by then dismounted. Letting out a startled yelp, Asoka felt herself fall backwards onto the hard stones of the pathway.

"Mana!" Asoka gasped, and the blur shook her head full of brown hair with a sheepish grin.

"Sorry!" Mana grinned as she stood up, not sounding very sorry at all. "Oh, but we were so worried! We didn't know what had happened, and-"

"Sire!" Mana was interrupted as Mahado called out, Seto and Isis beside him.

"We feared the worst!" Isis gasped as she lifted her skirts and raced down the stairs. "My Millennium Necklace revealed to me an attack forced upon you both by bandits! We feared that-"

"We feared you both perished! When you did not return as scheduled… "Mana's eyes were wide and fearful.

"We figured the bandits might have gotten you!" Seto finished blandly, eyes flashing.

"They did… sort of…" Asoka wished she hadn't said anything, as all eyes turned to her.

"What do you mean?" Mahado asked, his brown eyes flickering.

"She means that we encountered the bandits, yes. They caught us by surprise… and we barely got out alive." Atem answered calmly.

"What do you mean?" Isis inquired.

"One of them caught me," Atem grimaced as Asoka placed a hand over his side. The place where the wound was still tended to be tender to the touch.

"Caught?"

"Stabbed," Asoka concluded grimly.

"Oh!" Mana squealed in horror.

"Yes. Afterwards, I came down with a fever… or so Asoka tells me."

"He did. I got him to my village, though, so he's fine now… mostly." Asoka said.

"Mostly?" Isis echoed. "What do you mean by that?"

"The wound still hurts from time-to-time, but otherwise is fun. But I believe we have some other duties to prepare for?" Atem's violet-crimson eyes sparkled, and Asoka blushed. Neferarius stepped forward.

"ARE YOU NEFERARIUS?" Mana asked happily, obviously exited.

"Yes," the old man replied with a slight grin.

"OH GOOD! WE CAN START THE WEDDING THEN!" Mana started talking a mile a minute about how the great hall was to be set up, but she finally calmed down when Mahado placed his hand on her shoulder in an effort to calm her down, though he looked clearly amused.

"Tomorrow, Mana!" Mahado said with a laugh.

"Man, those guests are going to be angry after we made the wedding delay itself…" Asoka shook her head, azure eyes downcast.

"Not really. The original event was scheduled for tomorrow. We figured you would need time to get ready yourselves after coming back, so we set the actual event for a couple days after your assumed return." Seto smirked as he said this. "So, even though you are late in your actual return…"

"We haven't missed the actual thing?" Asoka's eyes were wide, and she smiled radiantly.

"Exactly!" Mana gushed.

"Thank Ra!"

"Yes, thank Ra." Tamara moved up behind Seto and smiled at them, giving the blue-eyed priest a bit of a scare. "You scared me…"

"Smooth," was all Atem said before snaking his arm around Asoka's waist again, drawing her as close to him as he could as he stared at the high priests and priestess.

"Shall we?" Was all the young Egyptian monarch said as Isis, Mahado, and Seto turned; walking up the gold-like stairs to the great doorway in front of them.

"Oh for-! Open the door!" Seto yelled up at nothing, but the door swung open anyways.

"Seto!" Tamara chided with a laugh, her eyes sparkling as she moved in front of him to lead the way in.

Asoka and Atem smiled at each other once before following them.

Neferarius lingered for a moment, trying to take all this in before Mana poked him impatiently, saying: "Let's go! There are some last minute preparations to be done!" With that, the young girl raced up the staircase, the old man shaking his head and following her with a slight smirk on his face as he did so.

Isis and Mahado looked at each other, before Isis gave a small laughed. Placing her right hand over the Millennium Necklace quickly, she proceeded to follow the others up the stairway and into the gold-colored throne room. Mahado followed suite.

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//Atem//

Atem sighed. 'Ra, it's good to be home,' he thought. He had enjoyed his stay at Asoka's old village… or rather; he had enjoyed the stay at Asoka's village that didn't involve major pain – but he had awaited the return trip home with a large amount of anticipation. It was good to be back, among the constant yet harmless and friendly bickering of the six Keepers, and Mana's lively presence. He had even missed his cousin Seto's sarcastic comments!

Atem laughed, which earned him a confused look from Asoka.

"What is it?" His fiancé asked, and Atem felt himself swell with emotion as he looked at her. How many times had he almost lost her? Too many. Too many for comfort.

"I was thinking about home. And I even admitted to myself that I missed Seto's sarcasm!"

"Never thought I'd hear that!" Asoka laughed, resting her head on his shoulder as they stopped just in front of Atem's throne. During his period of thought, they had made their way up the stairs and into the throne room itself, where they had proceeded to move unintentionally towards the throne.

"Yes. I was also thinking about…"

"About what?"

"About how many time I've almost lost you, Asoka." Atem's voice turned slightly mournful at that, though the proud Pharaoh tried (unsuccessfully) to hide that.

"Oh, Atem…" Atem looked down to see Asoka staring him intently. Without warning, she reached up and pulling him down into a deep, passionate kiss. Instantly, Atem felt like melting into her touch, but eventually they had to pull back in order to breathe.

"Don't worry about losing me," the girl whispered. "I told you I would never leave you completely."

"I love you," was all Atem said.

"I know," Asoka smiled in return as the two turned to face the very amused looks of Isis, Mahado, and Seto. Tamara and Mana were just smiling knowingly. Well, at least Tamara was. Mana was just insanely happy-looking.

Atem shot Seto a glare. "Right, like we didn't all watch you and Tamara getting it on in the hallways!"

"Shut up!" Seto snapped back lamely.

"Both of you!" Isis stepped in, though she was clearly amused. "That's enough. Though, Atem is right…"

"Not you, too!" Seto cried out indignantly.

"Back off guys," Mahado laughed as Mana skipped blissfully over to them, holding out her hands.

"I declare this pathetically lame fight over! Come back when you've finished rehearsing your comebacks. Seriously, Seto. 'Shut up'? Is that the best you can do? I've heard better." Mana rolled her eyes and grinned at them all.

"Yeah, Seto!" Atem mocked.

"ANYWAYS…" Mana continued, shooting both cousins a slight glare, "We have a great hall to decorate! Isis, Mahado! You two get started on the decorations! And Seto, you're in charge of the guest list! I get to oversee the food!" Mana said, looking more than a little hyper.

"What can we do?" Atem asked, hiding his amusement.

"You two can… Asoka can help me and you and Seto can bicker over the guest list!" Mana said brightly. Asoka laughed.

"Okay," the soon-to-be-queen laughed.

"Great! Okay everyone, MOVE MOVE MOVE!" Mana clapped her hands together and grabbed Asoka's hands, dragging her off to the palace kitchens. Atem chuckled, and moved over to Seto. "Ready to argue pointlessly over guests?" The Pharaoh asked.

"Always," Seto replied as the two kin laughed again, moving away to look at the scroll of papyrus that Mana had left on a table for them.

"Now… The Lord and Lady Beratari…"

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//Asoka//

"Come on!" Mana continued to drag the laughing noble by her wrists as the two girls made their way down the hallways of the palace, towards were delicious smells were drifting from the palace kitchen.

"I don't care! You will get this ready for tomorrow or I'll send your soul to the Shadow Realm!" A male voice suddenly hissed from the kitchen.

"He doesn't mean it," a second male voice said patiently. "He's just aggravated."

"Like hell he doesn't mean it!" A third (still male) voice snapped. "You there! We NEED these ready for tomorrow, and if they're not, I'll HELP him send your soul to the Shadow Realm!"

"Marik!" A fourth, female voice said, rising about the ominous threats of the first and third males. Her heart missing a beat, Asoka started to move faster until she burst into the kitchen. What she saw both shocked her and made her want to laugh out loud.

There were fourth figures. Two of them were looming over the poor cook in a threatening manner, too busy to notice Asoka's arrival.

"I-I don't think-"

"Don't say it!" One of the two figures, a man with tanned skin and a scar by his right eye, growled. His hair was spiky and white, reaching his shoulders and then some. He wore a red robe edged with golden thread and a white kilt-like thing, and his eyes were a blazing chocolate. The second figure had insanely wild sandy-blonde, lavender eyes, and was wearing a dark purple cloak and white tunic. His eyes were marked by kohl, outlining his features. Slightly behind them both stood two others. One was another albino male, having long white hair and wearing a light blue tunic, yet his skin was oddly pale and white for someone living in Egypt; though he was not unhealthy. Far from it, actually. His eyes were a dark brown. So brown, in fact, that they could appear black to those just glancing him over. The fourth was female, wearing a simple white linen dress. Her hair was short and brown, falling in curly waves just above her shoulders. Her eyes were also a warm brown, but she looked exasperated. Then Asoka noticed the woman's stomach, which seemed to have rounded a bit. Asoka gasped happily, and the woman turned.

"Inyri! Ryou! Bakura! Marik!" Asoka cried out happily, and the smaller of the two albinos turned to give her a happy smile.

"See if you can talk some sense into these two!" Inyri said, and Ryou nodded in agreement.

"Some sense my ass!" Bakura snapped, growling at the cook before noticing Asoka.

"Please! Bakura, Marik, I need my cook for tomorrow!" Asoka giggled as she closed the distance between her friends.

"T-Thank you, miss!" The cook gasped as he scurried off to the other side of the room.

"Asoka!" Inyri threw her tanned arms around her friend happily, and Asoka smiled as she stepped back afterwards. "How long?" She asked, looking at her friend's stomach. She was obviously with child.

"Oh!" Inyri giggled with a shrug, placing her hand over her stomach. "I think about-"

"Bakura!" Ryou suddenly called out as the thief starting picking at the array of sample foods in front of him. "Those are for Asoka to test out!"

"And me!" Mana said, making her presence known as she stepped into the room with another grin.

"Hello, Mana!" Ryou greeted civilly. After returning to Egypt, he and Bakura had been frequent visitors to the palace. Marik and Inyri, however, hadn't been back until now.

"Yeah, whatever. Hello," Bakura grumbled as he helped himself to a date. Marik just waved his hand and, like Bakura, proceeded to eat stuff off sample platters.

"Hey!" Mana cried out in frustration, snatching a fig out of Bakura's hand. "No! Those aren't for you!"

"Hey!" Bakura protested, until Ryou laid a hand on his arm to calm the angry tomb robber down. Asoka just laughed at them, gently lifting up both a fig and a date before sampling them. After she did that, she licked her lips with a satisfied "Mmm" sound. "I think these will suffice nicely!" As she said that, a thump was heard from down the hallway followed by the bickering of two males:

"We're NOT inviting her!"

"It would add insult to injury! Besides, I found her presence insufferable while she was here…It would be funny to see her face as she scowls in the stands."

"You find most peoples presence insufferable!"

"That includes yours."

"Why you-!" There was a brief crash, as if someone had thrown something at someone else only missed.

"What the hell?" Marik finally said after a moment, before laughing with Bakura. After a moment, Asoka laughed, too.

"I see Seto was practicing his comebacks!" Mana giggled.

"And I see Atem's aim with vases hasn't improved…" Asoka smirked.

"Unless Seto just got better at dodging them," Mana returned.

"That's possible," Asoka concluded with a wicked grin.

"-Your aim has gotten worse, Pharaoh!" The voice of Seto could be heard from down the hallway.

"You try getting stabbed by a bandit. See how well you can throw things!" Another crash was heard.

"Oww! Damnit…" The voice of Seto growled.

"I take back what I said about Seto's dodging skills," Mana grinned.

"I heard that!" The voice of Seto snarled, and suddenly the form of the priest filled the doorway. Asoka looked up as Seto rubbed his head, turning backwards to scowl at something behind him. Asoka laughed as Atem's voice drifted from behind: "See, Seto? I told you that you failed at dodging."

"You wanna see just how well you can dodge, Pharaoh?" Seto snapped back, but Atem just chuckled.

"Don't be a sore loser."

"Sore is right!" Seto huffed, rubbing his head again.

"Have I made my point?"

"Yes!"

"Good."

"Atem!" Asoka chided, but anyone could tell she didn't mean it as she walked over to her fiancé and kissed him once, before leaning against him as he once again encircled his hands around her waist, drawing her into his embrace.

"Save it for the wedding night!" Bakura called out, trying (unsuccessfully) to sneak another fig.

"No!" Mana slapped his hand with a fierce scowl.

"Oh, let him have some!" Ryou pleaded, turning his large brown eyes on Mana.

"Yeah, please?" Bakura added, watching as his koi(1) pulled his cute eyes on Mana.

"Oh…" Mana looked at Asoka, who nodded. "Fine!"

"Yes!" Bakura crowed in victory, snatching the fig back and eating it quickly before both he and Marik tore into the samples.

"Marik!" Inyri laughed.

"It's good food!" Marik protested innocently, eating more.

"Not that much!"

"So?"

"It's unless, Inyri," Ryou said deprecatingly ((AN: dryly)), though his eyes twinkled in laughter. Inyri groaned, but she nodded her head with a faint smirk. "Fine, stuff your face! But don't blame me when you get a stomach ache later!"

"That's the spirit!" Atem smirked from where he had buried his face in Asoka's hair. Releasing her, he walked over towards his two friends and plopped a juicy-looking date into his mouth. "Mmm…" He moaned, casting a smirk over at Asoka who looked jealously at the platter of dates.

"Jealous?" Atem asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"A little. What's it to you?"

"For the record, you taste better than a date."

Asoka's face flushed red, and Bakura and Marik hooted with laughter.

"Shut up!" Asoka grumbled.

"Shut up? Surely you can do better than that, Asoka!" Seto mocked from his position in the doorway.

"Coming from you, that's truly satirical!" Asoka shot back at him.

"Oh, using big words now are we?" Seto looked amused.

"Seto, be nice!" Tamara's soft voice drifted from the hallway.

"Party in the kitchen!" Bakura whooped as he grabbed Ryou, swinging him around in a circle by the waist before placing the shocked-looking albino back onto the ground.

"Hell yeah!" Marik chimed in, causing Inyri to sigh in exasperated amusement.

"You guys are so immature!" Asoka said with an eye roll.

"But you love us anyways," Atem said teasingly.

"So what if I do?"

"That makes it all good!"

"…You go on believing that." Asoka teased right back.

"I'll do that, plus some!"

"Your majesty!" Tamara called again from the hallway.

"Yes?" Atem answered swiftly.

"I think it is time we ended this little… party," the healer continued.

"Aww! Party-killer!" Marik groaned.

"I'm not ending this!" Bakura swooped in towards the plate of dates, intent on eating the rest when Ryou grabbed his arm firmly. "That's enough! You're hyper enough as it is."

"Am I?" Bakura laughed, managing to shovel two more dates into his mouth.

"How-?"

"Thief!" Atem eyed his friend, and Bakura shrugged a little sheepishly.

"Yeah, Thief!" Seto mocked.

"Can it, Priest boy!" Marik threw back.

"I declare this party officially at an end!" Atem's voice rose above the others, as his violet-crimson eyes bore into each of his guests. Bakura shrugged, letting Ryou coax him into putting the whole platter of dates down. Marik simultaneously handed his captive plate of figs over to the cook, who looked almost shell-shocked.

"Those figs and dates are getting more attention than we are!" Inyri and Ryou complained at the same time, before bursting into giggles along with Asoka.

"My thoughts exactly," the midnight-haired girl echoed her friends.

"We'll fix that," Bakura said huskily as he grinned at Ryou, who blushed; scarlet flooding his cheeks.

"Get a room!" Atem laughed.

"We will!" Bakura answered swiftly, making Ryou's blush increase further. Marik and Inyri were too busy laughing to add their two bits in.

"Ugh! You guys have got to be the most-"

"Handsome?"

"Epic?"

"-ANNOYING-" Seto growled, angry at being interrupted by both Marik and Bakura, "-people I've ever met!"

"You have never met people like us!" Bakura said as he and Marik high-fived each other.

"Thank Ra!" Seto snapped.

"Now Seto!" Tamara chided, squeezing into the doorway beside him. "And what did I say? Party's over!"

"It's not over until we say it's over!" Bakura and Marik grinned.

"It's over!" Ryou concluded, glaring at his yami.

"Ryou!" Bakura whined.

"Don't Ryou me!" Ryou shook his right index finger in the tomb robber's face. "Come on! We have to rest up for tomorrow!" He smiled at Asoka and Atem, before grabbing the other albino's hand and dragging him out of the kitchen.

"Come on, Marik. They're right," Inyri said, "though this was fun. We'll have to do it again sometime!" She laughed as she and her husband left the kitchen, too, heading towards the room they had been supplied with.

"Don't count on it!" Seto called after them.

"Seto!" Tamar lightly whacked him over the back of the head. "You've been working too hard. Come, let us retire," the healer said as she turned and moved back down the hallway, pausing to see that Seto would follow her. After the priest sighed and walked over to where she stood, Tamara smiling as the two vanished from view.

"P-pardon me, but your friends are odd…" The frightened cook stammered.

"No argument there," Atem laughed as Asoka smiled. "None whatsoever," the noble added her piece.

"Shall we follow their example and turn in for the night?"

"Yes," Asoka answered, suddenly feeling exhaustion wash across her like a wave.

"Right then!" Asoka suddenly felt herself being lifted off the ground as Atem carried her bridal-style out of the kitchen, down the vast hallways of the palace, and into their room.

"Atem?" Asoka was barely conscious, so tired was she. In fact, she barely registered that neither of the two had bothered to change out of their riding clothes, until she felt the golden clasps around Atem's wrists. Sighing, she allowed Atem to place her unsteadily on the ground, as she quickly slipped out of her white dress and into a simple linen shift, releasing her hair from the braid she had worn all day. She watched as Atem did much the same, until he was wearing nothing but a clean white kilt around his waist, before she collapsed backwards onto the white sheets of the bed. Her azure eyes started to close, and she was almost asleep when she felt Atem's arms wrap around her, and she snuggled into his chest and moaned sleepily.

"Love you," the tired noble whispered before feeling herself slip away, barely catching Atem's words as he said:

"I love you, too."

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Cheyenne: ZOMIGODZ! Longest freaking chapter I think I've written, ESPECIALLY for this story! Over 5,300 words! Well, I hope you all enjoyed it, and again I apologize for the long wait! *Feels ashamed*

PLEASE READ AND REVIEW!

And again, A SUPERMEGAAWESOMELYAWESOMEAPPRECIATIVE THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU REVIEWERS!!!!!!

Thanks =D

(1)Koi – Love.