Title: Echoes of Dreamtime
Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh and I'm not making any money off of this.
Summary: When Shizuka offered to house-sit for Ryou, she expected a quiet month alone, a few chores, and time to get some writing in. She didn't expect an angry ghost. She didn't expect to change the past. And she certainly didn't expect to fall in love. Shizuka x Amane. Set 10 years post-canon.
Rating: T

Notes for Chapter 1:

(1): Set 10 years post-canon. Shizuka and Amane are 22; Ryou and Otogi are 26.

(2): NAMES THAT MIGHT CONFUSE YOU:
Katsuya Jounouchi/Joey Wheeler is called Katsuya. (Because Shizuka wouldn't call her brother by his last name, and this is told in 3rd person limited omniscient from her perspective.)
Ryou Bakura is called Bakura (Shizuka doesn't know him well enough to call him by his first name)

(3): Information about the Australian Aboriginal concept of Dreamtime was taken from Wikipedia.

(4): Many many thanks to safa'at keruth for beta-ing this and giving me the confidence to post it.

(5): This fic is a prize for Defenestration of the Mind, because her Protectshipping fic won Round 3 of the YuGiOh Fanfiction Contest. It is also dedicated to her, just because she's awesome. =)

==o==

Chapter 1: Arrive

==o==

Let me tell you a story.

It begins with a house.

And…

…Sorry, I'm a bit out of practice. And, beyond the house, it's a difficult story to tell. In a way, I suppose, there are two stories.

Let's begin with the house, then.

There's this house in a small prefecture in Japan. It's a typical suburban house, nothing very fancy – two stories, a garage, a mailbox labeled 'Bakura.' It's the kind of house you live in.

Now, in front of this house, there's a yard and a garden and a long driveway that leads out onto a residential street. And here's where it gets confusing. Try to keep up.

The two stories split on that street.

In the first story, a shiny new car drives down that residential street, away from the house. The car carries a boy and his little sister, both white-haired, both adorable.

The shiny new car exits onto the highway. There's a shriek of brakes and a crunch of metal, and suddenly, the little girl is gone. Only the brother returns to the house, and he doesn't stay for long.

I know how that story ends. But that story isn't true anymore.

The second story is a backwards parallel of the first, one that takes place almost thirteen years later. A broken-down, rusty old car clunks down that residential street, toward the house. The car carries a man and a woman, who also happen to be brother and sister. The woman has auburn hair, shy eyes and too many books in her suitcase. And in the house, there's someone waiting for her.

And that much is true; that much is always true, although the details change with the telling. As does the ending.

Let me tell you the second story. It's more interesting.

==o==

"Here we are."

Jounouchi Katsuya's voice roused his sister, who had been sleeping deeply in the backseat of his rusty old Toyota. She blinked blearily and started to put her head back down against the window.

"Nope," her brother said gently, "it's time to rise and shine, Shizuka. We're about a block away from Bakura's place. D'you want me to wait a couple minutes before I pull into the driveway so you can wake up a little?"

Shizuka rubbed her eyes and managed a sleepy, "Sure, that'd be great." She yawned. "Y'know, I really appreciate you driving me all the way here, Katsuya."

Katsuya smiled. "Eh, it's nothing. I don't like that you always have to take the bus with the creeps. Looking out for you's my job, remember?"

"Mmm…" Shizuka mumbled, still vaguely considering going back to sleep. Her brother always made a big deal out of the fact that her eyes weren't good enough for her to get a driver's license. She didn't see what the problem was. Her contacts corrected her vision enough that she could lead a completely normal life, minus driving. That was nothing, considering that 10 years ago she'd almost gone blind. But then, Katsuya had protected her from that, too.

"Yeah," Shizuka said with a smile. "I'm still grateful, though." She stretched, cracked her neck, and suppressed another yawn. "Still sleepy too."

Katsuya shrugged. "Then we'll park here for a couple minutes. No big deal. We wouldn't want Bakura to think his soon-to-be house-sitter was gonna be sleeping on the job, now would we?" He craned his neck over his shoulder and shot her a wicked grin. "I guess spring term at college really took a lot out of you."

That jerk. Shizuka was now fully awake, a familiar surge of adrenaline running through her veins. Katsuya had totally done that on purpose. He knew that mentioning college, especially spring term, would send her blood pressure skyrocketing these days.

She really should have graduated at the end of spring term, capped and gowned, a newly-named Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology. Shizuka had completed all of the coursework for her degree, but the anthropology department had left one final hoop for its students to jump through. To graduate, each student had to write a 75- to 100-page thesis on a topic of her choice. The length requirement alone was staggering, and it had sent many a prospective anthropology student screaming off into a psychology major.

To make matters worse, at the beginning of spring term, Shizuka came down with a titanic case of writer's block. It wasn't that she didn't want to write her thesis; she just couldn't for some reason. She must've spent at least a hundred hours trying to write it, sitting in front of a blank screen, typing a sentence and deleting it. The school year ended, and Shizuka's thesis hadn't even begun.

After much pleading on Shizuka's part, the department had given her permission to delay her graduation and to write her thesis over the summer. But the deadline was the first day of fall term, exactly one month away. If she didn't have her thesis done by then, she was Not Going To Graduate. The very thought made her sick to her stomach.

Katsuya noticed the pained look on his sister's face and stopped his teasing immediately. "Oh, don't worry about it, Shizuka, I'm sure you'll finish. I mean, you've got practically the whole library shoved into your suitcase. By the time the summer's over, you'll know everything there is to know about Teatime."

"Dreamtime," Shizuka corrected (and Katsuya knew perfectly well what her topic was called, she grumbled inwardly, he just thought it was cute to act stupid). "Remember, I told you about it. It's part of the mythology of the aboriginal people of Australia. It's sort of both past and present; it's the time when the Spirit Beings first formed the universe, but it's still ongoing too. It's sort of like a spirit world, but instead it's a spirit time, and…"

Shizuka stopped when she noticed that her brother had stopped looking at her and was instead watching a rabbit hop across the street. "Katsuya, are you even listening?

Katsuya smirked again, still staring out the window. "Mmm, your mouth is moving, but your words are too complex for my simple mind to comprehend. All I hear is 'blah blah blah blah…'"

Shizuka shot him her very best annoyed-little-sister glare.

Katsuya coughed uncomfortably and continued. "Anyway, I don't know what you're worried about. You're pretty much bound to get it done. I mean, it's not like you're going to have many distractions. All alone in that house, for a whole month…"

His face grew worried; Shizuka knew he still didn't like the idea of her being alone for so long.

"You sure you don't want me to swing by once in a while?"

"Katsuya, the house is two hours away from Domino; you can't just swing by. Anyway, it's just house-sitting. I'll feed the cat and water the garden, and then I'll work on my paper for the rest of the day. Not exactly a hazardous job."

But the worried look on Katsuya's face didn't diminish, so Shizuka pressed on.

"And I'll be fine, I'm not a little girl anymore."

Katsuya looked like he didn't quite believe her. "You," he said sternly, "will always be my baby sister. Even when you're a hundred and twenty. I'll still be worrying about you and driving you around and making fun of your smarty-pants anthropology talk."

Shizuka sighed exasperatedly, but couldn't suppress a smile. "I love you too, stupid. C'mon, I'm awake now. Let's go say hi to Bakura."

==o==

The Bakura who greeted them at the door was an older, healthier, and altogether happier-looking version of the boy Shizuka had known ten years ago. She supposed that ridding oneself of demonic possession would do that. He wore his long white hair tied back in an untidy ponytail, and a few loose strands fell around his face when he bowed to them.

Bakura smiled at her kindly. "Thank you so much for offering to house-sit for me, Kawai-san. I'm so glad to have someone I can trust minding my old family home."

Shizuka shook her head. "It's my pleasure. I should be thanking you for the opportunity to stay in such a beautiful house."

Bakura laughed politely, formally. This was a bit awkward, Shizuka reflected. They really didn't know each other all that well. She had only offered to house-sit because Katsuya had heard he was going on vacation, and she needed a quiet place to write her thesis, preferably one that was far, far away from the distractions of home.

And then, suddenly, the awkwardness was broken and there was excited yelling all around her.

"Otogi!"

"Jounouchi!"

Bakura jumped about ten feet in the air and whirled around, which landed him face to face with his boyfriend, Otogi Ryuji. At the sight of his face, Bakura calmed down immediately.

"Oh," he breathed. "I didn't hear you come up behind me."

Otogi gave him one of his signature dashing smirks and then turned it towards Shizuka. "And miss an opportunity to gaze upon the beautiful Kawai Shizuka? Pft, not a chance."

It was amazing. Otogi could be standing in front of his boyfriend and Shizuka's brother, and he'd still try to flirt with her. She was starting to wonder if it was a reflex.

On cue, her brother's voice immediately sounded from behind her. "Try anything and die, Otogi."

Shizuka did notice, however, that the anger that had once infused that statement had been replaced by a certain amount of amusement.

Otogi wrapped his arms around Bakura from behind in a sort of backwards hug. "I'm just teasing," he said. "I wouldn't trade Ryou here for anyone, even the lovely Shizuka-chan."

Katsuya nodded at him a bit stiffly and then asked, with his usual bluntness, "So, are you two living together now?"

It was Bakura who answered this time. "Yes, we are. It is a family home after all. I moved back here because, for the first time, I had someone to share it with."

There was nothing but happiness and pride in Bakura's voice, but Shizuka couldn't help but feel a twinge of sadness for him. After all, according to what she'd gradually picked up from her brother and his friends, part of the reason that Bakura had moved out of his family home was that he no longer had anything that could be called a family. His mother and little sister had died in that horrible car crash, and his father had effectively abandoned him for archaeological trips to Egypt. He'd been all alone.

Of course, Katsuya was quick to warn her, the other part of the reason that Bakura had moved out was that he'd had an evil spirit possessing him and putting people into comas. Still, that was just another reason to pity him. He'd had so many things taken away from him over the course of his lifetime, and she wished that somehow, impossibly, she could give some of them back.

But despite all that, Bakura was still standing, still smiling, if a little vacantly at the moment. Otogi poked him in the shoulder.

"Aren't you going to invite them in?"

Bakura smacked his head. "Of course! How rude of me. We've got quite a bit of time before our flight leaves; let us show you around." He beckoned them inside.

And with that, Shizuka crossed the threshold between the outside world and the inside world. In a strange way, it was the last time she'd ever do so.

==o==