This fic may be taken as a sequel/companion to Helper of Dragons, but it stands on its own.
Reviews would definitely be appreciated. Thanks!
WARNINGS: Intercourse is mentioned repeatedly though not carried out. If homosexuality doesn't float your boat, you should probably stay away, too.
Dragon at Midnight
That wasn't even counting the characters walking past him- he was hard put to find one that wasn't a Duel Monster, or at least dressed like one. White Magical Hat, Witch of the Black Forest, Lady of Faith and Gaia the Fierce Knight (these two were apparently sharing warm fuzzies), Barrel Dragon and Bandit Keith...
Joey whirled, eyes expanding. Yes, that was Keith Howard all right, complete with flag bandanna. On either side was Barrel Dragon and some girl with glittery pink hair. As he watched they turned and all went into another building, this one bearing a strong resemblance to a Domino nightclub.
Joey scratched his head and tried to remember whether he'd had any drugs recently. Then again (he sighed in relief at this realization), this was probably a dream. He'd fallen asleep, hadn't he? And dreams tossed up all kinds of weird gunk.
"Excuse me? Joey?"
He turned. "Yeah? Who're you?" he asked, though he certainly recognized Giltia the Knight.
"Geoffrey Giltia. It's good to see you're here. Come on. Black Jade's been waiting for a while."
Joey blinked. "Who?"
"You'll see."
"Hey, that's no answer."
"Trust me."
He folded his arms. "That's no answer either."
"It's rather difficult to explain... Jade has been, shall we say..." he reddened slightly, "...'interested' in you for some time."
"Ohhh." He nodded. This was shaping up to be a pretty good dream. He just hoped he wouldn't have to clean the sheets when he woke up.
So he followed Giltia when he passed through the doors of the building that Keith had entered a minute earlier. After all, what was the worst that could happen? Dreams weren't real.
The interior was not what he had expected. It was brightly lit, crowded with more Duel Monsters, mixed with what looked like regular people, playing everything from chess to pinball to Dance Dance Revolution.
"Where're all the dragons?" he asked Giltia. "They don't come here?"
"There're quite a few," said Giltia. "They've just taken more convenient forms. Oh, Job, hello."
One of the more-or-less normal looking boys had made his way over- presumably the convenient form of one of the dragons. Joey's certainty of this increased when he saw the kinky-looking collar with the green stones set in it. He had definitely seen that before.
Job looked him over. "You're Wheeler, right?"
"Yeah."
"Looking for Jade?"
"Guess so."
"He's downstairs." Job jerked his thumb toward the opposite direction of the room and winked. "Have fun."
It wasn't until they had embarked on their journey downward, with it becoming darker with each step down, that it clicked. Wait a minute. He's downstairs? I'm dreaming I'm about to get some from a guy?
He reached out and grabbed the railing, at the same time stopping the movement of his feet. Giltia got to the bottom before he turned around and blinked. "Is something the matter?"
"This Jade's not a girl?"
"Yes, Jade's not a girl."
"What kind of freaky joke is this?"
"Believe me, it's certainly not a joke on his part. I know you might not be so inclined, but could you at least meet him first?"
This was a dream. Not real. Nothing serious. Wasn't it? But it was so real...
"Fine." He let go of the banister and let his feet move again. "So who is he, exactly?"
Giltia waited until Joey joined him at the bottom of the stairs before replying. "You've met him before."
"Well, that's a great help."
"He also seems to be convinced you kissed him."
"He from school?" Joey hadn't remembered being attracted to any of the boys in the class, though perhaps he chose not to remember.
"Your school? No."
Something occurred to him that made his stomach form a Gordian knot.
It had been right before Battle City's onset. He'd gotten the news and determined to enter and show Kaiba who the dog was. Then he'd taken out his deck and... "He a Duel Monster?"
"Yes."
"Hey, what's the matter, ya never seen a guy kiss a card before?"
"... Red-Eyes, by any chance?"
"Exactly."
Joey took a deep breath. "Well, where is he, then?"
***
Jade pulled himself into a sitting position on the
couch and looked past Keith Howard (apparently having the time of his imagined
life) to Joey, currently scanning the dance floor. Hopefully looking for
him.
Jade himself hadn't learned of his (cough) preference
until quite recently. Girls could be cute. He thought that, like some others
he knew, he just hadn't found the right one yet. It was only less than
a year ago that he had discovered it wasn't that, it was that he hadn't
found the right boy yet.
And now the right boy was here. Time to seize the
night.
Jade vaulted over the couch, somersaulted over another
in the cluster in the corner, and ran over.
***
Joey's eyes widened as he was nearly knocked over
by the sheer force of the hug. When the security of his footing returned,
he could still do nothing but gape at the person who had extricated himself
and was now standing before him, sporting a wide grin.
It surely wasn't a coincidence that his mental manifestation
of Red-Eyes Black Dragon was a teenager.
"I'm Jade. It's nice to see you in better circumstances."
Joey blinked. Better circumstances...? Oh yeah,
when monsters were summoned their backs were to the duelists, weren't they?
So the only times Red-Eyes Black Dragon, or rather, Jade, would have seen
him properly would be when they had been on opposite sides, in his duels
with Rex and Yugi...
Lovely time to think of that.
"So, whaddaya say we go somewhere more... private?"
Jade winked. Somehow he managed to do it and still seem just as innocent
as Yugi. Then again, he did look like he had raided Yugi's wardrobe. Leather,
buckles, and all. Even his hair, while certainly not Yugi's impressive
gravity-defying 'do, was black spikes that shone under the lamplight.
"Like it?" said Jade, noticing his stare. "Thought
it fit the occasion. I saw the Pharaoh wearing it at DK, and it's better
than swooshy coats, isn't it?"
"By the Pharaoh you mean Yug, right?"
"Yep. So how about it?"
***
Once outside Giltia hailed a taxi, which, to add
more incongruity, resembled one of the carriages from the virtual world,
except all the seats faced forward. The back pair was left to Joey and
Jade; the latter seemed quite pleased with this arrangement.
It was a rather turbulent ride, but once they'd
zipped out of the city-thing into dark fog, it actually became boring.
Joey hadn't known dreams could be boring.
"Jade?"
He looked up. "Mm?"
"Is this a dream?"
Jade smiled. "Yes."
"... oh." He'd never, in his recollection, had a
dream with the players openly admitting it was such.
"I mean, Kaiba can have his fancy-schmancy VR stuff,
but Mahaad said-"
"Mahaad?"
"AKA Dark Magician," he clarified. "He said the
best way to get you through right now was when you're asleep. You close
your eyes and boom! You're here. You twist an ankle, break a leg? No problem,
it's all in your head. You wake up and it's just the same as it was when
you went to sleep."
"You're saying you're just my imagination?" If that
was true oh dear god was his imagination messed up, to create a sex kitten
(the clothes, man! The clothes! Okay, they looked like Yugi's, but Yugi
was different!) male Red-Eyes Black Dragon with a girl's name, who
just happened to be the right age.
"No, this is our real. It's your dream." Jade leaned
forward, chin on hands and elbows on knees. "You think you could arrange
for a nap? Twenty-thirty minutes or so? 'Cause then Mahaad can come over
and explain the particulars."
"Nah, I think I've got it."
Jade opened his mouth as if he had just thought
of something else, then looked at Giltia sitting up front and shut it.
After a while the fog parted, revealing a cluster
of bungalows. Giltia turned and smiled. "Welcome," he said, "to the deck."
***
As soon as they disembarked they were surrounded
by near all the other monsters in Joey's deck. Notable among the absent
were Jinzo, Insect Queen, and Legendary Fisherman. "They're visiting their
old decks," said Flame Swordsman. "I hope you don't mind." Joey assured
him that no, he didn't mind at all.
Soon they dispersed to their bungalows. Most of
them, like Job back at the club, said "Have fun" or some variation as they
left. After Giltia and Flame Swordsman had gone, Jade promptly showed Joey
to his own home.
He certainly hadn't expected it to consist of only
one room- the bedroom.
"Things're different here," said Jade. "No need
to eat, drink, or use the facilities. Only if you feel like it. And nobody's
grown a half-inch, not even the little kids. It's an odd feeling, never
growing..." He sat down on the mattress that dominated the room and proceeded
to kick off his shoes. "So we've found other things to do."
"Like screwing?" It burst out of him.
"Like screwing," said Jade, unruffled. "Back with
Rex the dinosaurs weren't too big on that stuff, but some of the lot at
the club... You saw Keith Howard leaving, right?" Joey nodded. "Kevin and
Seiya got Mahaad to do the dream thing for him too, starting about a week
ago. Thought he needed a treat, considering he's kinda apparently stuck
in a mental hospital."
Joey blinked and sat down beside him. "Bandit Keith's
in a nuthouse?"
"Well, what do you expect to happen when people
run around screaming about mind-controlling Egyptians? Anyway, you ought
to have seen it! Half the girls hitting on him, and some of the boys too.
Desperate for variety, those people. Even indiscriminate bonking gets a
bit boring after the first thousand years or so, I guess."
"And he liked it?"
"Yeah, he liked it."
Joey felt rather like pushing Keith off a cliff
at that moment. "So how come-"
"-they didn't do the same to you?" Jade shrugged
and slipped his arms out of the uniform jacket, which shortly afterward
landed on the floor. "I've got... a reputation, let's say. They all know
I've got the hots for my own duelist, so they stay away." Joey wasn't sure
what surprised him more- the content of the statement, or the fact that
Jade had said it so openly.
"A lot of people who don't know me seem to think
I'm awfully careless," Jade remarked after a minute of sitting.
Joey poked at the mattress. "I think I can guess
why."
"It's not like that because of that sort of thing.
It's just that it'd be awfully strange to go about all the time in a form
that's not real, wouldn't it? And to have everything of yours built for
that?"
Joey imagined the dragon that appeared in duels
trying to fit on a twin bed. "Guess so."
"It's a bit small, actually, because I wanted room
for some chairs, but if I curl up just so it's quite nice." Jade shook
his head. "No, that's not it." He shrugged and flipped several dark spikes
of hair out of his eyes. "I've got a question."
"Shoot."
"Why did you kiss my card?"
Joey blinked. "I dunno. I guess, well, you're my
strongest, and I really wanted to say something Important, and well, uh..."
"Don't. I know." He grinned. "I mean, for a while
I thought you actually meant it in, you know, that way. But don't think
that was what started it."
"Well, what did then?"
Jade leaned close. "When Daray-that's Serpent Night
Dragon- got taken out in the duel," he whispered, "he said that if he were
a girl he wouldn't have minded having you." Joey could feel himself redden.
"But promise not to tell anyone else," Jade added. "Especially not Miss
Valentine or the Harpies. Dar's been crushing on Clytie for years and you
know how he'd look if word got out he'd said something like that."
"I promise."
"So after he said it of course I really wanted to
see for myself, and of course the Battleguards beating Dar and tearing
through the dinosaurs probably convinced them. So Dar got Geoffrey- they're
friends, you see- and he got my card further up the line, so the next one
Rex drew was that one."
"That's what the Heart of the Cards stuff is, then?"
"Mm-hm. Just about any spellcaster can do it. Technically
Geoffrey's a warrior, but he knows enough to pull it off. He didn't want
to at first."
"I can see why!"
"See, he'd arranged for a couple of good cards to
be on top of yours at the beginning, but it didn't quite work out the way
he thought it would."
"You bet it didn't."
"He didn't want to give you another setback. But
then, well, he figured that maybe if I got drawn it might actually help
some. Plus," he lowered his voice, "I really would have been bitterly ticked
if I hadn't gotten to have a look at a guy even straight-as-a-straightedge
Dar wouldn't mind having."
Joey managed a return smile. "So, did I meet your
expectations?"
"Oh, did you ever." Jade leaned close again. "It's
not just that I've seen you and not Rex. I guess the whole fighting-for-a-cause
thing's really inspiring. I mean, it's all well and good, dueling for fun,
but it feels a whole bit more important to be fighting for someone who
duels because he needs to, not because he wants to. You know?"
"You make it sound like I was out to save the world
or whatever. I think you want Yugi for that."
"We can't all be saving the world."
"Guess not." They sat for a while longer, looking
out the windows from which not a hint of moonlight came. "What's the matter?
You look a bit down."
Jade shrugged. "It's just that, well, I suppose
I expected to have you the first night. And I don't know if you... oh,
forget it. I know you don't. It's only the first night, after all."
Joey knew very well he didn't- there was none of
that I-want-to-be-with-you-forever-and-ever sort of feeling. But given
time... oh, the places the filthy part of his mind began to go!
Mental images of all the duelists he had known or
heard of or never heard of made themselves clear. What if their cards decided
to have them come here as well and what if they learned of these shenanigans?
He'd never hear the end of it!
Good grief, dreams were so significant now!
"But it might grow, right? After a while?"
Jade looked at him. "Guess it could, after a while.
Until then..."
***
They were both lying down now, him on his stomach
and staring at the shiny dark dragon's neck. The rest of Jade's body had
formed a near-complete circle around his, as if trying to protect him like
friends did. He had found it far easier to consider Jade as a friend; all
those duels made him think that they knew one another at least enough for
that.
"Jade?"
"Mm?"
"It's just... you know about Kaiba. You think he
might come here some night, too?"
"Actually, he's been coming for a week that I know
of. He was trying out some of that techy stuff or something."
Joey stiffened.
"You know, more than half his deck hated his guts."
He relaxed. "Really?"
"I mean, what do you expect when you sacrifice five
monsters at just about the same time and laugh like a maniac all the while?
And doing it to power up some god card didn't help. You'd think gods, of
all the things in the world, wouldn't need to get powered up. Exodia gets
excused, 'cause you know he's representing the Pharaoh or whatever, and
pharaohs aren't supposed to turn into proper gods till they croak, but...
I'm making no sense, am I?"
"You're making plenty of sense."
"You know, Heart of the Cards can work the other
way."
"You mean if cards get ticked they can make the
duelist have bad luck?"
"Yeah. It takes a lot more energy, though. But Maha
Vailo's a pretty powerful 'caster, not on the same level as Dark Magician
or nothing but she's tuff all the same, and if she'd gotten hold of him
earlier she would've had his liver for lunch. He'd probably have completely
flunked out of his own tourney if Ryuunosuke- Lord of D., that is- hadn't
stopped her. Most of them still haven't quite gotten over it. He's still
got a lot of work to do in that department. You've got an advantage there,
at least."
He gained some of an I-told-him-so sort of pleasure
from this. "I've got a couple of questions."
"Shoot."
"What're the god cards like?"
Jade shrugged about as well as a reclining dragon
could be expected to manage. "I dunno. They keep to themselves, mostly.
Though they do seem to like it when they're worshipped."
"And you know, when cards switch decks, what's it
like?"
One dragon claw made vague motions in the air. "It's
kind of like a wind picks you up and carries you off and then you're there.
But you can go back to where you came from, if you want, take up where
you started, until a duel starts and then the wind takes you off again.
But in between you can pretend if you want."
"I see."
"Take Dar, he's gotten good at pretending. His card's
gone to Roba, you see, but Roba doesn't duel that much now, so he's just
living with the dinos like always."
"Oh. Okay."
Jade sighed and lowered his head again, closing
his eyes. "There anything else?"
"No, not really."
"There's always tomorrow night."
"Yeah, there's always tomorrow night."
"Good night."
"Good night."
Joey wasn't sure exactly when he had departed the
world of the Duel Monsters. He had the sensation of being carried through
the air, his hair being tossed about. He recalled Jade whispering, Good
morning. But maybe that was a part of a lesser dream, where the speaker
was unknown, and he had merely associated it with Jade.
He woke up feeling much refreshed, and somehow disappointed.
***
This was a place Joey had seen before, for he remembered.
Buildings seemed to have been transplanted from Domino, complete with neon
signs winking against the night sky devoid of stars and moon. These sat
next to ones that would have been right at home in Ancient Greece or Egypt.
And was that the Washington Monument in the distance? (no, Jade told him
later, that was supposed to be an obelisk)
He stood on the sidewalk and waited. He didn't wait
long.