A/N: *humming* Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you; happy birthday, dear Sam, happy birthday to you. ^_~

Well, Sam was seventeen on the fifth (sorry it's late, hon, but I was sick that day), so I decided to drag this poor story out and write a chapter for her, because she is a Bakura whore and we all know that I was dying to write another make-out scene anyway. XD Hopefully I did a good job.

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"Their Unfamiliar Feelings"

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Lip-to-lip, arms and legs tangled and tight, and everything so warm and wonderful . . .

Bakura had never felt like this. He'd never thought he could. He was too used to being angry, to hating people, to hating himself.

But Ryou . . .

Ryou, with the pale lips and ghostly hair and sunburnt skin and hands that went everywhere and gave everything they touched equal attention. Ryou, who wore his gift of jewelry proudly and spoke so frankly. Ryou, who smiled at him and accepted his affection and smelled like dust and sweat and roses and was so, so beautiful . . .

"/So lovely,/" Ryou whispered, and Bakura whined at the feeling of the other's breath on his neck.

"Ryou!" he gasped. "Oh Ra, Ryou, Ryou, RYOU!"

Ryou giggled, his hands roaming eagerly up and down the thief's sides. Both were only half-dressed and thoroughly rumpled, and they'd managed to knock a great deal of the ubiquitous jewelry off the kitchen counter and table before stumbling into the main room in a failed attempt to get upstairs. They hadn't let go of each other since beginning, save a brief pause to yank the boiling stew off the stove before it exploded or burst into flames or anything inconvenient like that.

Oh, and a brief pause in which Ryou had discovered Ishtar's hidden stash of chocolate sauce.

Ryou, by the way, looked really, really good in chocolate. And he tasted even better.

They were definitely going to need a bath after this.

"/Blast these clothes,/" Ryou muttered, trying in vain to figure out the complicated knot in Bakura's belt. "/How did you even GET this so tangled?/"

"/It's supposed to be like that,/" Bakura told him with a breathless laugh. "/Ishtar made it for me- his clothes are always odd./"

"/Ishtar-san made it . . .?/" Ryou repeated, looking slightly troubled. "/It must have been hard . . . /"

"/For him?/" Bakura shrugged. "/Eh, I doubt it. He's always making something strange. He loves to do it- keeps his hands busy./"

"/And he loves you./" Ryou's tone brooked no argument, and all traces of sexuality between the two stopped there.

" . . . hai," Bakura admitted slowly, not understanding the other's reaction. He couldn't actually be jealous, could he? Who possibly would? "/But not how you think. I told you, he likes someone else./"

"/Who?/" Ryou demanded. "/Tell me!/"

"/Malik, the seer's brother,/" Bakura said with a sigh. "/He lives at the palace./"

Ryou's eyes suddenly narrowed, and his fingers dug painfully into Bakura's skin. "/Him,/" he hissed with absolute venom. "/I remember HIM./"

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Yuugi returned to the palace that evening soaked with beer and irritated with Malik, and also looking Endearingly Cute (which, if you'll recall, meant that he was plotting murder). The blond hadn't shown for their scheduled meeting, which meant that he was still in the dark about the enemy's current movements. Malik was a damned good spy, but sometimes the pharaoh had to wonder if he was really worth the trouble.

"Dear!" Isis exclaimed, dashing up to him with a blanket. "Oh gods, look at you, you're a MESS!" Honda followed her, giving Yuugi a bemused look.

"/Where have you been, Inquisitor-san?/" he asked suspiciously. "/And where did you get that bracelet?/"

"/Bracelet?/" Yuugi repeated blankly; then turned a bright crimson as he remembered. "/There was a girl at the tavern,/" he explained sheepishly, holding up his left wrist, which now sported an intricately-woven copper bracelet- something that looked ridiculously cheap next to his larger gold bracers but had clearly been made with more care. "/I bought her a drink and she gave it to me . . . said it was a promise./"

"/Yes, I know,/" Honda murmured. "/Giving jewelry in our culture . . . it's a promise of sex, or love, or fidelity. And I know who that bracelet belongs to . . . /"

"/You do?!/" Yuugi exclaimed in shock.

"/Yes,/" Honda said simply. With that, he stepped back as Isis bustled forward, wrapping a second blanket around the dripping, dirty pharaoh.

"Oh, Yuugi," she said with a sigh. "Why must you try so hard? You'll drive yourself into your grandfather's grave."

Yuugi's expression softened. "Please don't worry, Isis," he said gently. "I'll be careful, I promise."

"You had better!" she yelled, smacking his shoulder. "Now get to bed! Things are going to get tougher from here on. And before you ask," she added with clear exasperation, "you WILL see her again."

Yuugi blushed. "Thank you, Isis," he replied softly.

"You're welcome, dear," she said with a smile, patting his head. "Now, to bed! Honda darling, be a dear and walk him there, would you?" The speaking was pointless, of course, but she managed to get the general idea across with hand signals.

"But what about you?!" Yuugi protested as they were herded down the hall.

"Oh, I'll be fine!" Isis reassured him with another sweet smile. "Otogi won't try to kill me until tomorrow, and Shaadi is VERY good at fixing knife wounds, so Honda darling won't have any trouble either!"

". . . you know, Isis, sometimes you creep even ME out, and that's saying something," Yuugi said finally.

"I know, dear," she replied, and again patted his head. "Don't worry about it. Oh, and go say hello to Seto's new pet on your way to bed- she's in the kitchens, and it's only polite."

"'She'?" Yuugi repeated with a bemused expression. "What happened to that blond soldier?"

"Oh, Jounouchi's not a pet!" Isis exclaimed with a laugh. Honda visibly twitched at the name- the only thing he could recognize out of the sentence. "Jounouchi is in LOVE with him!"

"Whaaaat?!" Yuugi yelped. "No WAY! That creepy blonde has the hots for Seto?!"

"That too," she agreed. "But let me see . . . how did Jounouchi phrase it? Oh, yes . . . 'Daisuki da, Seto-chan. Soreirai zutto- warenagara. Kuchidzukeru watashi? Onegai?'" she repeated carefully. "What does that mean? I'm afraid I don't know all the words."

Honda and Yuugi were both staring at her.

"Um," the pharaoh stammered finally, unable to keep the blush off his face. "Um, maybe you were right about bed. /Come on, Honda, let's get going./"

"/Who is 'Seto-chan'?/" Honda asked, puzzled, even as he followed the shorter boy.

"/We'll discuss it later!/" Yuugi hissed, breaking into a run as soon as he was around the corner.

Honda looked back at Isis, bemused, but she simply smiled and ushered him on. "You should be going also, Honda darling," she said with a small laugh. "But . . . before you do, what does 'kuchidzukeru watashi, onegai' mean? Do you understand what I'm asking?"

He understood.

"Mean . . . please do . . . please do . . ." Honda began slowly, fumbling for words in a language he'd barely had a week to study, "means please do . . ."

Screw it. He'd never been the sort to care about words.

So instead he demonstrated exactly what "kuchidzukeru watashi" meant, and succeeded in being the first person to honestly shock Isis since the day she'd been born.

"Honda go . . . kit-chen?" he asked hesitantly, hoping he had the general idea of the words right.

"Of . . . of course," Isis stammered, raising a hand to her mouth. "Ah . . . Yes, go."

He bowed quickly and did so. Isis watched him in confusion.

"That . . . wasn't supposed to happen," she said softly. "I'm almost afraid to ask for the rest of the translation if those words . . . really meant 'kiss me.'"

She couldn't repress her blush.

"But oh, God, he was a good kisser!" Isis squealed finally, clapping her hands together.

This was definitely a new feeling. And she definitely liked it.

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Yuugi had barely entered the kitchen when . . .

"Yami-kun!" a gleeful voice crowed, and Yuugi found himself instantly tackled and thoroughly kissed.

"HEY!" he shrieked around the other's mouth. His attacker pulled back, looking puzzled.

"Oh," Jounouchi said in surprise as he blinked down at the shocked shorter boy- no one had ever DARED to touch him like that; he was the PHARAOH, gods dammit! "It's you again. Sorry, Pharaoh-sama . . . man, though, you taste good." Yuugi turned a brilliant shade of red.

"Jounouchi!" Honda cried as he came in behind them.

The blonde's eyes lit up and he jumped to his feet, throwing his arms around the other with a delighted cry. "Honda!" he crowed happily. "/Honda, Honda, Honda! Oh my God, I was so worried!/" Then he blinked, took in the sight of the extremely embarrassed Yuugi, remembered he was NOT Yami, and slapped Honda upside the head. "/You baka! You got yourself captured!/" he yelled in exasperation.

"/Look who's talking!/" Honda shot back.

"/That's different!/" Jounouchi complained. "/Seto-sama is fucking HOT! Pharaoh-sama is nowhere near as whorish!/"

Honda nearly choked. "/THAT is the pharaoh?!/" he hissed in shock.

"/You didn't KNOW?!/" Jounouchi burst into laughter. "/You idiot!/"

"/You were KISSING him!/" Honda shrieked.

"/ . . . oops ?/" Jounouchi said weakly, giving him a guilty smile.

"BAKA!" Honda yelled, cuffing him. The situation immediately degenerated into a wrestling match, though somehow they managed not to knock anything breakable over.

"What the fuck?" Yuugi said blankly.

"Were you hungry, my lord Pharaoh?" a polite voice inquired from by the stoves.

"Eh?" Yuugi turned towards the sound and found a very familiar boy there, grinning at him. "MALIK!" he yelled, grabbing him by the shirt. "Where in hell have you been, you little bastard?!"

"Seducing my pretty boyfriend and getting yelled at by one of his new pets," Malik reported cheerfully. "Isis said not to meet you in the tavern because you had to run into someone else."

"What?" Yuugi stared at him. "But she didn't say anything when I got back, just- oh," he realized, eyes automatically dropping to the copper bracelet. "Her."

"Where'd that come from?" Malik asked curiously. "It looks like- " He suddenly paled and jerked back. "Oh shit," he rasped. "You met HER?!"

"Her who?" Yuugi repeated automatically.

"That captain!" Malik hissed. "That horrible, horrible girl!"

That was when Jounouchi leaned over and caught a glimpse of the bracelet himself. "Anzu," he breathed, eyes wide.

For some reason, Yuugi shivered at the sound of that name.

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* tbc . . . *

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. : kiss me, onegai? : .