Sorry about how long this took, I've been having a hard time at home lately. Hope you enjoy this. ❤️❤️❤️

Bakura was the first to react. Though, he was not Ryou Bakura anymore... He seemed stronger, darker than usual... The man Willow had met in the alleyway. "What? Layla was the lost princess? I thought the princess was sold into slavery, or presumed dead!" Bakura seemed angry, more angry than Willow would have cared to have been. Ishizu remained calm and composed.

"This was assumed by most. But on the day of the birth, the Queen left Layla with her birthing maid, a woman who had been trusted in the castle for many years, while she went to fetch the Pharaoh and young Atem. This is when the birthing maid slipped through the palace with the sleeping baby, and left the Queen and Pharaoh in a state of distraught. The Queen refused to eat, only leaving the confines of her bedroom to search for the lost princess herself. She collapsed in the surrounding village, and was taken back to the castle where died in the arms of the Pharaoh." Ishizu finished her story with a saddened look on her face.

Bakura punched the wall. "I'll be waiting in the car." He said, and walked out of the room. Both women watched him go, then they looked at each other. Ishizu held the book out to her.

"You need to read this. I've read it all, and there are things in here that I wouldn't want getting into the wrong hands. Protect it with your life. And here," Ishizu pulled a necklace with a blue, transparent stone dangling from it out of her pocket. "This was yours. Take care of these, they're priceless, both sentimentally and as antiques. Now, it's well past closing time, and you must go." Dropping the necklace into her hand, she walked towards the door Bakura left through.

She found Bakura in his car, his head on the steering wheel. He looked so still, like he was sleeping. "Ryou?" she said, sliding into her seat and shutting the door. He raised his head slowly, looking her deep in the eye. He reached his hand out, cupping her face. She could see, even though the dark aura was still there, that there was tears in his eyes, making them red and his eyelashes stick together.

"Ryou... Please don't cry." she said, whiping the tears from his eyes. He stiffened, but leaned into her touch.

"I've been looking for you for years, since I took hold of this body. I thought you'd remember me, the times we shared. But you don't. You were the one person I needed in life, the one person who's loss weighed me down until the day I died. You made me happy, happier than any of the jewels or gold or the endless women years after you died... And you can't even remember me. Is this punishment for everything I'd done wrong in my life?" A tear dripped down Bakura's face. He shook slightly, and then another tear, and then the greif overtook him, and he shuddered as the sobs racked his body. Without thinking, Willow threw her arms around him, making his head drop to her shoulder. She felt the greif of his loss, the pain and thousands of years of waiting radiate through his body. It hurt her to see him like this. "Shhhh. Please don't cry." she comforted him as best as she could, running her hand over the top of his head, rubbing his back.

Bakura stopped crying after twenty minutes. Whipping his tears with the back of his hand, he distangled himself from her. "Thank you." he muttered to her, his voice slowly but surely returning to the icy tone he normally used. "Where do you live? I'll drive you home, it's far too late for you ot walk or get someone to pick you up." he asked. Willow mentally slapped herself. God damn it! What was she thinking! She needed to call Sawyer. She opened her phone, relieved to see it was only 11 at night, and that she wasn't horrendously late. She called the phone number. "Sawyer." Barked the voice at the end of the line.

"Sawyer it's me, Willow. I'm getting a ride home from my friend, ok? We had a lot of work to do, we've just come back from the museum. We're driving now."

"Who is this friend? Where do they live? Are they insured and licensed? Willow?" Sawyer sounded worried, like her own father would have been if he were at home. Willow glanced at Bakura, who nodded yes, and picked up some papers, which she assumed to be the papers for the car.

"His name is Ryou, he lives about ten minutes car ride from us, and yes, yes he is insured and licensed, See you soon, Sawyer." she hung up. These men were more than bodyguards, they were stand in parents. Shaking her head, she told Bakura her address. He started the car and drove away without saying a word.

The car journey was quiet, no one said a word. Willow watched out of the window, watching as rain fell on the windscreen and the pedestrians rushed past, holding umbrellas or their jackets over their heads. Willow always wondered what their stories were. Who were they, what do they do, where do they come from. It always tickled the back of her mind.

"You live here?" Bakura exclaimed. They'd just pulled up to the gate at the front. Willow's home was massive, a red brick mansion with a black roof. The windows were long and white, with net curtains blocking the view to the inside. The door was large and white, much like the windows. Surrounding the house was a black iron gate, there being one entrance and one exit.

The garden was a luscious green jungle, full of flowers and white stone statues. There was a pond in the tangles of green that contained small fish in bright colours.

"Seto Kaiba and you are practically neighbours!" Ryou exclaimed. The dark aura had disappeared, leaving normal Ryou in his place. Willow cracked a weak smile. She rolled down the window and pressed the small black intercom button. "Miss Willow?" A male voice answers nearly immediately on the other end. "Yes Armstrong, it's me." The buzzer sounded, and the gates rolled open. Bakura drove slowly up pebbled drive way, careful not to hit any statues or greenery that stretched into the road. As they approached the front of the house, three burly men in suits burst out of the front door. "Miss Willow!" They exclaimed. Even through the car window they could hear the relief in their voices. "That's Sawyer, Simpson, and Armstrong. Just three of the men my dad hired to look after me. I've got to go, thanks for driving me home, Ryou." She reached and squeezed his hand. "Here." He said, taking a piece of paper and pen from the dash board, scribbling a number on to it. "Call me." He said, pushing the paper into her hand. She stepped out if the car, and he drove off as soon as the door shut. She watched as his headlights started to disappear down the circular drive way.