"Are you sure you can't make it this evening?" Yuugi asked into the phone, a slight frown crossing his lips. Ever since Jounouchi had been removed from his father's care, the two rarely saw one another outside of school. Yuugi understood that the blond felt the need to repay his benefactor... but damn it, Jounouchi was his boyfriend and he wanted to see him occasionally!

"Yeah, I have to check over this new ad campaign before it can go to press tomorrow," Jounouchi replied apologetically. "I don't think it'll take me too long, though, so if you want to get together after Isis' little meeting thing...">br>
"I'll call you right after," the shorter teen interrupted, feeling immensely happier at the prospect of spending time alone with Jounouchi for a change. "Love you, Katsuya."

"Love you, too, Yuugi. I'll talk to you this evening."

Yuugi said his goodbyes and hung up, smiling to himself. It took him nearly a full minute to realize that the others were all staring at him, which led to him blushing faintly and attempting to look innocent. Isis merely offered a patient smile before speaking.

"It is safe to assume that Jounouchi-san and Kaiba-san will not be appearing tonight," she said, her words almost sounding like a question yet everyone knew they were a statement of fact. "I'll begin. You all know about the ancient text regarding the Unnamed Pharaoh."

"Yes," Anzu said with a sharp nod. "About how he had to regain his memory in order to enter into the afterlife... right?"

"That is what we thought as well," the Egyptian woman said, giving the brunette a reassuring smile. "Unfortunately, we misinterpreted a section. It may have been due to the erosion of the original or possibly my father had horrible, erm, penmanship. Either way, there was a section of the text regarding what was to happen after the Unnamed Pharaoh entered in the other world."

Honda frowned slightly. "What was supposed to happen after that?" he asked.

Isis remained silent for a moment; then, she turned and nodded to someone waiting just outside of Yuugi's line of sight. The door was pushed open the rest of the way and Malik entered the room, followed by someone the four friends thought they'd never see again.

"Afterward," Isis said, "he was allowed to come back."

~+~+~+~+~+~+~

Deadlines, bylines, board meetings and after-school activities, Seto mused to himself as the limo headed back towards KaibaCorp to pick up the third member of his small family. I really didn't want to see Isis or the others today but I know Jounouchi wanted to spend some time with Yuugi. I'll have to think of a way to make it up to them.

He was abruptly drawn out of his thoughts when he glanced out the window and caught sight of a man making his way down the street. Normally people walking would do little to catch Kaiba Seto's attention, but this man was unusually dressed, and if that wasn't attention-grabbing then his dark skin and silver-white hair was.

"Stop here," Seto called to the driver, gaze locked on the familiar-yet-not man moving steadily away from him. When the driver turned slightly to give him a questioning look he snapped out, Now. The limo had barely rolled to a stop when the brunet pushed the door open and practically leaped out, intent on catching his quarry.

It didn't take long for Seto to catch up with the man and grasp his arm, pulling the 'stranger' to a stop. Suddenly the brunet found himself pinned by a silver stare that went from annoyed to confused in a matter of seconds. The oddly colored eyes blinked; then suddenly the stranger was gone with little more than an overly familiar smirk gracing the tanned face.

"Don't I get a 'Hello, Bakura. It's been a while. How is the afterlife?'" the once Thief King asked. "Kids these days, no manners at all."

"Smartass," Seto grumbled quietly. Apparently he wasn't quiet enough if Bakura's amused smirk was any indication.

"Really, Seto, you're just being rude. Usually you don't just leap out of a moving vehicle and grab a near-total stranger. That's something they do in the movies, and then the guy doing it is usually has twice the muscle tone you do, because how much could you possibly work out if you're sitting in front of a computer monitor all day. You need to get out more, maybe go to the park or take in a movie. Here's an idea, spend some time with that kid brother of yours. Yeah, he's kinda quiet, didn't scream too much that time I grabbed him, but he's a good kid. And if you stop to think about it, you do own one of the top ten amusement parks in the world."

By the time Jounouchi showed up five minutes later, Bakura had changed topic seven times and Seto was beginning to wonder if coming back from the dead made one hyper.

"But you have to be careful because the little seeds get stuck in your teeth. I usually scrape them off and heat them after I put on the cream cheese, but yeah, I'd say the onion bagels are my favorite."

"Hey, Seto!" the blond called aloud, not yet noticing the babbling Egyptian. "I was starting to think you decided to just stay-- Bakura?!"

Said thief turned slightly, stopping mid-sentence (something about how strawberry jam never worked on even plain bagels) and shot the stunned teen a grin. "Hey, pup." His expression turned to one of amusement as Jounouchi actually growled quietly at the name.

To his surprise, however, the blond didn't go into the whole I-am-not-a-dog spiel. He glared, true, but he asked the question that Seto neglected: "Why, and for that matter, how are you back?"

"Heaven didn't want me and hell's afraid I'll take over," the thief quipped. Both Jounouchi and Seto gave him a look that said he wasn't nearly as funny as he seemed to think he was. Bakura snickered with amusement and made an attempt to free his arm from the brunet's grasp. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to find yadonushi."

He was surprised to find a second hand gripping his shoulder, and followed it to find the blond frowning at him. "When was the last time you ate?" he said abruptly, causing Bakura to blink at him twice in confusion. That... was definitely not what he would expect from the boy he knew had run with a gang once upon a time.

"If I were to guess, oh, three thousand years ago," Bakura replied dryly. "Would you both maybe let go? I need that arm."

"Get in the limo," Seto said abruptly, obviously expecting the thief to listen.

"Hell no. Get your hand off my arm before I break your fingers."

"Get in the goddamn car."

The fact that this time the command came from Jounouchi startled Bakura just long enough for the two teenagers to half-shove him into the back seat and climb in, blocking his escape from either side. He knew it was childish, especially since he was closer in appearance to the twenty-three-year-old he'd been at the time of the Sealing than when he'd been sharing a body with Ryou, but the thief slouched in the seat, crossed his arms and proceeded to sulk.

"Stop pouting," Seto said from his left. Steel grey eyes turned to glare at the CEO.

"I'm not pouting, I'm fuming."

"Looks like pouting to me."

"I'm not pouting, damn it!"

31 March 2005

And here's the next section of Blind Eyes. Hope everyone is enjoying. It's actually quite fun to write.  Poor Malikthings! They made a typo on him!!