Here's the first chapter for 'Hunted's' AU story. I am open to suggestions for a different title for this as long as it means 'Hunted'.
Yugi: We hope you enjoy!
A young teen watched as the shopkeeper's attention was on his paying customers. Assured that nobody would catch him, he slipped the pastries that were closest to his pocket into his jacket. He was careful to only take a couple so as to avoid being caught. He looked around and selected a couple of drinks to pay for with what little he had in his jeans pocket.
Setting the two bottles of water on the counter, the teen reached into his jeans for the small wad of cash. "That'll be three dollars," the man stated. "It's awfully hot out there. Go ahead and get two more waters. I'll throw in some beef jerky. I saw the little one out there. Go ahead and take an ice cream for him."
The new total was five dollars, leaving the teen only ten dollars to get them through the next couple of days if he couldn't find a decent meal for them. He grabbed his bags and thanked the man before heading outside.
"Yami, what took so long," the smaller boy whined. "I'm roasting."
The younger boy looked barely older than four, but he acted older. Sharing the same tri-colored hair with his companion made it easy to cause many to think that the teen was either an underage father or his big brother.
"Sorry, Yugi."
Wide amethyst eyes were rolled at the teen, "You took forever, Yami. We need to find a place for the night to avoid the coming storm."
Yami chuckled, "Well, we could always head to that cave we spent last night in."
"Not funny, Yami," Yugi grumbled. He held out his tiny hand, "Where's that ice cream? I want something sweet."
Yami pulled the ice cream out and handed it to Yugi. The small boy opened the wrapper and sniffed at the treat. He wrinkled his nose, "Orange Mango? Yuck."
"That was all he had left," Yami defended.
"Well, you can be sure that I'm going to get my sweet sooner or later, Yami. You can eat that and then we're looking for mint and chocolate for later."
"You know, for being born a few minutes after me, you sure don't act it," Yami pointed out as they left the road.
Yugi rolled his eyes, "Well, I can't help that I look like a little kid. It wasn't my fault that that vampire wanted to keep me as a pet."
Yami thought back to that horrible day. He and Yugi were outside catching fireflies after unwrapping their presents. Their parents were clearing up the mess on their table so that the twins could play in the twilight atmosphere. A shriek of terror broke the peace. A woman with long red hair had Yugi in front of her with her teeth in his neck. Their parents were quick to act, but missed as the vampire rushed off with the little boy.
They left Yami with a sitter and went after the woman. They'd found them not far from the house, but were too late. She'd force-fed Yugi her blood and had drugged him to keep him calm while the transition took place. The woman was killed and Yugi was taken home.
Their parents had decided to keep Yugi alive despite the fact that he was no longer human. They'd kept the boy locked in the basement for his protection and gave him blood and raw meat ordered from the butchers' nearby. When they turned thirteen, their little world fell apart. Their parents had left on a Hunt three states away and never returned alive. Their bodies were cremated and Yami was taken into foster care. For all the world knew, Yugi had died and his body never recovered after his abduction.
"At least you came back," Yugi said as he jumped over the small creek. Somehow the boy knew when Yami was thinking about their past.
Yami smiled as he helped Yugi up over the fallen tree, "I'll always come back for you."
"You'd better," Yugi stated matter-of-factly, "I'd die without you, Yami."
Yami stopped and looked at Yugi, looking him in the eye. "What am I to you?"
Yugi beamed, "My brother and protector, provider of food and love. Why?"
"Just wanted to know that I'm more than just a servant to you."
Yugi's mouth dropped open in shock before the boy pouted, "Not funny, Yami! Now I'm going to hide whatever I manage to find in a trap after I drain it. No meat for you tonight."
"I was kidding, aibou." Yami used his childhood nickname for Yugi to pacify the little boy.
"Maybe I wasn't," Yugi huffed as he scrambled up the bank of a dried riverbed.
Yami watched as Yugi drifted off to sleep. The smaller was curled up against his side with a worn teddy bear. They were both tucked under a thin comforter that they'd swiped from a laundry line a few weeks back and washed, along with what few clothes they had, wherever they could find a Laundromat. The boy had suddenly developed a fever and refused sustenance, leaving Yami at a loss as to how to take care of him. They'd left the place they were in and headed east in hopes of finding any sort of help for Yugi.
Their shelter for the night was a junked out car amidst a number of others. The owner of the junkyard was blissfully unaware of two 'guests' camped out on his property. It was enough to shelter them from the icy rain, but not the cold.
Yugi shivered as he curled up tighter against Yami's side and coughed violently. Fever-glazed eyes cracked open, "Yami, I'm thirsty."
Yami held out a bottle of blood with a straw in it for Yugi, and sighed when Yugi failed to respond. He looked over and paled when he realized that Yugi's eyes were rolled back, showing white. "Yugi?" He gently shook his brother.
No response. Throwing caution to the wind, Yami gathered the boy up and ran to the house of the property owner. "HELP! PLEASE! SOMEBODY," he called out.
Lights turned on and the door swung open. A gruff-looking man stepped out onto the porch. "Do you know what time it is, boy?"
Yami shook his head, "It's my brother. He's really sick."
The man looked at the limp boy and groaned, "Get inside."
Yami held Yugi close and followed the man into a room with a single bed. "Lay him down and tell me what happened."
"We were camping out and he just suddenly got sick. He's not had anything since last night. Now he won't wake up."
"What's your name kid?"
"Yami Mutou. He's my brother," Yami answered, sniffling. He hadn't cried since his parents' death.
The man started. He hadn't heard much about the Mutou family for a couple of years, but he remembered hearing about the loss of one of their boys a while back. "Bobby Singer. Were your parents Balin and May-Anne?"
Yami paled. He wanted to avoid Hunters who knew their parents for Yugi's safety. "Yeah, they were."
"I thought you didn't have any other siblings," Bobby pointed out.
"I don't. Yugi's the only one."
"I met you and Yugi when you boys were really little, before he was killed by a monster."
Yami sighed, "He wasn't really killed. Mom and Dad kept him hidden in the basement. The state didn't know about him and the second they thought I was settled into a foster home, I headed back to the house to get him out. We've been on the run since. Mom and Dad gave the house to a close Hunter to tend to until I come of age, I just have to keep in touch with him once a month."
"How is he still alive then?"
"I take care of him."
"How," Bobby pressed.
Yami groaned as he answered, "Blood from whatever we manage to trap for food. He can still eat some regular food, but it has to be super fresh and not packaged, or he gets really sick."
"When was the last time you gave him blood?"
"Yesterday morning. I had to pry the second rabbit from his hands to drain it for later."
"Was the first dead?"
Yami groaned, "Yugi complained that the blood was cold."
"Dead blood is toxic to vamps," Bobby stated. "Didn't anyone teach you that?"
"So what do I do," Yami pleaded with the Hunter. "I can't lose my brother!"
"Settle down, boy. All I need to do is let the boy rest and give him some chicken blood from the livers I bought for dinner."
A few hours later, Yugi finally woke up. He turned over in the bed that he and Yami were sharing to face said teen. "Yami, I'm hungry."
Yami sat up and picked up his brother, "Yugi, I don't want you to be afraid, but we're in someone's home. He knows about you. He knew Mom and Dad."
"What'll happen to me," Yugi whimpered in fear.
"Nothing," Bobby stated as he had overheard the question. "So long as you never harm a human for any reason outside of self-defense, you're safe. I will find a way to get it through the lines that you are not to be harmed for any other reason."
Yami held Yugi tight against his side, the smaller wrapped his tiny arms around his neck for support. "How long can we stay here," the teen asked.
Bobby looked the pair over before answering, "Until you're legal adults. I looked into my records and found a copy of a will that your parents left with me. It states that Yami was to stay with me should anything happen to them. By default, you were to come along as well, Yugi."
Yugi pouted, "I'll never be an adult. I'm stuck as a little kid forever."
"At least you'll never have to go to school," Yami pointed out.
"That may be true," Bobby stated, "but that doesn't mean that I can't teach the tyke here. If you two are to stay with me, you're going to learn how to defend yourselves and Hunt like your parents wanted you to. After your training, you decide whether you want to stay in the Life like your parents and their parents before them."
The boys had no choice but decided that they needed to learn just to be safe.
Yugi heard the approach of a car long before he'd seen it. He didn't like the appearance of the man behind the wheel but felt that he had to warn his papa. Bobby had legally adopted Yami a few months back, ending the search for the teen in their home state of Wyoming. He dropped from branch to branch towards the ground before running towards the garage where his brother and papa were working on a car.
"Papa! Black car, two people inside, coming…drive…fast," Yugi panted out as he skidded to a stop in the loose dirt.
Bobby nodded as he tossed Yugi a bottle of spring water, "Good job, sport. Help your brother clean up the tools and meet me in the house."
Yugi smiled before draining the clear liquid in seconds. Bobby mussed up the boy's hair before heading to greet the visitors.
"Bobby, I need to leave the boys here for a week or so."
"John," Bobby groaned, "what are you after this time that you have to leave them here?"
John rubbed his face, "I got information on the thing that killed Mary. I don't want my boys hurt if I truly find the monster that did this to my family."
"We're done, papa," Yugi's cheerful voice called out as the pair entered the house.
John started, "Papa?"
"Yeah, I got two boys of my own now," Bobby stated proudly. "Fast learners and the little one is pretty good at taking down Rufus when he comes over to raid my cooler."
John was shocked to see two very similar boys enter the study. The smaller boy was piggybacked by the taller of the pair. "Yami, go cut up an apple for your brother and help yourself to a brownie."
Yugi was shocked to see that the last of his apples was gone. He'd been looking forward to eating the last of the Braeburn apples they'd been able to get at the store. Yami had painstakingly scrubbed each piece of fruit to ensure that they were safe for him to eat. When he looked to see where his apple had gone, he saw a boy slightly taller than Yami on his papa's counter finishing off said apple.
"That was my treat," Yugi whined. "Yami had brownies he could have shared."
"Nope, they're gone," the boy stated smugly as he slid from the counter. He threw the apple core in the trashcan. "I was hungry."
Yugi growled in irritation, making Yami fear for the boy's safety and his brother's secret. Before anyone could blink, Yugi yelled, "PAPA!"
The boy ran through the house and nearly plowed into Bobby. "Whoa, easy, Tyke. What's the matter?"
Yugi sniffled with tears in his eyes, "A mean boy ate my last apple and all of Yami's brownies. I wanted that apple, papa."
"Let's go talk to the 'mean boy'," Bobby sighed, knowing that it was John's eldest boy.
John watched as Yugi held his arms up, silently asking to be picked up. Bobby hefted the child to his hip and headed for the kitchen. "What's the deal, Dean? You come in here and raid my fridge without even coming to say hello," Bobby groused. "I've got a hungry little boy crying because someone came in and ate the only sweet he's allowed."
Yugi whimpered to emphasize Bobby's statement. "I was really hungry," Dean whined, his actions belying the fact he was nearing seventeen. "You've never had a problem with me eating stuff before."
"That was before I had two boys in this house besides you and Sammy," Bobby pointed out. He sighed, "Look, leave the fruit and stuff in the red bowl alone and help yourself to whatever is in the basket. Yugi has special requirements and needs them to be met."
The boys were properly introduced to John and his boys. "You mean that this kid took down Rufus in hand-to-hand," Dean asked in disbelief.
Yugi set down his medium-rare burger and smirked, "Don't believe Papa? I can show you if you want me to."
"Dean, don't provoke Yugi. Yugi, don't tempt Dean," Bobby said from his place at the table.
"The kid's what, four," Dean scoffed. "What's the worst he can do besides pee his pants?"
Bobby leveled a glare at Dean, "I mean it boy. Yugi is stronger than he looks. Yugi, stop with the nasty faces and eat your dinner."
Yugi uncrossed his eyes and grabbed his burger, taking a bite and chewing it. Sam thought that the boy's interaction with his older brother was pretty funny. For every smart-alack remark Dean had, Yugi could hold his own.
Dean watched as Yugi slid his plate out for a third burger, the boy's eyes sparkling as Bobby slid a smaller medium-rare patty onto the plate. He'd eaten two meat patties, an ear of corn with a little salt, a heap of fresh broccoli, and two cups of milk. "Where are you putting all that food," Dean asked in shock.
Yugi set down his third cup of milk and smirked, "Tummy."
Yami carried a sleepy Yugi to bed and changed his clothes before placing him in their bed. "Yami," Yugi yawned, "it's hard to act like a little kid."
"I know Yugi. You're supposed to be fourteen but are trapped in the body of a four-year-old," Yami said as he covered Yugi. "We can pass it off as our not treating you like a little kid all the time."
"Thank you, Yami."
Yami watched as Yugi's amethyst eyes slipped closed for the night.
Yugi: So, I take it that I'm the reason this is rated 'T'?
*Makes sealed lips motion*
Yugi: Mokuba, can you hack into her flash drive?
Mokuba: She didn't label which chapter's which! She's running this one 'blind'.
*Smirks*
Bakura: It's that Dark-side of hers! It does EXIST!
But of course. I can be a bit devious at times. I will proof and post chapter 2 by next week...unless I get distracted.
Bakura: *Cough* Pool *Cough*
Not my fault I love water when it's hot out. By the way, I don't plan on writing 2,000+ words per chapter all the time. So please don't expect it often.