(sighs) Well, I must apologize for the extreme tardiness in an update. I'm afraid that most of my plot bunnies had vanished for a while. Not to mention my muse got particularly pushy with a different story. I hope that this chapter meets expectations. Trust me, there will be much more added to this story. Thank you for your patience, and I will do my best to make sure that the update is not this long again. (bows) Thank you.

When It's No Longer Cliche

Yami walked into Yuugi's bedroom, noticing how engrossed the teen was in a book as he sat on the edge of their bed. Faintly, he could just make out the title of 'Holy Grail, Holy Blood.' He wondered what that was about. It seemed Yuugi was on a different novel every other day. Enough of this, he thought to himself, walking swiftly up to the teen's side. Yuugi had been reading ever since their discussion on modern day Egypt, and that was well over three hours ago.

Well, after dinner, to be more precise. Yami found that he couldn't quite handle that strange green paste that came along with the sushi, but he liked the ginger strips, and he really liked the soy sauce. All in all, it was a fairly decent meal.

But now it was late enough, and Yami wanted some well needed attention. In other words? Yes. He was being a regular male who was thinking about the removal of clothes. Lots of clothes.

Yami snatched the book away, setting it down on the night stand. "Hey!" Yuugi shouted, but before he could respond a hot mouth was pressing urgently against his own. : I was reading that: he sent, but hummed appreciatively.

: I know that. But you're already almost half way done with it. Leave yourself something to read tomorrow.:

Yuugi's hands glided down Yami's sides, coming to rest on his hips, squeezing just slightly, provocatively. He growled when the spirit's hands kept wandering to sensitive areas, then left quickly to find another. : Don't tease,: he ordered.

Yami chuckled into their kiss, pulling Yuugi closer. : You should learn a bit about the art of seduction, love.:

: Is that so? Who's to say I don't already know about a thing or two? : Yuugi simply loved being one of those people who could simply read about something to learn it. For some strange reason, the local library had a healthy stock of kama sutra books, and there was always a few sneaking some glances every now and again. Yuugi claimed that it was for the general knowledge. After all, knowledge was power, why be biased against some simply because of the contents?

Yami's clothes were ripped from him, and he suddenly felt himself pinned to the bed. Yuugi was smirking above him. :You asked for it this time, love.:

It was the longest, greatest night the old spirit could ever remember.

xXx

Yami rolled over onto his side, blinking his eyes open groggily as sunlight poured in through the window. A bright red light was viciously glaring at him from the clock on the night stand. The numbers read eight thirty.

He yawned, stretched, and realized the bed was empty. Frowning in thought, he didn't have much time to dwell on the curiosity of where his lover had gone when Yuugi walked into the bedroom, fully clothed and his hair damp from a shower. "Morning," the teen spoke, sitting down in the desk chair and beginning to tie his shoes. "You should get ready to go, our plane leaves tonight. We have a lot to get ready before we can leave"

"Hm..hm.." Stretching his muscles, the spirit sat up, the blankets falling around his naked form. "Now do tell, my sweet innocent, just where you learned everything you did last night?"

Yuugi looked up at him and smirked. "Everything I did has been documented and proven to work. I only look up quality knowledge."

"Is that so?"

Yuugi looked up at him and smiled, placing his foot back on the floor after he'd finished tying the laces. "By the way," he spoke up, "I found something that might interest you. I hope you like it." He grabbed a book off the desk, got up and walked over to the bed. He kissed Yami on the temple as he handed him the book, then walked back over to the closet.

Yami looked at the new item in his hand as Yuugi pulled out a suitcase from the closet and placed it on the bed, starting to pack it with books. He read the title; Chemistry, a complete guide.

Chemistry? He opened up the book, looking at the words and numbers written across the pages. Combustion Reaction, causes and effects. C + O2 - CO2 + H2O

He flipped the page. Compound types: Halocarbon, Alcohol, Ether, Aldehyde, Ketone, Caroboxylic acid, Ester, and Amine. Another page. Trans-2-pentene. Functional groups- Chemically reactive part of molecule.

"Try not to drool too much," Yuugi's voice reached his ears, but only just barely. This was fascinating. The air reacted with iron? Is that why all of those spears from the old kingdom kept rusting?

He couldn't wait to read more.

"If you're good," Yuugi stated, stuffing a large amount of socks into his suitcase, "you might get a chemistry set for Christmas."

Yami smirked keenly at him. "Have I told you I love you lately?"

Yuugi chuckled, closing his now enormous suitcase. "Only about ten times a day."

Yami put the book down sadly, wishing he could read more, and got up to get ready. "And what, pray-tell, is Christmas?"

Yuugi's smile broadened. "It's something you'll have to see to understand fully. But, from what I've heard, we'll be spending it in Kentucky this year with some friends of Ojii-san's that own a horse ranch."

"Horses?"

Yuugi nodded wistfully. "I've always loved horses, but rarely ever had the chance to ride them. You'll also get your first taste of snow in Kentucky, too."

"Snow?"

x X x

Yuugi buckled his seat belt on the plane, sighing deeply as he settled in for the flight. He was excited for their pit stop, which Sugoroku had designated as Athens in their flight plans, so that he could show Yuugi the Acropolis and the temple of Athena-Nike. He could hardly wait.

He didn't jump this time when Yami materialized next to him in the empty seat. He'd gotten very used to it by now. Yuugi was sitting in the middle, Sugoroku an isle seat, and Yami had the window. They didn't bother getting a ticket for him, since all he had to do was hide in the puzzle until once they boarded, and it was with a stroke of luck that the seat next to Yuugi was open. :Hey: he greeted mentally.

Yami smiled at him. :Hey. Now, this is the airplane, is it:

:Yes.:

:Just what does it do:

:It flies through the air at incredible speeds to get us to where we want to go in a matter of hours, rather than days, weeks, or even months.:

Yami didn't look like he quite wanted to believe him, but he knew that he was left with little choice.

"Oh, Yami, hello. When did you get there?"

Yuugi and Yami looked over at Sugoroku, who had a slightly spooked appearance on his face. "Just a moment ago, Ojii-san."

"Ah...okay."

Yuugi mentally chuckled, the elder still not used to a solid figure appearing out of seemingly no-where. :He'll get used to it eventually.:

:I suppose that he'll have to.:

Yuugi yawned a bit, stretched his muscles slightly, then dug out a book from his carry-on bag. Unfortunately, their flight time was extremely late-hence the term 'red eye flight.' A plane trip at one in the morning tended to leave one's eyes red and sleepy. He couldn't help but notice, however, when Yami pouted a little next to him. The old bloke isn't sleepy, he realized to himself. Drat! He recharged when he was in the puzzle! Ugh...I was hoping to fall asleep reading this within the next half hour or so. He's going to be bored stiff. He sighed softly, hardly noticeable. Some things were worth sacrificing, though. He could catch up on his sleep later. After all, he'd have the rest of the school year to sleep in every morning if he wanted to, do his work at his own speed, and immerse himself in Egyptian and Arabic studies. He could stay up this one night. He put his book away, and pulled out a deck of playing cards. "Say, Yami, have you ever heard of a game called 'Go Fish?'"

The spirit turned his head to the side curiously. "No. What's it about?"

Yuugi smiled, pulling out the cards and shuffling them. "It's nothing special, but it at least passes the time..."

xXx

"Yami! Come and look at this!" Yuugi exclaimed excitedly, running towards a fallen pillar on the ground. The spirit walked up behind him, looking at the ruins that was the Acropolis of Athens. "Do you see this," Yuugi asked happily, running his fingers through the grooves on the aged, decrepit column. "This is called 'fluted.' The ancient Greeks did this because of the fact that they had to put these columns up in pieces. Those lines that went horizontally across the columns were ugly and made them look short, so they put these vertical grooves on them, and it made them look taller, and it hid those unsightly horizontal lines."

"Hm...that's a good idea," he stated, thinking back to the columns that he barely remembered from his own time.

"These columns are Ionic," Yuugi stated. "The oldest form of columns are Doric, and those are completely unadorned, and do not have the ridges on them." Yuugi smiled, picking up a very small rock that fit in the palm of his hand. "Do you think they'll mind if I take a piece of memorabilia with me?"

Yami chuckled. "I don't think they'll miss it."

Yuugi smiled, stuffing the rock in his pocket. "Oh!" He cried, grabbing Yami's hand and running of to another direction. "You have to see the Temple of Athena-Nike! It's so cool! The columns were actually carved into people! Athena, also spelled A-t-h-e-n-e is older text books, was the Goddess of Wisdom, and her symbol was the owl. She was also often associated with Nike, who was the Goddess of Victory. Supposedly, there was an extremely large statue of Athena holding a very small Nike statue in her hand in the large temple."

Yami laughed as Yuugi went on and on about the ancient Greeks. "Yuugi, if you're having fun here, what are you going to do when we finally get to Cairo?"

Yuugi laughed like crazy. "I'll die, for I'll finally have reached paradise!"

Yami laughed along behind him. The teenager became so excited about ancient history, he acted quite like a young child who had just entered a candy shop. It was one of the only times the old spirit saw Yuugi actually let his mask that he held up in society fall. "As long as you're happy, aibou. As long as you're happy."

They did not stay for too much longer. The lag time between flights was only a few hours. After a quick lunch, they hurriedly made their way back to the airport. They'd be landing at Cairo International Airport around three in the morning. Afterwards, they planned on sleeping the rest of the day. Despite all of the flying, though, Yuugi felt more energetic than he could ever remember. He could hardly wait to get to Egypt.

Yami, however, was a little more apprehensive. He wasn't exactly sure what to expect when he got there. Granted, Yuugi would be with him the whole time, and he honestly didn't know if he could handle the shock of five thousand years gone by if the teenager wasn't by his side. However, he was still nervous. The empire is gone. Egypt was sacked by the Romans, who were sacked by the French, who were sacked by the British, who were then sacked by the Americans. Then there were conventions to put everything right, and somehow the middle east got left out of all of those treaties. What kind of shape would the ruins be in now? How much had been preserved?

It didn't matter much, he guessed. There was nothing he could do about it now. The only thing he was worried about was making sure there weren't any cursed tombs that were unearthed. There were in fact very few that had ever been truly cursed, and those bad been hidden in such remote places, it was hoped that no one would ever be subjected to finding them.

The flight had landed smoothly. So smoothly, in fact, that Sugoroku did not wake up at first. His head had nodded off as he drifted into sleep, quietly snoring for the majority of the flight. Yuugi's eyes were red and sleepy. Yami was probably the most alert of all of them, and therefore stayed solid when they walked out and headed to the carousel where their luggage was waiting for them.

"I called ahead," Sugoroku stated, yawning. "There's a cab waiting for us outside. Luckily, we don't have to battle traffic too terribly much on Al-Orouba St, because our hotel is located right along there."

"Which one are we staying at?" Yuugi asked, rubbing sleep from his eyes.

"Le Meridian Heliopolis," he replied.

Yuugi whistled. "Really? That'll be nice. Better than the Pharaoh Egypt."

"How do you know of the hotels here?" his grandfather asked him curiously.

"It's a little thing called the internet, Ojii-chan. They have previews of the rooms and everything."

The old man simply shook his head. "You kids these days and technology. What ever happened to the good old fashioned ways? Hm?"

Yuugi laughed. "They became crude and outdated."

They walked out of the airport. The night air greeted Yuugi's sense of smell, a fresh new scent in the air he'd never smelled before. It filled him with a slightly exuberance, but it was dimmed due to his wearied state. He yawned, and felt strong arms wrap around his waist. He looked up, seeing Yami give him a slightly sleepy grin. He hardly remembered entering their cab. Somewhere in the depths of his mind, now clouded with cobwebs, Yami seemed shocked at the traffic at three thirty in the morning, but other than that he just knew his grandfather had checked them into their hotel room and they had gone off to bed.

xxx

Yami woke up, Yuugi curled up beside him. To him, the hotel seemed a bit superficial in its appearance, but it would certainly work for the time being. There was one plus that he vaguely noticed as he lay still on the bed - there was breakfast waiting for them. Room service is always a plus. Yami blinked a little as he looked around. The room he and Yuugi were in was closed off. It seemed they had a suite with multiple rooms. That was certainly nice. He did have a fondness for his privacy. He and Yuugi would not be disturbed at night, and it went the same for Sugoroku.

He rubbed his hand up and down Yuugi's arm. The teenager stirred slightly, and he could feel as Yuugi's muscles stretched with waking. The teenager rolled over, blinked blearily, then smiled up at him. "Good morning," he yawned.

Yami looked at the clock that was sitting on the bedside table. "The clock says it's twelve. Would that still be considered morning?"

Yuugi chuckled, pulling himself up. "Nope. It's noon." He got off the bed and flung the curtains open. Sunlight immediately poured through. "Wow," Yuugi commented. "We're on the eighth floor. How about that."

"Is that a bad thing," Yami asked him.

Yuugi shook his head. "No, I in fact prefer being up. I hate ground level." He sat down, sampling some of the fresh fruit that was on the breakfast tray. "I wonder if Ojii-chan already headed off to Giza this morning. I wouldn't be surprised. Sometimes I wonder if that man ever sleeps." He chuckled. "First stop this morning, AUC."

"AUC," Yami asked him.

"American University of Cairo," Yuugi elaborated. "Afterwards, we're heading to the museums around town. We'll see the Giza plateau towards the evening. Tomorrow, I want to coerce Grandpa to let me go to the delta excavations tomorrow."

Yami yawned loudly. "Sounds like a busy day. And when are you going to start on your homework?"

Yuugi frowned. "Spoil sport."

Yami laughed.