Lucky Me...

Something- a noise, maybe- woke Ariam from a shallow sleep. She half-opened her ice-blue eyes to the silvery moonlight flowing in through the fluttering curtains and stretched luxuriously, enjoying the feeling of the cool sheet on her bare skin. Her hand made contact with something on the bed beside her as she moved. She froze.

"Morning, lover," a velvety voice chuckled from behind her. She relaxed instantly and turned to face Bakura, who was reclining on the bed next to her, watching her with a sly grin on his face.

"What hour is it?" she mumbled, sleep clouding her brain. The white-haired man glanced out of the window.

"By the moon, about the third."

"Three in the morning?!" she grumbled, rubbing her eyes in an inadvertently cute gesture. "What did you wake me up at three in the morning for?"

"I didn't mean to wake you," he pouted, looking penitent. "I just wanted to see you before everyone was up, so I thought I'd come now."

"You've been watching me sleep?" she asked, trying her very hardest not to melt at the expression on his face, which could only be described as adorable. A word one generally wouldn't apply to the most wanted man in Egypt. "How long for?"

He smiled, not his usual cruel smirk or a cold, heartless sneer. A real, honest smile, for his love and her alone. "Not long... I woke you by accident. Forgive me?" He nuzzled his lips into the crook of her neck, grinning at the shiver that ran through her.

"Well, I suppose I'll have to, now..." she huffed, trying and failing to sound angry. He chuckled and moved his lips to hers, running his thin fingers through her hair. After a few seconds he pulled away, eliciting an impatient groan from her. She tried to reclaim his lips, but a finger on her own immobilized the movement. "You're no fun."

"Oh come now, we know that's not true," he smirked, chuckling again at the faint blush that crept along her pretty face, visible even in the moonlight. "Come on, get up, I want to show you something."

"Show me what?" she asked, throwing back the sheet and meandering across her chamber to find some clothes. She didn't hurry: she quite literally had nothing her King hadn't seen before.

"If I told you it wouldn't be a surprise," he groaned, flinging himself backwards on the bed, one arm covering his cinnamon eyes. "Now get dressed before I become compelled to come over there and ravage you."

"That's an incentive to dress, is it?" she purred, kneeling next to him and trailing her nails down his chest. He hissed lightly and grabbed her wrist, the movement quick as lightning. She smirked with an expression almost identical to the one he usually wore.

"Ariam, you know that I will not go back on that threat," he growled dangerously, his eyes boring into hers and his voice sending a shiver up her spine. "Get dressed or Set help me I will have no choice!" She pulled her wrist free and climbed down from the bed, her every nerve tingling.

Oh, how she loved her Dark Prince.

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Bakura reined his horse in a few paces from a tiny oasis, hearing Ariam do the same a little way behind him. "This is it, love!"

"You wanted to show me an oasis?" she asked in disbelief, dismounting the grey mare she rode. "You dragged me from my sleep in the middle of the night to show me something we could have seen just as, if not more easily, in the daytime?!"

"Ah, but that is the beauty of it," he grinned, swinging himself off the animal's back and taking his princess's hand. "This place is even more beautiful at night. Like you." He flushed slightly, glad the moon was behind a cloud at that moment. "I suppose that's why I love it so much."

She stopped mid-step, their joined hands forcing him to stop also. He turned to face her curiously. "You... you love me?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper. Smiling that smile again, he slid his arms around her waist, pulling her close.

"Did you ever really doubt it, Ariam?" he murmured, his breath ghosting over her face and lifting a strand of hair from her beautiful cerulean eyes. Her bronzed cheeks flushed bright scarlet, and, grinning again, he claimed her lips as gently as he had when he first stole them. They tasted like nectarines.

Eventually pulling himself away from her, he smiled again and laced their fingers together. "Now come on, we have to have you back soon," he laughed, pulling her forwards into the oasis. The pearly moonlight reflected off the shallow pool in the center, casting shimmering, ever-moving reflections on everything. Her icy eyes seemed to ripple with silver as she cast her gaze around, taking in everything.

"By the gods... this place is beautiful!" she murmured, allowing herself to be led to the waters edge where the pair sat, his arms still around her protectively.

"Didn't I tell you?" Bakura grinned, tracing circles on her arm with his fingertips. "It's matched only by one sight I've ever seen, and that sight is you." She blushed again. "What? It's true. Especially when you sleep, when I entered your room tonight I honestly thought Hathor herself had taken form."

"I was having a good dream..." Ariam murmured, smiling. He lay back on the grass, pulling her with him carefully.

"Was I there?" he asked slyly, knowing the answer already. She nodded against his chest, turning her head to press her lips against the hard muscles. "Do tell, I love hearing about dreams. I can read them, you know." he added cockily. She grinned.

"It wasn't anything special... just, you know, me and you, all alone..." she moved up his chest and kissed his collarbone, "And no-one to disturb us..." her lips traveled to the hollow under his ear. He arched his neck slightly to give her better access.

"Well, to me," he said, in a fakely pensive voice and with a grin that would dazzle the gods, "that means that you and me are all alone. With no-one to disturb us."

"Lucky me..." she smirked seductively . In an instant, he had her pinned to the sand by her shoulders, a dark smirk of his own on his bronzed features.

"That had better not be sarcasm I hear, Ariam..." he purred, his face an inch from hers. "Because if it is, I could get very annoyed..."

"Who am I to treat my King with anything but the respect he deserves?" she gasped, fakely coy. His smirk widened.

"And don't forget it..."

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"And what on Ra's earth were you doing sneaking your horse out of the stables last night, O She of the Late Nights?" Astarte grinned the next morning as Ariam leant over her to grab a peach from the golden bowl at breakfast.

"What were you doing sneaking yours in, O She of the Pharaoh's Chambers?" the blue-eyes girl countered smugly. Astarte floundered for a moment, then conceded.

Femii just sighed and went back to her needlework.