Pairing: Malik/Ryou Angstshipping I suppose they call it.
Rating: (PG) R for later chapters and language.
Disclaimer: I don't own Yugioh or it's characters, and I don't own the ideas behind stuff taken from movies either.
A/N: Just before you read this, it is YAOI and certainly NOT A MARY-SUE! You know…just in case someone may get that idea. Characters I made up will play minor roles but nothing that would a Mary-Sue. Honest! Characters I made up will play minor roles but nothing that would be a Mary-Sue. Honest!
Reviews would be greatly appreciated!
They all stared in wonder, spellbound and captivated by his every gesture. Their eyes were glittery and full of desire for the man that paced from one side of the room to another as he spoke of ancient worlds and civilizations with much charisma and passion and telling his favorite stories of the Gods he'd heard from his father as a boy.
And it was why the students loved his lectures so much.
His classes were fascinating as were his findings and research and never found themselves bored for a moment. But that was one reason why the students all rushed to sign up for his lectures when it came to that time of the year at the university, and the young Professor always finds himself with more students than his mentality can handle.
He was also an attractive man, with long pale hair and fair skin, and the slightest foreign accent within his words, always making some audience at the university swoon and sigh as he walks by with a charming smile. And as much as they would try to work their way into the Professor's heart, he was a bachelor with a thirst for knowledge of the unknown, and never booked dates into his schedule.
But as good of a teacher he was, he was also very naïve, often wondered why they all stared at him with such dreamy expressions on their faces. What was perhaps even more frightening as he glanced around the lecture hall, was that he was getting the same expressions of the girls from some of his male student as well.
It wasn't until he turned his gaze elsewhere and caught sight of the clock that he announced the end of the class and their lessons for the next time they met. He couldn't be any more thankful.
"Remember to read chapters on the Mayan civilizations, which happen to be my field of expertise!" he yelled out with a light bounce in his step over the rustling of the students.
As the students filed out of the classroom (leaving more presents on his desk for him as usual) one colleague of his with vibrantly colored hair and a bright smile walked inside and towards him. He was the other infamous archaeologist on campus and the two made quite a team.
"Your lecture was amazing as always, Ryou."
The teacher smiled back while scratching his head bashfully. "Yugi… hi."
The shorter man then eyed the gifts on his desks and laughed to himself. "More presents?"
Ryou laughed along with him. "I'm afraid so. This has to stop."
"Oh? But the students love you…"
"It's because they know I'm single." said Ryou as he began packing up his books and lecture notes with a sigh.
"Well take the hint and get acquainted with someone already if you're so annoyed with that." said Yugi playfully but Ryou only shook his head.
"When can I ever have time for romance when I'm usually out of town?"
Then it was Yugi's turn to sigh. "Ryou, I think you spend way too much time in those Mayan temples." Ryou rolled his eyes and knew where this was going. But he was willing to play along as always.
"They beat your Egyptians pyramids anytime." Yugi shrugged while going along with his opinion.
"Touché. The desert heat really sucks there. No really though, you think you can't find the time? Mr. CEO. of KaibaCorp. is now getting married, and I know Kaiba doesn't just make time for anything."
Ryou scrunched up his nose. "That ice block? Who would marry him?" he snickered unintentionally and Yugi looked distant for a moment. When Ryou quieted down, his gaze was back at his companion again with an apologetic expression. "I got an invitation too, I'm so sorry, Yugi. I bet you still love her."
Yugi shook his head with a small smile. "It doesn't matter anymore, I'm not here about Kaiba's wedding anyway. Want to have lunch with me later? There's something I would like to discuss with you." Ryou paused for a moment, then nodded his head.
It was the end of the semester, and the pale haired professor found himself and a two others that would help on him on Yugi's quest, standing in front of the gate to their flight that would be taking them to Egypt.
He stared at his ticket for long, the gesture reminding him of his dueling days where he used to stare at his cards to decide the next strategy. The feeling was nostalgic. Even the whole trip to Egypt felt like it was going to bring him back to his past somehow, forming a very unsettling weight on his heart.
But nevertheless, as his flight number was called, he nodded his head towards the two behind him, took a deep breath and exhaled. Taking a trip down memory lane was probably going to give him several panic attacks.
"It's my grandfather…I've got the excavation at the end of the semester but I can't just leave him like that. He's very ill and he needs me, but I also cannot let the funding of the excavation go to waste."
Cairo.
Egypt's notorious capital and he already began feeling the desert's fury glaring at him from beyond the city. The marketplace was bustling with people running about their everyday routines and among them were some groups of tourists laughing merrily together while taking pictures and buying souvenirs, just having plain fun as some waited for the start of their tours under the bright sun.
The bright…scorching…sun.
Ryou groaned to himself and slid his shades back on.
"I know you don't do Ancient Egypt, Ryou, but I was wondering… if just for this one time, you can lead the excavation there for me while I take care of my grandfather."
He craned his head against the window of the taxi, trying to will his stomach to calm down from the obnoxious cab ride, he could almost swear that the taxi cab driver was an ex-F1 racer or something. He had already been nauseous from the plane ride before, a curse he never seems to over come since his career required a lot of traveling. But the group with him in the car seemed to be having a great time, getting quite a kick out of the driver's Arabic obscenities.
He sighed to himself inwardly, quite amazed at how cranky he felt all of the sudden. What was it about Egypt that he disliked so much? Traveling to other worlds was usually exciting for him, even with the nausea and all. But he figured, after a good shower and sleeping off the jet-lag, Egypt would probably open up to him again.
Ryou's group was given one day to recuperate, and were scheduled to head out to tackle the excavation sights the next day to set up their camp. The professor was surprised at the rest of his group as he met the more additions to his team in the lobby.
They were quite different from the ones he came to personally know that had always accompanied him on his field research. This, however, was Yugi's team, as they seem to be familiar with getting together again, Ryou felt oddly out of place. But meeting new people wasn't all that bad to him, just as long as they got along great.
The playful men among the group dealt with all the technical equipment and were out to film a documentary of Yugi's work. The younger ones were two students that were becoming Egyptologists and had accompanied Ryou on the trip. One medical doctor that was tall and wore clothing like a vintage mortician of the wild west, showed only one fixed facial expression that sent chills down Ryou's back. He was there to research microbes that inhabit the tombs of mummies. Three more men were a historian and some geographers he remembered from the night before, were running around whipping each other with the hotel towels across the hall on Ryou's floor.
Yugi's team. Quite a colorful bunch.
"Professor!" they called out and waved across the lobby where they were seated at a bar. Ryou frowned at them, looked at their drinks then his own which was just plain black coffee.
"You guys are drinking? Its too early for that!" he scolded them and one burly man downed the remains of his scotch and eyed Ryou up and down.
"Oi…we're going to be spending our nights in the desert without this shit, we're just fueling up before the camping trip." and he threw Ryou a wink, which made him sigh out loud in disgust.
"I can't believe this. Can one person at least stay sober!" he yelled then was startled out of his wits when one of them slapped his rear end.
"Oh come on teach, lighten up. The desert is no fun place."
"Yeah and if we're going to get stuck with you out there with no girls, we need to be drunk." said another and they all laughed together except for Ryou. He let out a long and frustrated sigh and faced the doctor who was also drinking in an eerie silence.
"Et tu doctor? Et tu?" asked Ryou which then got a solemn expression in reply. The doctor craned his neck back to down another shot of vodka, giving Ryou a sweat drop.
"Man…"
A deep throaty laugh was then heard behind them from across the hall. "Well, well, well. Look what we have here…" someone sneered, obviously directing the comment towards the group. Ryou turned around to look behind him, and noticed that none of the guys with him seemed to care. Instead, they just sipped at their drinks in silence. Knowing all too well who that voice had belonged to.
"If it isn't the circus freaks, how have you boys been?" said a man who was slightly middle aged and immaculately clean in the center of a big crowd of his own, heading their way. One man from Ryou's side had snickered at the newcomer's approach.
"What a snake…don't listen to a thing he tells you, teach."
The man's clothing was neat and looked quite expensive for field research, consisting of a polo shirt and a sweater tied around his shoulders with freshly pressed khaki pants and fancy brown shoes. He approached Ryou and stood just inches away from him, already intimidating the pale haired professor by violating his personal space.
Lean blue eyes then swept over him briefly and the man smiled intriguingly. "Why hello, haven't seen you around before." He said with a mellow tone of voice that sounded purely western, making Ryou cringe inwardly. "Where's my old friend Yugi?"
"Go away Crawford!"
"Shaddup will ya, the man's talking here." someone among the opposing group had yelled.
"I'm taking his place, he couldn't make it." said Ryou, calmly. Judging by his group's reaction against the man, he felt that he wasn't going to like him either.
But the man only pressed his lips tight as he chuckled while throwing a glance towards his own group. "I see. What a shame." his group laughed along with him, and then he turned back towards Ryou. "So…are you just another child to take on Egypt's greatest mysteries?"
Ryou's eyes had widened just a bit. "Child? Me?" he then smiled smugly. "Perhaps I should better introduce myself then. I, am Bakura. Ryou Bakura, and Yugi is my partner."
The man's amused smile and eyes only widened. "Bakura? As in, the son of the great Bakura?" Ryou nodded once and the man chuckled again. "It's hard to believe! you're father was an excellent archaeologist, very bold and fearless. I hope to surpass his work with my discoveries soon. It'll be my…greatest, pleasure to be working with you, Ryou."
The man's silky voice came slow and sumptuous and Ryou watched as he extended out a well manicured hand towards him for a handshake. But Ryou refused it and crossed his arms over his chest instead, his eyes narrowing dangerously. "I work alone." a couple of whistles and chuckles were soon heard from Ryou's team. "My father will remain a legend among archaeologists, I'll see to it that he will." He said, his voice obviously showing disgust towards the man he barely knew.
The other man wasn't too impressed, and really hated it when someone made a fool out of him. Especially when it was from some youngster as Ryou. "Please, I would like to see you try." he then surprised Ryou by grabbing his chin with his clammy fingers firmly, jerking his head back, and the sound of bar stools scrapping the floor was heard as both groups readied themselves to launch at each other's throats.
The man's angry face then came so close to Ryou's that he felt his hot breath on his neck, making Ryou want to crawl out of his skin from repulse. His blue eyes now holding a mix of fury and amusement to them. "A delicate flower like you belongs between my sheets, you won't last a day out in the desert." he spat into Ryou's ear. His men, who seemed just as neatly pampered, nodded their satisfaction to his remark, then roughly released Ryou's chin and backed away with a grin towards his team.
Ryou glared daggers while rubbing his lower jaw at the man's retreating form. The man known as Crawford then stops again to look over his shoulder one last time at Ryou.
"Alright then Bakura…" he sneers with a devious smile playing on his lips. "Let's see you live up to your father's name." then disappeared with his group out the doors of the hotel.
"What a moron…"
"Who the hell was that?"
"James Crawford. An Ivy League prick whose been pestering us and Yugi for a long time." someone had said and Ryou's gaze went back to the said group member.
"What the hell is his problem?"
The man shrugged and slammed his fist down annoyingly. "He's just jealous. Been at this shit for years and hadn't come up with anything. He knows your father and Yugi's grandfather and just wants to beat them both. But he was never lucky with his finds."
"Yeah, and whatever it is he does find is usually someone else's credit. He's a dirty little thief!"
"I wonder what he's here for this time." Someone else had asked and Ryou's brown eyes went back towards the entrance to the hotel in which the blonde middle-aged man had disappeared through.
They eventually met up with more researchers of all kinds from all over the world, and among them, which Ryou was too surprised to see, was Pegasus as well. In which one look at Ryou sent the man screaming and running away horrifically, making Ryou's team blink in confusion, and the young professor sigh out loud with a sweat drop.
One cheery brunette however, with handsome green eyes dressed in cargo shorts and a t-shirt came bouncing towards the men in Ryou's team. Waving and calling out to them merrily which the men just as equally returned.
"Wow, how are you guys? Where's Yugi! We miss him!"
Ryou frowned. The short one was really popular here.
"He's not with us this time, but Bakura here is filling in for him." Ryou waved sheepishly, and green eyes blinked for a moment then broke out into a bright smile, extending his hand out to Ryou which he took hesitantly.
"You're not an Ivy Leaguer too are you?" asked Ryou with a small voice, and those green eyes blinked dumbly again, then began laughing out loud with the rest of Ryou's gang.
"I take it you ran into Crawford? Is he here?"
"Yeah… that monster." then someone put a hand on Ryou's back. "Don't worry Professor, he's nothing like Crawford. Darik here is the best!"
"Craziest person I know, can't wait until our break huh Darik!"
"Yeah! We should hit those clubs again."
"Man the belly dancers here are sweet!" Ryou rolled his eyes when someone had speared his ribs playfully.
"Can't wait…" muttered Ryou.
"Alright guys….gotta catch my ride. We should meet up again!"
"Hell yeah…hey Darik, where you headed?"
"Giza! I have to go see my sweetheart, we're going to be here for a whole month!" then those green eyes were on Ryou again and the brunette slowly approached him, careful to keep a good distance between the two of them. "Hey man, it was nice meeting you. Any friend of Yugi's is a friend of ours, so anything you might need, anything at all…here's my cell number. Don't hesitate to call." Darik smiled, and Ryou shook his hand again with an assured smile back and watched him leave.
"Oh I think its nice to find some romance among scientists, we're always so busy." said Ryou and his partner shook his head.
"Not this guy…" Ryou blinked, then turned back to ask why that was. "Why? Who's his sweetheart then?"
The man smiled wryly and replied. "The Sphinx."
Ryou struggled to read the map Yugi had given him as his long locks whipped around his face from the wind. His group had been split into two and took separate Jeeps and drove out to find the promised sites with the geographers leading the way.
"We should be getting there soon!" one of them had yelled and Ryou nodded his head, being quite thankful for the end of the bumpy ride. He carefully handed over the map to the geographer and with his free hands, fanned out his hair in the desert winds then gathered it together to tie it up. Already feeling it clinging to his neck from the sweat.
A neigh of a horse soon caught his ears through the roaring engines of the Jeeps, and his eyes caught a glimpse of white material hovering in the winds atop a black horse, then vanished just as quickly as the image had appeared.
Ryou slid off shades for a better look around. But neither the mysterious person nor the black horse were seen again.
"What's wrong?" asked the geographer and Ryou looked back at him once, then out the sand dunes again.
"Nothing…I thought I saw something…" or someone he thought to himself. But when he looked back at the man again he was smiling at Ryou.
"Forget it, it's the desert after all. Out here, you'll start to see a lot of things."
"More like hallucinations from heat exhaustion. Jack over there swore he saw Martha Stewart out here one time."
"Nah, he was just high." someone had retorted and Ryou only smiled at their little bantering despite not knowing who that person was.
As they drove deeper into the desert, the men that rode with Ryou continued warning him about the do's and don'ts of desert survivorship, even though there were some kind human civilization in the form of rest stops scattered about the desert.
His gaze went back out towards the golden mountains of sand, the patterns of the dunes moving in lazy zigzags as they moved, putting his mind into a trance that he began nodding off. And when he awoke again after a quick sleep, it was because the Jeep was coming to a halt. Then brief bits of a disturbing dream came back to him; something about being trapped behind a glass with the golden sands falling over him, burying him alive as he pounded against the glass and called out for help.
At first, he had thought that they had reached their destination, but as no rush of excitement was heard, Ryou soon found out why.
A bunch of men on horses dressed in long black robes and turbans concealing their faces were lined just ahead of them, and were not allowing passage for the two Jeeps.
Ryou stood up slowly for a better look, but one of the guys with him held him down by his wrist. Ryou looked from the men on the horses and back towards his group member.
"Tombkeepers…" he muttered quickly to Ryou while nervously licking his lips, his own eyes back at the strange-looking men. Ryou's mouth had parted a little, not knowing whether to be thrilled or worried.
One tombkeeper then made his way slowly over to them on his horse and the Historian among the group sauntered to meet him half way. Everyone, Ryou had noticed, was watching in a dead silence.
The two exchanged some words, and the tombkeeper occasionally kept throwing glances over at the group, his eyes lingering mostly on the newcomer Ryou. And just when it seemed that the Historian wasn't having any luck with the tombkeeper, the sound of a horse's hooves beating on the sand was heard behind them, and the group all turned around to the sight of another man on a handsome black horse, this time dressed in all white. His face well concealed in a white turban too.
The person in white inspected Ryou's groups briefly, and when his eyes landed on Ryou, the pale haired archaeologist thought he saw lavender eyes look stricken beneath the turban as his gaze lingered more than they needed to, then directed the horse over to where the other tombkeeper was with the Historian.
Everyone watched as the assumed tombkeeper exchanged words with the other, occasionally throwing glances at Ryou, then finally, the one in white handed the other a scroll, and the man in black nodded his acceptance. The tombkeeper in black rode back to his clan, and they all, including the one in white disappeared beyond the sand dunes.
Everyone was smiling once again as the Jeeps' engines roared and got back to their route. The men with the archaeologist sighed in relief, and Ryou combed his fingers through his hair, glad to get over the tension too.
"What was that all about?"
"Tombkeepers… can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em."
"They get a bit touchy when people like us intrude on their territories. But all we need to tell them is that we know Yugi and we're fine."
"Yeah, all that fuss was about you teach, they didn't recognize you and thought of you as a threat. No offense I hope." Ryou bit a corner of his lip and shook his head
"Was the guy in white a tombkeeper too?" asked Ryou, and the men all nodded their heads.
"Yeah, they come in different tribes obviously. I think the one in white is a high ranking one judging by what he wears, the one that usually cooperates with Yugi." Ryou nodded his head slowly in understanding, and when he looked back at one high rising sand dune in the distance thoughtfully, white fabric rippled elegantly in the warm winds, looking almost like a desert ghost with centuries worth of secrets of lost kingdoms and hidden tombs, each with its own unique or tragic story to tell.
The tombkeeper was standing there majestically on his black horse, and watching over the caravan with the most intense gaze.
To be continued…
A/N: I know what you're thinking, Mary-sues? Like I said before, hell no, I don't do Mary-Sues, hopefully you'll look into my next chapters and see what I mean. think about it, why put myself through a novel-length fic if its going to be a Mary-Sue.
Hope you like it !
Side notes:
1) I love Indiana Jones too!
2) man…if you experience those cab drivers there, you'll know what I mean. one hell of a ride!
3) this almost sounds like the movie The Mummy hehe, I kinda used the idea from that for Malik. After all, he is considered a tombkeeper too right? Why not have some tombkeeper friends!
4) also in the desert, nomadic tribes there are known to wear different color clothing to distinguish themselves from other tribes.