Title: Firefly

By: KuroSakura-chan/KuroSakura

Summary: When Jaenelle had been a child, she wandered the Realms. Thus, she met Lucivar, Saetan, and the others. What she hadn't mentioned to anyone was her few trips to another Realm, one that wasn't connected to Terreille, Kaeleer, and Hell the same way. After the war with Dorothea and Hekatah is completed, what will she find in that world she visited so long ago? What has happened to the friend that she made? And how can she help him now?

Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!/Black Jewels

Genre: Angst, Drama, Horror, Tragedy

Couples: Daemon/Jaenelle, Lucivar/Marian, Seto/Bakura, Marik/Ryou, Malik/Otogi,

Warnings: Yaoi, violence, het, 1st Person,

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! nor Anne Bishop's Black Jewels.

…

-Bakura-

Ryou hisses in sympathy when he sees the bruise forming on Jaenelle's head. "I'll get her taken care of, 'Kura, don't worry."

I nod, running a hand over my face. I didn't think I'd ever see Jaenelle again. I hadn't seen her for several years, since she was a child. Hell, since Ryou was a child.

Seto stands in the doorway, his presence reminding me that I had to give my report still. Not that there was much to report. All the same, I stand and follow the ex-CEO from the room, ignoring the throbbing pain coming from my chest. The area the Ring had taken up residence always hurt now. At least it wasn't the blinding, seizure-causing pain anymore.

"Well?" Marik asks when I walk into the main room of our shelter. Zorc still hasn't managed to find it, thankfully. I doubt we'd be able to find another place to hide out in.

I collapse into a chair that Seto points out for me. I am starving, but I can't say that. We don't have enough food as it is, and most of that needed to go to the women, Mokuba, and Ryou. Besides, I went a long time without food in Egypt, so why can't I do it now?

"Zorc was looking for us today, but in a sector on the other side of the city. We're safe for now." I have to add the 'for now.' All of us know that we won't be able to stay hidden from Zorc for too long, but that doesn't mean that we didn't want to try anyway. I am the only one willing to acknowledge our vulnerability, except for Seto. He is nearly as jaded as I am, so he doesn't believe in hope any longer.

"And the woman?" Seto doesn't demand an answer. At least, that's not how it was supposed to sound. It does, of course, sound like a demand. I can understand why he would be worried, though. I've never brought back someone that we couldn't place as another citizen of Domino City. It's dangerous to bring someone that we don't know into the fold.

"Her name's Jaenelle. I met her years ago." I answer, laying my head down on my arms. "She's not from around here."

"Bakura, that's not safe! What if she works for Zorc?" Marik demands, slamming his fist onto the table, making me hiss. My head is killing me, and he has no right to question Jaenelle.

"She doesn't, trust me. The girl doesn't even live in this Realm." I hiss at Marik, clenching my fists. Since he's taken the table away from a pillow option, I had little else to do with my hands. "The last time she was in this Realm, she was about seven years old."

Marik backs down, not wanting me to gut him then and there. The mood I'm in, I probably would've done it too. Seto looks over at me before standing, grabbing my arms and pulling me up. He tugs me through the rooms that make up our underground safe-house until we reach our room. He shoves me onto the bed, which is little more than a mattress on the floor, and kneels next to me. He pushes until I'm laying on my back, then lays beside me, an arm wrapping around my waist. Pulling me close, he kisses the top of my head.

This is something we'd never show the others. Sure, we're both strong individuals who can't stand weakness, but that doesn't mean that we want our entire relationship, because that's what this is now, based on pain that we cause to each other. We have our soft sides, but those are only visible when we're alone.

"Tell me about her." Seto requests softly, his nose still buried in my hair. I wonder briefly about how bad that smells before I give in to his request.

"I met her when she was seven years old...Ryou was six or seven at the time too. I found her wandering in the Shadow Realm, but she wasn't like the others there...She wasn't scared or desperate to find a way out. In fact, she said she was looking for me. Said she heard me calling for a friend for a long time. I don't remember ever calling for a friend, but that didn't seem to matter to her.

"Ryou didn't know about me then. His father had only just brought the Ring back from wherever the hell he got it from, and he hadn't given it to Ryou. That didn't mean that I didn't know about Ryou and who he was, though. But because, at the time, Ryou wasn't my host, Jaenelle and I stayed in the Shadow Realm when she visited. She never stayed more than a couple hours, and I could never follow her back to where she came from, though I tried. I wanted to make sure she was OK. Something about her was different...She made me think that killing the Pharaoh wasn't everything." I pause as the throbbing pain got a bit worse for a moment. Seto seems to sense this, and pulls me closer, pressing our chests together in an attempt to comfort me. "Thanks...Anyway, she visited a lot, then stopped all of a sudden. Once, I heard her scream and call for help, but there wasn't anything I could do, despite my attempts to try. I didn't hear anything from her after that."

Seto doesn't say anything, and I'm grateful. He's always been the type to listen and think about what he's heard, rather than just blurt out the first thing that comes to mind. It's helpful, because I don't think I could deal with someone that didn't think about everything I told them. I say a lot of things in the things I don't say, and Seto knows this, so he listens.

A knock on the door has me sitting up, a dagger in my hand before my brain catches up to tell me that it's Ryou at the door, not someone that means us harm. I sigh and flop back, listening to Seto tell Ryou to enter. "Bakura...She's awake."

A/N: Hi! Let me know what you think? I'd appreciate it very much!