Target: Destiny

Chapter One

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A/N: Hello, one and all. Thanks so much for giving this fic a shot. This is the sequel to Target: You. If you have not read that story, I highly suggest you do. Otherwise, there will be some mentionings in this story which will not make any sense to you. Thanks!

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"Bakura!" Anzu's frustrated yell resounded through the corridors of the palace causing servants to turn toward the origin and stare in wonder.

From his place in his office, the startled king's thrown dagger plunged into the couch five feet away from the intended target. He turned his head toward the door. "What the hell was that about?" he wondered aloud. Malik set down his glass of brandy.

"She sounded upset," he offered. Bakura's eyes went wide with apprehension.

"Oh, God. It's early, it's early!" With a gasp, he bolted from the room.

Malik slapped his forehead. There was no way it could be this early. Calmly, he stood from his chair and exited the office in pursuit of his cousin. Soon enough, he had only to follow the yelling to know where the king and queen were. Servants paused in their daily duties, whispering to one another and pointing in the direction of the royal chambers. Malik halted in the doorframe of the royal main sitting room. Anzu's hands were on her hips, an angry gleam in her eyes.

"So, it's not early?" Bakura asked in relief. Anzu seemed confused for a moment.

"What?" She waved him off. "Anyway, why did you give such a dangerous toy to him?"

Bakura glanced down at the small boy sitting on the couch armrest, his bleeding foot held up by a young girl. His large, blue eyes were rimmed in red as proof of crying, and were wide with more unshed tears. Bakura guiltily looked back at his wife. "The other boys had slingshots, and he wanted one, too."

Anzu sighed agitatedly. "He's too young for a slingshot."

Bakura rolled his eyes. "This coming from someone who pointed guns at everything." Malik snorted quietly in amusement from his place in the doorway.

"I was a teenager, not three!" Anzu shot back. "Get me his first aid kit from the bathroom."

"Let his nurse patch him up," Bakura suggested, trying to soothe his aggravated wife. Anzu's eyes narrowed, and she dug her fists deeper into her hips.

Slowly, she growled out, "Get your son's first aid kit or you'll regret it."

Bakura's brows furrowed down, and he locked himself in a glaring match with his wife. Malik sighed; they were at it again. There was simply no living with them lately. He could not see himself ever getting married. With a sigh, he strode over to the bathroom, opening one of the ebony wood cabinets. Judging between a pink first aid kit and a blue one, he chose the latter. He handed it to Anzu wordlessly, shaking his head in disapproval at his cousin.

"Thank you, Malik. You're such a dear compared to your prideful cousin," Anzu said, snapping out the last few words. Malik smirked. Anzu adored him now, but neither would ever forget how she had wanted to kill him those long eight years ago.

"You're impossible to be around in your state. I swear if you ever get pregnant again, I'm going into hiding!" Bakura exclaimed. Anzu made a sound of disgust.

"Well, thanks so much! And I suppose I just jumped on myself and got pregnant?" she retorted hotly. Bakura threw his arms up in angry surrender. He knew it was useless to argue with his wife. She had insane cravings and a wild attitude. The first he could deal with; dragging himself into the palace kitchens at three in the morning to prepare a steak smothered in strawberry sauce was something he could handle. However, trying to avoid Anzu's mood swings was a challenge, and they were only becoming more frequent as she neared her term-she still had two months to go.

"Daddy, take me down to the courtyard," the young girl requested, puckering out her lower lip in a well-practiced manner. Bakura cringed. It did not matter what his daughter requested; if she puckered out that damned lip, he would have to say yes. She wasn't even eight yet and she already had the begging look perfected. He grimaced when he thought about how much practice she would have by the age she would start wanting to date. He ruffled his son's ivory locks, displaying them in an even more wild manner than usual.

"Okay, Ryoko," he conceded, following the tiny brunette and Malik out the door.

Anzu exhaled a breath and shook her head. She went to work patching up her son's cut foot, setting aside the offending slingshot. A three-year-old was simply too young to know how to properly shoot a slingshot. She could smack Bakura. "Baku, hold still, sweetie," she said, wrapping his foot with a bandage after cleaning it out. The little boy squirmed on the seat, trying to tug his foot free of the stinging medication. "Prince Bakura Katsuya the Fifteenth!" Anzu started in a threatening tone. The child shrank back and held his foot perfectly still. Anytime his mother used his full name, he knew she was serious.

Anzu finished wrapping her son's foot, helping him to stand tenderly on it. She led him back out to the play yard with his nurse, then left to check on her other child. She sighed tiredly and patted her round belly. The jerk wouldn't need to worry about her getting pregnant again. Three children was plenty.

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"And we need more tea!" Ryoko demanded, holding her playset teacup out to her side. The three other girls sitting at the small table nodded eagerly and held their own teacups out. A little boy ran up to them and pretended to pour tea into their cups with the toy teapot.

"Say 'thank you,' Ryoko," Anzu chastised. The three other girls bobbed a curtsy. Ryoko merely raised a brow.

"But that's his job!" she insisted.

Anzu frowned and was about to scold her daughter further, but the boy nodded in agreement. "Yes, Queen Anzu! I wanted to!" he piped up.

"Well, that was very generous of you, but Ryoko still needs to say 'please' and 'thank you' or I'll have her father beat her little butt," Anzu replied, giving her daughter a stern look. The girl pouted and crossed her arms.

"Daddy wouldn't beat my butt!" Ryoko told her, appalled at the mere suggestion.

Anzu sighed. "No, you're probably right. But I will!"

Ryoko's eyes widened. "Would you really, mom?" she whispered. Anzu laughed and shrugged.

"I'll think about it and get back to you."

"Think about what?" Bakura asked, walking up to them and kissing his wife softly on the lips, seemingly have forgotten about their minor spat a little while earlier.

"The many ways to make you miserable," she jested, grinning mischievously. He nodded solemnly and lifted his waiting daughter up onto his hip.

"You're so good at that," he told Anzu. He looked down at Ryoko. "You're getting too big for this!"

The seven-year-old gasped. "Are you saying I'm fat!"

He lifted a brow and glanced at Anzu. He mouthed 'fat?' He looked back at his daughter in wonderment. "Where do you learn these things?"

The group of children and the king and queen were startled as a white blur ran past them, screaming the entire time. Anzu tilted her head in confusion. "Was that-"

"Baku, come back!" two young girls yelled as they chased after the three-year-old whose foot seemed to be much better. Anzu shook her head.

"Like father like son," she grumbled to herself. Bakura shrugged with a prideful grin.

"He can't help his good looks, even at that age," the king replied.

"Hey, daddy, can we have more dagger practice today?" Ryoko begged with her lower lip puckered out, as usual.

"Of course," he agreed quickly. He set her down on her feet and turned to his wife. "Anzu, I came to ask if you wanted to attend the BA meeting later today. All of the Bakurian Alliance planets will be represented on the tele-comm."

Anzu massaged her protruding belly. "We'll see how I feel."

He offered his arm. "Come and I'll take you back for your nap." She accepted the support and leaned slightly on him. As they turned away to head back into the palace, a puff of black smoke appeared, and a second later, the Earth prince stood before them. Bakura jumped back in alarm.

"Shi...iuuYuugi!" he corrected his curse, remembering the children. "What the devil are you doing popping in out of nowhere?" he demanded. Yuugi merely brushed past him and straight to Anzu. He took his former fiancee's hands in his.

"Anzu, how I've missed you these past few months! You look simply beautiful, as always," he told her, gracing the top of each hand with a kiss. She waved him off.

"Oh, you're just being nice," she responded with a flattered smile. A vein twitched in Bakura's forehead.

"Yes, he is," he agreed. Anzu glared at him.

"Don't agree, you buffoon!" she snapped. Yuugi tsked at Bakura disapprovingly. The king bared his teeth at the prince.

"What I meant was that he's only saying that because he's a bloody sleeze!"

Anzu gasped. "Bakura!" she hissed, sending an apologetic smile to her old friend. Yuugi lifted a brow at Bakura and curled his upper lip.

"So, Yuugi, how are you enjoying princedom?" Bakura asked, clearly trying to bait the thirty-one-year-old. The wild-haired Earthling merely smirked.

"I am enjoying it immensely. No responsibilities, you know, so I can spend as much time with whoever I want."

Anzu glanced between her husband and former fiancee uneasily. Whenever they were within speaking range of each other, an argument was inevitable. She cleared her throat. "Yuugi, how did you get here?"

"We have developed the same technique of instantaneous transportation from planet-to-planet that the Ascenians have, only ours is done with a machine, obviously," Yuugi boasted. He looked deeply into the queen's eyes. "Are you impressed?"

"Yes!" Anzu laughed, gently tugging her hands from Yuugi's grip.

"Oh, brother," Bakura muttered, frowning and looking away.

"So, Anzu," Yuugi began though he started intently at Bakura, "I can visit you whenever I want! And I'll be staying here for the meeting later."

Bakura glared at him and seemed ready to protest until Anzu stepped in. She gripped his forearm tightly. "Bakura, dear, my nap?"

He grinned victoriously at Yuugi. "Excuse us, Yuugi. My wife needs to rest."

The prince frowned at Bakura before nodding sweetly at Anzu. "Rest well," he hoped, kissing her cheek one last time. She smiled and dragged Bakura off before he let loose his temper on the Earthling prince.

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"And so I told all of these women, 'Sorry, ladies, but I can only handle ten of you at a time. You'll have to take turns,'" Malik related to Ryoko. Her eyes were wide, and she looked at him with awe.

"All of those women wanted to play with your sword?" she asked in wonder. Malik nodded confidently and took a sip of his brandy. Ryoko pursed her lips together, and she asked innocently, "Can I play with it, too, Uncle Malik?"

The blond spewed brandy all over the lemon-hued grass. He coughed and choked up the remaining liquid. Warily, he looked down at the girl. "Ah, Princess, I think you're a bit too young to be playing with... ahem, swords."

She made a sound of protest and puckered out her lower lip. "But daddy lets me throw his dagger all the time!"

Malik leaned back in apprehension before chuckling nervously. He thanked the higher power at work for keeping Ryoko from understanding what he was talking about.

"Are you filling her ears with filth again, Lord Malik?" a sensual voice asked as the woman stood behind Malik with her arms crossed over her generous bosom. He glanced up and behind him.

"Of course not. We were entirely clean until you showed up, Careen," he told her with a smirk. She rolled her eyes. Holding a hand out to Ryoko, she beckoned the girl to her.

"Come with me, Princess Ryoko, and we can go find your brother," Careen said. Ryoko hopped up and skipped over to the voluptuous blonde.

"I think he's hiding from girls again," the seven-year-old suggested, wrinkling her nose in disapproval. Careen laughed lightly.

"Well, let's go rescue him then. Good day, Lord Malik," she said, directing the man a haughty smile.

"It will be once you leave," he replied with a wolfish grin. She stuck her tongue out at him before toting Ryoko off. He watched the two go before standing up to go in search of a swordsplay partner.

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"Ahh... oh, Bakura!" Anzu screamed, gripping the bedsheet tightly on her hands and knees. Bakura groaned from behind her.

After one last thrust, the king and queen flopped down on their backs, Anzu resting a hand on her swollen abdomen. She glanced over at him exhaustedly.

"I'm supposed to be resting," she reminded him with half-hearted annoyance. He smirked at her, a gleam in his eye.

"So, rest then. Who's stopping you?"

She made a sound of exasperation. "You were!" She laughed and pushed him over onto the other side of the bed. She turned over onto her side carefully and closed her eyes. "Wake me up before the meeting tonight," she told him.

Bakura mumbled an 'okay' before stretching and standing from the bed. Anzu listened to him throw his clothes on and leave the room before falling asleep.

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The first chapter, to let you all know where everyone stands in life. XD This story will not be as long as Target: You, thus the plot should start developing in the next chapter. See you then!