Hello, and welcome to my rewritten form of "Nestmates." I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I'm enjoying writing it!

Anyway, I started working on this a bit ago and made a lot of good progress on it really quickly, so I decided to go ahead and put it up. I plan on updating it every week for the next few weeks.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters. They belong to Konami and Kazuki Takahashi. But the plot and story itself is my own.

Pairing: Yuumeishipping (Ryou Bakura/Yami Bakura/Yugi Mutou/Yami Yugi/Marik Ishtar/Yami Marik)
Rating: T and up
Warnings: Some aspects are inspired by spoilers from "Dark Side of Dimensions," but are not parallel to canon. Nothing here is canon based (aside from a certain blue dragon who shows up later) and is all 100% for fun. Mpreg. OC children are used in later chapters, as well. And, of course, the M/M polyship.
Joke Summary: Domestic dragons AU.
Serious Summary: Ryou is lonely and depressed and starts digging into his heritage and identity, exploring a new lifestyle and learning to love life again.

Part I: Half-Dragon

[ written 7/10/2017, published 7/16/2017 ]

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Ryou blinked back tears as he stood before the gravestone. He couldn't help it. His mother had just died the week before, and her absence stung the man more than he ever would have imagined.

After Father's death, which Ryou had little memory of other than how terribly gruesome it had been, and Amane's death, his small sister falling victim to the wildly swerving vehicle of a drunk driver, Ryou thought he'd already run out of tears to shed. He didn't think he could ever feel more alone than he already did.

Ah, but Fate had one more surprise for him, it seemed. It snuck up on him this time, waiting for several years until he was full grown and living by himself, patiently biding its time before striking again.

Fate had finally taken Mother from him. The only person he had left in the world, it felt like, and now she was gone. Unexplainable heart failure, was all the doctors could say. She had been perfectly healthy, it seemed, and yet she suddenly died in her sleep. A kinder way to go than her husband and daughter had received.

Ryou blamed himself. He'd moved into his own apartment, to be closer to his new job, rather than stay living with her. Perhaps, if he had stayed with her, he could have saved her. Or at least, that was one of the many thoughts that plagued him as the days slowly passed.

Her funeral had been especially difficult. So many neighbors and acquaintances who had never taken an interest in his mother's life had attended, offering Ryou their condolences. Ryou hadn't strictly invited any of them, but, when a few people had expressed interest, he'd decided to allow them to attend. Mother loved being surrounded by people, after all, so why not grant her that this one time?

But it was so hard to shake these people's hands and accept their words of remorse. Several times Ryou had to bite back the unbidden urge to bare his teeth and snarl at them. None of these people had really known Mother. Certainly they'd greeted one another at the market and smiled and called "good morning" as they passed on the street – Mother had always been polite like that – but not a single one of these people would have attended if they'd really known her or her son. Not if they had known about Father.

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Two more weeks of silent loneliness passed by, and Ryou began to feel emptier. The dull monotony of human life was wearing on him.

He went to visit Mother's grave again, where she'd been buried next to Amane. He inhaled sharply when he saw a woman standing there.

She was older than him, he realized as he approached her, with long white hair and a thin frame. Blue eyes, brighter than any he'd ever seen before, met his own green eyes as she turned, a sad smile on her thin face.

"So you're Ryou, then." It wasn't a question. The woman turned back to Mother's grave, and Ryou could see the telltale glisten of tears in her eyes. "She spoke of you often. Your father, too." Her eyes moved to Amane's grave, her smile growing sadder. "You moved away before your sister was born, though. I wish I had been able to meet her."

"... Who are you?"

The woman turned back to face him, seeming not to mind his rudeness. "Kisara. Your mother and I grew up together, in Ryū no Machi. Where you were born. We fell out of touch with each other after your father was killed and you moved away, but we started corresponding again recently. I came to surprise her with a visit, but... I suppose I should have come sooner."

She smiled a little wider, reaching out and touching a lock of his shoulder-length hair, an action that reminded him of Mother.

"You have her hair," Kisara was saying. "And her lips. But..." Her bright, inhuman eyes met his own green ones again. "... You have your father's eyes."

She laughed lightly when she saw the startled look on his face. "Don't worry. I'm the same as you, Ryou." Her voice became serious and quiet, afraid of eavesdroppers. "I am also half-dragon."

Oh.

The two stood in silence for a time, mourning over the graves, each one wrapped in their own thoughts.

It was Ryou who broke the silence. "Kisara?"

"Hm?"

"... What do you know about my father's death?"

She met his gaze evenly, frowning. "Your mother never told you?" Her frown deepened when he shook his head. "... I'll tell you. But not here. Not where others will hear."

He nodded silently and turned, leading her to his car.

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"Like humans, dragons come in all different kinds of appearances, characters, and morality," Kisara said when they were seated comfortably in Ryou's kitchen, cups of steaming tea sitting in front of them. She took a sip of the tea, grimacing a bit as she spoke. "Your father was... a bad sort."

She said this delicately, as though not to hurt Ryou's feelings. It would have been laughable if it wasn't so personal.

"I know," Ryou told her, stirring his tea with his spoon absently. "Don't worry, I'm not offended. I've already made my peace with him."

Kisara nodded. "I don't know how much you know about dragons, but some of them like to hoard things. Animal bones, jewelry, blankets... I've even heard of some who hoard pieces of human-made artworks. Your father and his brother both liked jewelry. The shinier, the better."

She sipped more of her tea, staring quietly down into the cup for a moment before continuing. "Your father got into a fight with his brother, over a necklace they'd found. Each one wanted to keep it for himself. The fight became physical. They clawed and bit at each other, drawing blood over this shiny, attractive necklace that neither one could wear. His brother, Shadi, eventually won. But this enraged your father, and he cracked Shadi's head against a boulder."

She set the tea cup down, wrapping her arms around herself, a haunted look on her face. "We found Shadi a few days later where his body had been hidden, his head split open. It was a terrible sight to see. Even worse for his mates and offspring."

Ryou's blood ran cold, and he stared down into his tea, staring in horror at his reflection. He'd known his father wasn't the kindest person or dragon, and of course that he wasn't human, but...

… he'd never known his father could be such a monster.

"Justice had to be meted out," Kisara continued, her voice low. "And your father met the same fate as his brother."

Ryou shuddered and looked away, feeling ill.

"Your mother was so frightened and confused, she didn't feel like she could stay. She took you and left, hoping to protect you and your unborn sister from the effects of your father's actions, and she did her best to blend in with the human world. It's understandable – she was a human, after all, and of course she would try to turn to her own kind, whether they wanted her or not." The older woman looked at him sympathetically. "I'm sorry."

He nodded absently, still staring at his reflection.

An awkward silence fell over the kitchen, the two white-haired half-dragons sitting and not saying a word, each falling back into their own little world.

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"How much do you know about dragons, Ryou?"

The young man forced himself out of his unhappy thoughts, meeting the firm gaze of the older woman. "... What?"

"I couldn't help but notice how unhappy you are." She glanced around pointedly, drawing his attention to wherever her eyes fell, forcing him to look around at his drab, empty home. Nothing that strictly tied him into the human world. "And it's not just because of the loss of your mother, is it?"

Ryou didn't say anything for a moment, but it was hard to deny how uncomfortable he was in this world his mother had left him in.

"I want it to work," he said slowly. "I really do. I want to live and be happy, for her sake."

Kisara nodded in an understanding fashion. "I know this is a hard time for you, but..." Her eyes turned dark as she spoke. "I strongly suggest you take more than a passing interest in your inhuman half." She shrugged her shoulders a bit. "It's your heritage, after all. And you never know – you might find something rewarding in it."

"Your mother would want you to be happy," she added when he didn't respond right away.

Ryou frowned, turning away and refusing to meet the woman's eyes. "I'll think about it."

"You do that."

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As the weeks went by, Ryou began to do more than think about it. Thinking turned into genuine curiosity, and soon the young man found himself at the library, carefully studying any book, essay, or article he could find about dragons – what they looked like, what they ate, how they hunted, where they lived in the world... he wanted to learn it all.

"Dragons, eh?" The old librarian asked as he took note of Ryou's small stack of research. He began rubbing his chin in an attempt to look wise and thoughtful. "Not a very popular topic, is it? Why the interest?"

When Ryou didn't answer immediately, the old man came to his own conclusions. "They do say female dragons are very rare and very beautiful... Hehe, are you planning on trying to seduce a female dragon, boy?"

Ryou felt like growling, but instead he forced a smile. "No, it's... for a paper I'm writing for university."

"A paper on dragons?" The old man blinked in confusion, looking back at the measly pile. "There's certainly not much to go on, is there? The dragons tend to keep to their forests, and they don't associate with humans like us very much if they can help it. Though, occasionally you hear stories about humans living with dragons, or even mating with dragons, but those types are never seen again."

He lowered his voice to a whisper, as if granting secret wisdom to Ryou. "But I suspect that most of those types are just people who wandered off or killed themselves or something, and nobody wants to talk about what actually happened. After all, isn't it easier to say 'he's gone to live with the dragons he loves' or 'the coward took his own life rather than wait for Fate to decide?'"

Ryou frowned and pointedly turned back to the book he'd been reading.

The old man looked over the young man's shoulder at the page he was on, noting the book artist's depiction of a female dragon asleep in a nest. He gave Ryou a sly grin. "Are you sure you're not planning-?"

"I'm sorry, sir, but please, leave."

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But, the old man was right about some things. Dragons tended to keep to themselves, and it resulted in humans not having a great deal of information about them. Just some basic information, like which forests were known dragon territory, thereby making them off limits to humans, and which dragons lay eggs.

Although which dragons lay eggs was marginally interesting. Ryou hadn't ever thought too much about it, but female dragons were quite rare, after all, and it seemed that the majority of the dragon species was male. And yet, there seemed to be no shortage of offspring being hatched, as some statistics showed that nearly two dozens eggs would hatch each year in a dragon forest, even though, on average, there may only be one or two living females in a forest at a time.

This was baffling to Ryou, until he read the next page, wherein the author explained that male dragons are further splintered into two types – those that have similar reproductive organs to a female and can lay eggs, and those that do not.

That was the most interesting piece of information, really. Everything else was either the same information repeated over and over, or else extremely vague.

It was beginning to look like Ryou would never learn anything of real importance about his father's species unless he set out into the forests and encountered dragons himself.

And the more time he spent thinking about that prospect, the more the prospect actually began to thrill him.

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Ryou couldn't actually afford to take any vacation time away from his job, but he took it anyway. Something inside him felt like it was waking up for the first time, and he wouldn't allow something as trivial as his job or his boss get in the way of it. Choosing to follow his instincts instead of protocol for once in his life, the young man packed up sufficient food, drink, and clothing, filling a knapsack and throwing it over his back. He felt like his body was moving of its own accord, as though he were dreaming, and soon he found himself hiking into the forest.

There were trees over his head and grass under his feet. Like the little forest town where he'd spent the early years of his childhood. Not at all like the boxy, busy city Mother had moved them to, with nothing but fast cars and hot pavement and busybody neighbors.

For the first time in a long time, Ryou felt free. And he smiled.